Activation in Action at FIFA World Cup™

Welcome back.

We've covered so much so far,

but one of the best ways to learn sponsorship is practicing it.

So let's talk about how my team puts this all into action.

At MLS and SUM,

we have individuals focused on partnership marketing.

Each person is responsible for a few brands,

we call them clients,

and works with different agencies and internal departments to plan and execute their sponsorship.

Now we're gonna talk about something called a brief.

A brief is a foundational document that brings together

the who, what, and why to guide the entire planning process.

When we talk about getting on the same page,

this is literally the page we're all getting on.

It's a bit like when you receive an assignment for a group project in school.

And when you're working with a lot of different teams,

documents, like briefs, are important to summarize key information

and let everyone work together.

When brands or agencies are starting a new project,

they'll often use a brief to help think about how to get started.

Our team spends a good deal of time putting together key information

to provide to agencies or internal departments

so that they can think about their sponsorship in the right way

and develop work that will be most effective.

Background.

How long has the brand been a sponsor?

Did they recently renew their sponsorship?

Goal.

What are they trying to achieve from the sponsorship?

Target audience.

Which fans are they trying to reach?

What are those fans' passion points, rituals, and behaviors?

Contractual assets.

What assets do they have available?

What is most important?

Brand message.

What will they say to these fans?

This could be specific, like a tagline,

or broad, like a theme or emotion.

Timing and budget.

When are they planning to activate?

What is their investment?

Let's think through some sample brief elements.

Imagine for a second that we've got a brief where we're looking to target young soccer fans

and to help a brand grow their followers on social media.

Which of these contractual assets would you prioritize?

If you thought,

"Well, obviously we'd prioritize custom TikTok content with players,"

then you're starting to get the hang of this.

While signage and jersey sponsorship are effective tools,

they won't help us grow followers on social media, at least not directly.

And Facebook ads may be more effective with an older audience.

Nice work.

Let's keep going.

With so many teams to coordinate,

brands may begin planning 6 to 18 months out, depending on the sport and sponsorship.

The brief is a key document during the planning process,

but there is so much that follows it.

Creative development.

Brainstorms, mock-ups, drafts,

this is all the work to come up with an idea,

show what it will look like, and how it will work.

We have a whole course in the academy on this exciting field.

Production.

This is where ideas get built, either physically or digitally.

For example,

there are producers that set up booths at events,

and there's a whole crew that shoots commercials.

Launch.

And it's live.

This is the most exciting part, as the creative is out in the world and fans can experience it.

Measurement.

Now it's time to monitor those KPIs I mentioned earlier,

ones centered around elements like engagement, reach, and traffic.

Learning.

Even when KPIs are met, there's always something to learn.

Celebrate the wins,

but take time to reflect on the misses too,

because that's where future success takes shape.

When all of these things are working together well,

the results are engaging and help to drive business success,

like in the examples you see here.