Sport dominates many people’s lives as, outside of work, our favourite team or sporting individual is often our second greatest passion – and that can make for some profitable collaborations, if your company headquarters are close to an iconic venue.
Take a look at your local newspaper’s website, for instance, and you’re likely to see the local football team’s colours displayed quite prominently, often even on pages that have nothing to do with sport.
Our love of our local team is something that evokes strong positive emotions, including pride and a degree of sentimentality, and associating your company with these kinds of emotions can quickly build advocacy of your brand in even the most cynical of consumers.
The beautiful game
Football is clearly the UK’s most popular sport, and there’s a team in almost every town, making it a good starting point wherever you are based.
As mentioned above, local football teams often retain the same main colours in their kits for years – and even decades – which can allow you to build your branding around your support for the team, even without any formal sponsorship deal in place.
Just be wary that you don’t put off any potential customers who are supporters of rival teams; there are several locations throughout the UK where branding yourself as blue or red can be a risky strategy indeed.
Relocation, relocation, relocation
Even worse than your local team changing their colours – which might inspire a rebrand on your own part – is the risk of them moving out of the area completely.
When Wimbledon became the MK Dons after moving to Milton Keynes, supporters in Wimbledon itself were left with a dilemma over whether they should travel the 60 miles north to their team’s new home.
Now of course, there’s AFC Wimbledon if you want to support a local football team – but when it comes to commercial property for sale Wimbledon firms might want to decorate theirs in the traditional purple and green of the All England Lawn Tennis Club, for obvious reasons.
Finding a niche
Outside of the obvious sports, there are certain others that would be niche in most parts of the country, but which are definitely worth considering associating your company with, if you’re in the right place.
In Sheffield, the Crucible Theatre is among the major sporting venues, and is perhaps the city’s most iconic; and while its own branding is perhaps not too widely known, there’s nothing to stop you adopting the deep green of snooker table baize, perhaps teamed with one or more of the ball colours (combine green and red, and you’ve got a colour scheme that should perform particularly well around Christmastime).
Silverstone makes motor racing a good option in a certain part of Northamptonshire, although again you might need to be creative in your visual branding, while in Liverpool, you might want to tie in with horse racing thanks to Aintree’s role in hosting the Grand National – and avoid choosing sides between the city’s football teams.
Choose your sporting allegiance carefully and, combined with a prime location, you could soon find your company successful enough to claim the role of shirt sponsor in a not-too-distant future season.
