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There’s no quantifiable method to measure return on investment.

And a 30-second spot at last month’s Super Bowl went for nearly
$3 million. So why is sports marketing the largest sector of the
sponsorship industry—and why should quick serves and vendors
get in on it? BY SONYA CHUDGAR

THE
BIG RISKS
&BIG
REWARDS
OF SPORTS
MARKETING
Statisticians aren’t sitting cross-legged in labs, running complex algorithms on Papa John’s Super
Bowl sales. A supercomputer isn’t littering the floor of a scientist’s basement, crunching cross-
promotions of the FIFA World Cup. And Harry Potter has yet to cast an ROI-analysis spell.
Sports marketing is a tricky beast, predominantly because brands have no method of quanti-
fying their return on investment, or their success rate at compelling consumers’ cravings.
©ISTOCKPHOTO.COM / EVIRGEN

In 2007, consultants Kevin Clancy and Peter Krieg published a book on how to improve mar-
keting practices. They cited a study asking participants to recall Olympic sponsors that made a
lasting impression on them.

54 MARCH 2011 | QSR | www.qsrmagazine.com

 !"#$%!&'($)*%+,-

www.qsrmagazine.com | QSR | MARCH 2011 55

!"#$%!&'($)*%+,-
Fifty-three percent of the sample thought of
Visa, an official sponsor since 1986 that shells
out millions of dollars every four years to asso-
ciate itself with the world’s most promising
athletes. Fifty-three percent also remembered
Nike’s partnership with the games.
On the surface, this survey represents a
major triumph for Visa. But Nike is not an
Olympic sponsor. With its trademark swoosh
plastered brazenly across athletes’ jerseys,
bags, and shoes, it is easy to see why Nike
may have been mistaken as a premier sponsor.
Visa’s return on investment looks dreadful
compared to Nike’s, which gained equal eye-
ball recognition without ever writing a single
check to the Olympics.
“How brands can measure return on
investment, that’s the million-dollar ques-
tion,” says Bill Chipps, senior editor of the
IEG Sponsorship Report. “It all ties back to
a company’s marketing objectives.”
Return on investment trickles down to
three basic ingredients: media exposure,
awareness and purchase, and commitment.
Among those three, awareness is often the
most desirable element.
Motivations for sports marketing, mean-
while, differ based on the size of the brand, its
targeted consumers, and the avenue it adver-
tises through.
“There are a lot of organizations out there
that are selling sponsorship, ranging from the
Olympics to NASCAR, which are million-
dollar deals, to every professonal sports team
and venue, to every nonprofit festival and per-
forming arts organization,” Chipps says. “So,
obviously, there are a lot of organizations out
there pitching sponsorship.”
Sports sponsorship accounts for the larg-
est sector of the sponsorship industry, an
industry that grew a healthy 3.4 percent last
year to $17.1 billion. Of that amount, $11.6
billion, or 68 percent, was spent on sports.
The second largest category, arts and enter-
tainment sponsorship, barely ruffled sports’
hair, accounting for only 10 percent.
“The big properties that receive the big-
time sponsorship dollars would be these
marquee [sporting] events, whether they’re
on a domestic or international scale,” Chipps
says. “Here in the States, the Super Bowl is
unique because it is such a high-profile event.”
The Super Bowl is the largest national
stage for advertisers, drawing about 90 mil-
lion viewers each year, or nearly a third of the
American population. With so many eyes at
56 MARCH 2011 | QSR | www.qsrmagazine.com
stake, brands begin brainstorming lucrative
marketing strategies months ahead of time.
Doritos, a subsidiary of PepsiCo’s Frito-
Lay, fashioned itself into somewhat of a pop
cultural cornerstone in the arena of Super Bowl
advertising. In 2007, the sponsor launched
“Crash the Super Bowl,” a contest encourag-
ing fans to film and submit their own Doritos
ads, with the top five landing on air.
“‘Crash the Super Bowl’ was based
around the idea of the Doritos brand wanting
to find a unique way to engage with consum-
ers,” says Chris Kuechenmeister, director of
public relations for Frito-Lay. “Doritos con-
sumers are younger, in that 18–24 sweet spot
for the brand. This idea of creating videos
and content and advertising and filmmak-
ing was an area of interest for fans. … The
thought was, ‘What’s the biggest stage for
them? The Super Bowl, of course.’”
Every year consumer-made ads have
run during the Super Bowl, Doritos ranks
within the top five of the USA Today Ad
Meter, a live survey that polls viewers and
presents real-time responses of their com-
mercial rankings. In 2009, “Crash the Super
Bowl” upped the stakes.
“Two years ago, we offered up $1 million
for a consumer-related Doritos ad to hit No. 1
on the ad meter, and sure enough, it happened,”
Kuechenmeister says. “Two guys who were
unemployed at the time from a small town
in Indiana who created a spot for less than
$2,000, and it scored No. 1 on the ad meter.”
The primary objective of “Crash the Super
Bowl” is to keep Doritos on fans’ minds
while engaging their competitive flairs.
“What’s unique is, you talk about it as
advertising,” Kuechenmeister says. “We look
at it more as consumer engagement.”
Beginning in September when the contest
is announced, fans submit entries, contestants
campaign for votes, and buzz builds leading
up to the game. A 30-seond ad becomes a six-
month engagement.
In 2010 Pepsi Max crashed the party. As
with Doritos, fans could invent ads for the
brand and in turn generate mass awareness
for the relaunch of the Pepsi flavor.
“I think a major benefit of that is obvi-
ously strengthening connections with our
consumers, especially in this media age,”
says Maria DeLorenzo, Pepsi Max communi-
cations manager. “In December, two months
before the game, we’d actually had four times
the number of earned media impressions than
‘Crash the Super Bowl’ had at the same time.”
While the Super Bowl is known for its
adventurous advertisements, not all promo-
tions require marketing high jinks.
Papa John’s became an NFL sponsor this
season after its sponsorship of the 2010 Super
Bowl set record sales.
“We did a test drive last year, as we were
an official pizza sponsor of Super Bowl
XLIV, and during that promotion, we had
the best day ever for our company,” says Tish
Muldoon, director of public relations for Papa
John’s. “We sold 900,000 pizzas.”
Papa John’s marketing strategy was rela-
tively simple: the TV spots featured “Papa”
John Schnatter delivering pizzas around
the community and fostering a family feel.
Meanwhile, the company gained rights to
the logos of the Super Bowl for retail pro-
motions in stores, and “Sponsored in part by
Papa John’s” popped out of the commenta-
tors’ mouths every few commercial breaks.
Chipps says companies align with the Super
Bowl for two primary objectives: to captivate
viewers with a 30-second blast of brilliance,
and to plaster the marks of the Super Bowl
across the brand for retail promotion.
“What’s appealing to companies about
the Super Bowl is the halo effect from a pos-
itive rub-off through affiliation,” Chipps
says. “Companies want to tap into that excite-
ment and energy and have it transfer to their
brands.”
Papa John’s three-year commitment with
the Super Bowl proves that the brand is bank-
ing on that transfer. But in a bold move, the
pizza company ditched its traditional TV
advertising this year and instead built hype
by promising to give away pizzas if the game
went into overtime.
It helps that a natural synergy exists
between watching sports and eating quick-
serve food, especially when it comes to pizza.
“In the pizza business, the Super Bowl is a
big deal for us,” says Andrew Gamm, director of
brand development at Pizza Patrón.
Sales jumped 15 percent for Pizza Patrón,
a Latino-focused pizza brand with 88 loca-
tions, on the day of the 2010 Super Bowl.
Pizza Patrón advertises its pies with equal
doses of traditional marketing and sports
marketing. Its go-to strategy is representing
the brand at community events—namely soc-
cer, because of its target demographic.
“We look to be involved in the different
markets that we’re in,” Gamm says. “That’s
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amateur and it’s community-based, but that’s
where our primary focus takes place.”
Community involvement means selling
pizzas on-site at soccer tournaments num-
bering 2,000–3,000 guests. To pump fans up,
Pizza Patrón sets up inflatables, prize wheels,
soccer kicks, and activities.
The soccer strategy allows Pizza Patrón to
have a quantifiable method of measuring ROI.
“We hand out coupons, and when they go back
to the store and are redeemed, we count them,”
Gamm says. “We know how many people
were there, how many we distributed, and we
can determine a measure of success the old-
fashioned way.”
The rest of Pizza Patrón’s traditional
advertising consists of the usual: billboards,
transit, direct mail, door hangers, radio, and
television. “That all works well, and it’s def-
initely necessary to try to increase business
at the stores, but that is all very hands-off
advertising,” Gamm says. “You write a check
and you produce the appropriate piece for the
venue. It doesn’t always work for you. On the
sports side, we are much more hands-on at
the events.”
For a chain with fewer than 100 locations,
Pizza Patrón’s neighborhood strategy is con-
ducive to its reach: Pizza lands directly in the
hands of the target demographic, while the
clientele discovers the brand’s presence, prod-
ucts, and promotions.
For nationwide chains with hundreds of
franchisees, the game requires a slightly dif-
ferent offensive strategy: activation.
“It’s what we call buying a toy without
batteries,” Chipps says. “Smart sponsors are
not just signing the sponsorship and walking
away from it, hoping they get all this return
on investment. When you buy a sponsorship,
you get the typical benefits—it might be tick-
ets for hospitality, signage, that kind of thing.
That’s all fine and dandy, but to really get the
biggest bang for their buck, a marketer needs
to allocate additional dollars to activate the
sponsorship and bring it to life.”
Phillip Jones, president and CEO of the
Dallas Convention & Visitors Bureau (DCVB),
had the advantage of watching sponsorships
activate as the city geared up to host this
year’s Super Bowl. “There are several spon-
sors who came online in late November, early
December who were waiting to see what type
of exposure and visibility we received before
they made a commitment,” he says.
To get the ball rolling on a sponsorship,
58 MARCH 2011 | QSR | www.qsrmagazine.com
companies need to not only activate their
sponsorship, but activate it with their fran-
chisees. Chipps says it is the sponsor’s duty to
make the partnership as appealing as possible
to the franchisees and engage them, whether
by giving them signage or in-store collateral
promoting the affiliation.
Sponsorships may be a double-edged
sword, however, when franchises do not see
the benefit. At Pizza Patrón, not all franchi-
sees can directly benefit from the company’s
marketing. The pizza chain has a sponsor-
ship agreement with the American Airlines
Center in Dallas, where it sells pizza and
promotes the brand at Dallas Mavericks and
Dallas Stars games, as well as at concerts and
events that take place in the venue.
“Franchisees don’t see a direct benefit for
that, especially if they live in a market outside
of Dallas,” Gamm says. “‘Why are you guys
investing in a sponsorship arrangement with
the American Airlines Center, and how does
that help me in Phoenix, in L.A., in Miami?’
And because it’s difficult to measure, you can’t
give them a definitive, quantifiable response.”
But experts say building the brand is
often just as important as growing the busi-
ness itself.
For the Dallas Convention & Visitors
Bureau, this was certainly the case. The
DCVB was the first sponsor to sign on to the
2011 Super Bowl, pledging $1 million more
than two years before the game.
“We were in a position to capitalize on all
the immediate action and thousands of fans
coming to Dallas,” Jones says. “With over
$14 billion invested in new development, we
thought it was a great opportunity to be on
the frontlines, showcasing to the world the
new Dallas.”
Chipps says the ultimate advantage of
sports marketing over traditional marketing is
the heart-mind connection fans have to their
teams. “Sports are near and dear to many peo-
ple,” he says. “They are already passionate
about their favorite teams and their favorite
sports activities. By sponsoring those, com-
panies or marketers hope to tap in on a key
passion point and gain a positive association
by supporting this activity that people love.”
As for downsides to sports marketing,
Jones could only think of one. “The only
disadvantage was that it cost us $1 million,”
he says. q
Sonya Chudgar is an editorial intern from the University of
North Carolina at Chapel Hill.