Athlete partnerships fueling STRONG growth, Carlton FC's innovative new venture, Boston Celtics' creative & content
Athlete partnerships fueling STRONG growth, Carlton FC's innovative new venture, Boston Celtics' creative & content
Athlete partnerships fueling brand growth: Travis Boak x STRONG
Carlton Football Club’s innovative new venture
If you’re a content marketer or creative working within sports and looking for inspiration, the Boston Celtics’ social media is worth noticing
Not yet a subscriber? Discover specialised sports marketing insights, tailored for sports industry professionals within Australia and across the globe. If you work in sports for an agency, brand or rights-holder then this is for you.
Telstra expanded its partnership with the AFL to become naming rights partner of the AFL & AFLW Drafts, and AFL & AFLW Rising Star Awards
Swinburne University of Technology and Richmond Football Club extended their partnership for 4 more years, which will see students continue to undertake placements across the club
Hungry Jack’s renewed their NBL Naming Rights partnership for another 5 years, which will see the brand’s hugely popular free cheeseburgers giveaway promotion return (when the opposition team misses 2 x consecutive free throws)
Foot Locker became a major partner of the Boomers who will wear the logo on their game day shorts as part of a new deal with Basketball Australia
To leverage their AFL sponsorship, Gatorade unveiled Dan Gorringe as their new new ‘Chief Hydration Officer’ with a branded content series
Tennis Australia partnered with dentsu Sports Analytics as part of an aim to gain a deeper understanding of their fans across 10 x global markets
RCKT Co. and Greenroom Digital announced a strategic partnership to ‘amplify sports marketing and digital solutions’
Swimming Australia appointed sports marketing agency Sportfive to sell its commercial rights for the next 5 years, covering the 2024 and 2028 Olympics
The PGA of Australia and Golf Australia announced that its commercial operations will merge to leverage growth opportunities
Netball’s ‘Constellation Cup’ will be hosted in Perth thanks to $550k of Netball WA funding from the WA Government
TEG Sport announced that Manchester City, West Ham United, Leicester City and Paris Saint-Germain women's teams will play in Perth thanks to a partnership with the WA Government
Federal, state and local governments allocated Sydney’s ‘iconic’ Leichhardt Oval $40m of combined funding for renovations
Former AFL CEO Gillon McLachlan was appointed as the CEO of Tabcorp, and also became an adviser at private-equity firm, Blackstone (owner of Crown Resorts)
Football Australia announced a broadcast arrangement with KommunityTV, which will see the 2024 National Youth Championships streamed live across Australia this July
Athlete ambassador partnerships are helping to fuel the rapid brand & business growth of STRONG Pilates
STRONG Pilates is a unique high-intensity pilates concept that was founded in Melbourne in 2019. Operating as a franchise, it’s quickly scaled-up across Australia and internationally, and currently boasts almost 400 instructors, 24k members and an ambitious plan to open 200 locations across the globe.
Their rapid success has been thanks to the innovative concept’s popularity and savvy brand marketing tactics, which ambassador partnerships form a key ingredient.
Below, Travis Boak partnered with STRONG Pilates to participate in a recent PR campaign that has successfully achieved mass-coverage across Seven, Nine and 10.
Travis Boak is the perfect ambassador for STRONG
As one of the AFL’s veteran’s, aligning to Boak’s AFL journey helps position STRONG as the secret sauce to his 350+ game career.
Being a high-profile professional athlete, his public endorsement helps enhance STRONG's reputation as a credible and trusted option, and delivers a competitive advantage that makes people more likely to select this new fitness concept over others.
Travis Boak is among a healthy mix of STRONG ambassadors that also includes Nat Fyfe, Nicho Hynes and Shaun Johnson. The mix of high-profile AFL and NRL talent, has provided STRONG with the perfect platform to create content that resonates with audiences, and achieves coverage across Australia and New Zealand via PR and social media.
This exposure and endorsement from some of Australia’s best athletes delivers brand awareness, positively impacts people’s perceptions and helps attract new customers, supporting their growth and expansion plans.
Carlton Football Club’s innovative new venture
Sports are continuing to find innovative ways to build new revenue streams
Seven just helped Carlton Football Club announce their plans to launch an industry-leading imaging centre at Ikon Park which will provide MRI, CT, X-Ray, Mammography, and Ultrasound services to players and the wider community.
Why is this worth noticing?
Carlton Football Club are taking a strategic approach to business growth commonly associated with the exponential rise of Amazon – turning business expenses into new revenue streams.
AFL injuries are common, and the associated expenses to treat them are high.
By taking ownership of the health services associated with injury-related expenses, Carlton Football Club can minimise their costs, and potentially transform a cost-centre into a profit-centre by making the services available to the wider community.
The rise of non-traditional revenue streams in sport
Broadcast rights, membership, ticket sales, corporate hospitality, sponsorship and merchandise sales - the same revenue streams have been in place for decades for rights-holders, and many Australian and global sporting organisations are experiencing the situation where these traditional streams no longer offer much ability for growth.
To facilitate future growth, sports are utilising their core competencies (e.g. brand equity, human resources, finance, marketing, access to professional athletes etc.) to launch new ventures.
Some examples worth noticing:
Sport & leisure
Richmond Football Club launched Aligned Leisure in 2015 which has quickly become a leader in the leisure and aquatics space - it operates 41 leisure & aquatic facilities across VIC and NSW and employs 800+ staff. In 2023, the club posted revenue of $106m and more than one third of it ($39.9m) was delivered by a “health, fitness and community” line item, which can be assumed is Aligned Leisure.
Property
The National Rugby League is looking to build a $300 million property portfolio to enhance their strong financial position and future-proof the sport
The AFL is exploring a massive new waterfront development involving Marvel Stadium in partnership with Development Victoria
Western United (via Western Melbourne Group) is set to deliver Australia’s first sport & rec-focused suburb in Melbourne’s West, a $2 billion project
Education academies & courses
For what can easily be mistaken as a traditional sponsorship, AFL, NRL and cricket have partnered with universities to create something much bigger - sports-related courses that offer students formal education and valuable hands-on experience within elite sporting environments.
Venture funds and innovations labs
Tennis Australia operate an accelerator program “AO start ups” which gives tech start-ups a chance to trial innovations at the Australian Open in exchange for the opportunity to invest.
For more on non-traditional revenue streams, visit here.
If you’re a content marketer or creative working within sports and looking for inspiration, the Boston Celtics’ social media is worth noticing
Their high-quality content has been receiving high praise across the internet and the below clip which has had 6.8m+ views on Instagram is just one reason why.
This video is one of multiple uniquely-themed clips that has been rolled-out across the NBA season, collectively receiving 10’s of millions of views via the Celtics’ social media.
Why is this worth noticing?
High-quality content underpins so many important business metrics, and can help deliver:
More social media views, reach & engagement, etc.
Which can help deliver:
More fans, sponsorship, matchday attendance, merchandise sales, broadcast viewers, revenue etc.
For those interested, here’s an insight into how the Boston Celtics’ content & creative operation work.
A-Leagues - Head of Executive Office
Amplify - Sports Talent Manager
Australian Football League - Partnerships Account Manager
Australian Football League - Paid Performance Media Lead
Australian Golf Services - Business Development Manager
Australian Sports Foundation - Senior Project Manager
Bastion - Account Manager PR
Bastion - Experiential Producer
Central Coast Mariners - Partnerships Manager
Cricket Australia - Business Development Manager, International Growth
Fanatics - Merchandise Planner
Football Australia - Event Coordinator
Fremantle Dockers - Brand and Marketing Team Lead
Geelong Cats - Brand Manager
LSKD - Athlete Program Manager
Minor Hotels - Director of Entertainment and Sports
MKTG Sports + Entertainment Australia - Public Relations Manager
National Football League - Events and Community Manager - Fixed Term
National Rugby League - Strategy Manager
Nike - Lead, Brand Marketing Professional Women's Sport Pacific
Nike - Lead, Partner/Omnichannel Marketing Professional Pacific
Nike - Lead, Brand Planning & Operations Professional Pacific
Octagon - Freelance Account Director
Perth Glory - General Manager Commercial
Perth Glory - Corporate Partnerships & Sales Executive
Red Bull - Sports Event Manager
Rip Curl - Retail General Manager
Seven Network - Sports Sales Executive
Sole Motive - Operations & Events Manager
Sportsbet - Head of Customer Marketing (CRM) Operations
Sports Entertainment Network - Partnership Manager (Melbourne)
Sports Entertainment Network - Strategy and Solutions Coordinator
Stan. - Sports Programmer - Olympics
Sydney Swans - Events Specialist
Tabcorp - Social Media Manager
Tennis Australia - Marketing Partnerships Lead
Tennis Australia - Marketing Partnerships Coordinator
Tennis Queensland - Chief Executive Officer
The Iconic - Category Buyer - Women's Sport
The Star Entertainment Group - Marketing Manager - Partnerships & Events
TGI Sport - Event Manager - Brand Activations Account Director
TGI Sport - Event Manager - Major Events Account Manager
TGI Sport - Implementation Executive
Ultimate Fighting Championship - International Business Development Coordinator
Volleyball NSW - General Manager - Marketing & Events
Not yet a subscriber? Discover specialised sports marketing insights, tailored for sports industry professionals within Australia and across the globe. If you work in sports for an agency, brand or rights-holder then this is for you.