It is no doubt that football is the darling of all sports lovers in the world. One can comfortably say that mush of the sport’s popularity can be attributed to the sports marketing strategies employed for the game. The hyping of the sport has not only stopped been a cash cow for the various brands that want to be associated with the sport, but also to the involved players who have made billions from the deals off the pitch. But in the quest to market the sport, the industry has also seen some crazy marketing methods being employed, and one might doubt whether they are really for the love of the game.

Magazines and Newspapers

There are lots of magazines that specifically advertise deal with advertisement of football and football products. In fact, magazines are not just popular sports marketing methods for football alone, but for many other sports as well. Some magazines can have designs and pictures that are very glamorous that you will be left yearning to take to the field.

Newspapers usually propagate their marketing through their sports pages. Despite sports being a major part of the newspaper content, the relationship is more of symbiotic in that the games -in this case football- also gets market exposure at the same time. In fact, there are people who love football so much that the first thing they do when they get their newspapers in the morning is to open the sports page and see what’s new in the game.

Through Sponsorship Deals

This method of marketing sports is perhaps one of the oldest when it comes to football. Many of the football clubs today are supported through sports sponsorship. The sponsorships can take many forms and normally comes from both corporate companies and communities.

When it comes to sports sponsorship from companies, the major players are the companies that deal in sports products, both manufacturing and distribution. There are football clubs that are even known by the name of the sponsor. In return, these companies usually benefit from increased sales revenue for their products.

Online Methods

With everything else going online, it would be so ridiculous to have football not being marketed online. Almost all the major football clubs that play in football leagues in their countries have websites. These websites are in turn marketed by various marketing companies to boost the popularity of the clubs.

When considering online marketing methods for football, one has to factor in all the usual online marketing techniques including fresh content, online promotions, live charts, just to name but a few. And another important aspect that has rapidly picked is the social media marketing tools. These are also gaining momentum with sports, especially amongst the young generation.

Television Media

This is perhaps the epitome of football marketing. There are some TV channels that are specifically dedicated to sports promotion and marketing. And as if that is not enough, there are some which you will find streaming only football affairs. The major football leagues usually get very comprehensive coverage not only on weekends, but virtually all the time.

In all the above sports marketing methods for football, you notice that rarely do the marketers come out without huge profits, be it the TV channels, the magazines, the sponsors and so on. This shows the amount of popularity that the sport has and will continue to have in the future.

Larry Lim writes for Sports Marketing Hong Kong.

Larry Lim writes for Sports Marketing Hong Kong at http://www.worldsportgroup.com.

Author Bio: Larry Lim writes for Sports Marketing Hong Kong.

Category: Marketing
Keywords: business, marketing, sports marketing, sports sponsorship, sports events, brand marketing