Audi Celebrating Impact
What are brands doing with Major League Soccer to reach fans IRL (in real life)?
Sports sponsorships went all-in on digital and social content to reach people stuck at home during the pandemic. Fast-forward to 2024. “People are sick of being home. Now it’s a seen and be seen culture. What can I experience? What can I do?,” states Jennifer Cramer, Executive Vice President of Partnership Marketing for Major League Soccer.
How is this playing out for MLS partners?
POS is back
“We’ve not seen this level of retail activation in years, with the MLS appearing in over 100,000 point-of-sale displays at Walmart, Publix, and other retailers,” Cramer notes. Brands like P&G, Campbell’s and CELSIUS have created custom experiences for fans to see and touch the product.
With Apple, Messi, and the coming World Cup driving engagement, retailers have allotted shelf space to MLS partners to take advantage of the energy, excitement and passion of fans. The POS displays capitalize on the use of MLS marks to get attention from shoppers that translate into customer preference and purchases.
CELSIUS will pop-up in Walmart parking lots for 30 weeks with an immersive soccer experience, including a foosball lounge, foosball table games, custom gaming stations, CELSIUS sampling stations and an MLS Cup Championship Trophy photo opp. Some markets may include player appearances. Learn more here.
CELSIUS MLS pop-up activation in Walmart parking lots summer 2024
Go where Gen Z and Alpha hang out
Major League Soccer helps brands reach young households in four ways.
Choosing the right channel. Knowing that streaming is the future of sports consumption, MLS was an early mover to partner with Apple to distribute game content. “No one understands consumers like Apple does,” adds Cramer. With nearly two-thirds of 18-34 year-olds as “cord-nevers,” streaming was the obvious channel.
Creating the right social content. But reaching fans still requires a multi-platform approach to keep in step with the young, digitally-savvy audience. The MLS does this in two ways in their partnership with TikTok by maintaining and growing its:
- MLS content hub that TikTok sells to partners to align messaging and content with trending topics.
- MLS creator network dedicated to club content with an insider look at team-level activity.
Knowing the customer. The league analyzes where MLS fans hang out. Data from over 55,000 fans drawn from five MLS teams studied by Wakefield research indicates that MLS fans under 40 years old actively follow their favorite teams’ accounts on X/Twitter (45.5%), and Facebook (40.1%), but over-index on following the team’s official Instagram (72.2% under 40 vs. 47.5% 40 and older), and TikTok (10.8% under 40 vs. 5.4% 40 and older).
Drawing from the same database, the median age is 41 among these adult fans. Accounting for children under 18 living in 43.6% of the households, the vast majority of the MLS audience is under 41.
Staying nimble. Cramer says that the MLS makes sure partnerships work for both parties. If something doesn’t work, they’ll readily adjust to find solutions. At only 29 years old, the relatively young league can pivot quickly.
Working with Audi, the MLS repositioned the Audi Goals Drive Progress Impact Award program to feature the “Celebrating Impact” content series that recognizes the positive impact MLS players have on their communities and support causes they care about. Audi, a longstanding partner of MLS, continues to be a driving force for enhancing the experience of young players on and off the field as Audi has funded a total of $5 million to support MLS academies and player selected charity organizations.
Where can a partner go wrong?
Be inauthentic. MLS fans are quick to sniff out the brands that cut-and-paste the same strategy they use in other leagues to apply to the MLS. Brands that align with supporter groups without adapting to the soccer culture miss the mark. Some brands may rely on exposure-based solutions (LED and signage) with limited reach outside the stadium.
To be authentic, brands should “utilize all assets at your disposal,” notes Cramer. IHG, the league hotel partner, creates unique VIP experiences customers can bid on (or buy with points). IHG holds a gathering of influencers at a high-end IHG property, takes them to a match to get behind-the-scenes experiences, leading guests to promote the brand and the MLS. IHG hotels also offers after-parties for VIP guests and influencers, cross-promoting with adidas to generate buzz, and to capitalize on the assets MLS partners receive.
Measure so you can manage
When it comes to measuring partnership performance, Cramer claims that the more external, third-party sources used to assess outcomes, the better for the MLS. As she states, “We need research to be a conversation,” and less a report from one side to the other. Doing so requires clear understanding and communication of KPIs accompanied by transparent measurement of partnership impact on fans so that both parties are in sync on the path to reach partnership goals.