SAN FRANCISCO–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Allison+Partners today announced the launch of Allison+Sports, a sports marketing specialty that leverages deep media and influencer relationships and works collaboratively with brands’ existing marketing operations to drive communications value. The specialty will work with brands’ existing and planned sports sponsorships, athlete and celebrity endorsements and other marketing relationships to deliver integrated marketing strategy and execution, using an earned-first lens.
“Today’s sports landscape is more intertwined with mainstream culture than ever before, providing extensive storytelling opportunities on and off the field,” said Shane Winn, Managing Director of Strategy and Sports Marketing at the agency. “We know that relationship-building across an ecosystem of reporters, sponsors, properties and fans is the fuel that will bring these stories to life in a massive sea of sports headlines.”
The offering, which features a data-driven approach, includes:
Sports and culture-focused earned media relations strategy and execution
Sponsorship and talent evaluation, contract negotiation and relationship management
Sports-focused strategy, campaign development and go-to-market planning
On-site consumer and B2B audience activation
Primary research and data mining to evaluate and inform predictive campaign analysis
Earned Performance Scorecard
Concurrently, Allison+Sports has launched a proprietary, data-driven tool called the Earned Performance Scorecard (EPS), which benchmarks brands that are hitting home runs with their sports investments, evaluates individual brands against those best-in-class and competitive sets, and builds insights and strategy from the results to inform future campaigns, programs and investments. EPS is a scalable tool which can be customized for any brand, methodically evaluating and scoring brands against audience messaging impact, social stickiness, endorsement and partner impact, conversation creation and sentiment, and purpose/pop culture relevance.
“Allison+Partners relies heavily on data and analytics products and methodologies to inform our work,” said Anne Colaiacovo, Global Partner and President, North America. “The EPS fills a gap in our industry, providing brands with a tool that at once can gauge past performance and also guide and predict future results.”
Poll Findings on Sports Media Consumption
As part of Allison+Sports’ data-driven approach, the team will keep a close pulse on casual and diehard sports fan tendencies to better inform earned media strategy. Below are sample insights* the team uncovered on hot and newsworthy sports topics:
WOMEN’S SPORTS: 44% of American sports fans are paying closer attention to women’s college and professional sports than they were 3 months ago
SPORTS BETTING: 41% of all sports fans are more likely now to place a bet on a sporting event than they were 3 months ago
PODCASTING: 56% of American sports fans report listening to sports-related podcasts at least one a month, of those 33% are listening at least once a week
To hear more exclusive insights on the casual and diehard sports fans, tune into Allison+Sports’ newly launched sports-marketing focused video podcast series, available on YouTube which has so far analyzed women’s college basketball, big game radio row, Tom Brady’s unretirement and the incredible return of Tiger Woods to the Masters.
About Allison+Partners
Allison+Partners is a global marketing and communications agency driven by a collaborative approach to innovation and creativity. The firm was named by PRovoke Media as one of its Global Agencies of the Decade, North American Agencies of the Year and Best Agencies to Work For. The agency was also named by PRWeek as a Best Places to Work for four consecutive years and recognized as one of UK’s Fastest Growing Agencies. Allison+Partners operates in 34 markets worldwide and is organized around five practices: Consumer Brands, Corporate, Reputation Risk + Public Affairs, Health and Technology. The agency’s Marketing Innovation Team, which combines brand strategy, integrated marketing, creative, research and measurement expertise into one offering, works across these practices to deliver integrated storytelling for clients. Allison+Partners is owned by Stagwell, one of the fastest-growing and most influential marketing and communications networks in the world. Agency partners leverage Stagwell’s technology, data analytics, insights and strategic consulting solutions to drive measurable results and optimize return on marketing investment for more than 1,700 clients worldwide. For more information, visit www.allisonpr.com.
*Allison+Partners Research + Insights surveyed 1,001 sports fans over the age of 18 in the United States. The survey was fielded using the Qualtrics Insight Platform, and panel was sourced from Lucid. Fielding was executed in March 2022.