As publishing companies increasingly attempt to turn their titles into marketing-driven vehicles to spur revenue growth, a growing number of non-sports magazines are getting into the sports-marketing game.
U.S. News & World Report recently signed on as the presenting sponsor of the fledgling Champions Tour for professional tennis players over 35. Out will be the official magazine of next year's Gay Games in New York City. In the next few months, Fitness is likely to sponsor a volleyball tour, joining New York Times Co. Women's Magazines siblings Family Circle and McCall's in the sports marketing field. Newsweek, already a major player in tennis and golf, is expanding its marketing program with the National Football League and eyeing a cycling sponsorship. And Playboy hopes to boost the visibility of its Playmate teams in events such as a prospective volleyball tour and Rollerblading and motorcycle races.
All these publishers are expecting the events to be more than high-profile schmooze-fests. The sponsorships should help attract new advertisers, solidify relationships with existing clients, break into marketers' promotion budgets, and pick up new readers for the magazines--all of which contributes to the bottom line even if the events themselves may only break even. To cite one example, Playboy, which has run winter ski-fests for four years and spring-break events since 1976, can directly attribute 15 pages of new and incremental advertising in the past two years to its sports-marketing efforts.
The sports lure--and its dangers
The infatuation of American business with sports marketing has intensified during these years of recession. A $1.4 billion market in 1989 has mushroomed to a projected $2.4 billion this year, according to IEG Sponsorship Report of Chicago. While no figures are available for magazine spending, publishing executives are not immune to the sports bug.
'You have to figure out a way to stand out from your competitors, and sports continues to be a growing industry,' says Dede Patterson, director of women's sports marketing at The New York Times Co. Women's Magazines.
But pitfalls await those who rush in without a clear rationale and detailed business plan, caution magazine executives already involved in sports marketing.
'Sports marketing is an extremely time-intensive and detail-oriented undertaking where you're only as good as your last show,' says Rick Becker, publisher of Yachting, which runs seven regattas each year and was the official magazine of last year's Americas Cup. 'Once you sour someone, it's very difficult to woo them back,' warns Becker.
The advice for neophytes? 'First and foremost, the event should fit in with your brand strategy,' says Peter Bonani, publishing director of Golf, which is in its fourth year of sponsorship of the JAL Big Apple Classic women's golf event. 'If you do it only for visibility, entertainment, ego and to hobnob with celebrities, you're making a huge mistake.'
McCall's justifies its two-year-old title sponsorship of the McCall's LPGA Classic at Stratton Mountain by pointing to its audience's affinity for golf. According to an MRI report dated Spring 1993, McCall's reaches 952,000 women who golf, 17.9 percent of the nation's total. Through the golf tourney, the magazine has been able to snare advertisers like Pepsi, which until then had not run a regular schedule, by offering them a panoply of marketing options--including sampling opportunities.
Another necessity for any would-be sports marketer is a detailed accounting of the costs involved and how they will affect a magazine's margins. 'If you're not familiar with the business, you might be overlooking an incredible laundry list of costs--site inspection, direct marketing to promote the event, the travel-and-entertainment expenses of people who attend from your company,' says Andrew Clurman, director of marketing for The Skiing Company, which runs ski club challenges as well as trade shows for the industry. Depending on the sport, the cost of official sponsorships can range from the low five figures to $500,000, while the price tag of title sponsorships where the magazine owns the event can reach $2 million to $3 million.
Magazines that do not have the staff to run an event adequately may want to partner with existing sports marketing companies like Pro-Serv, IMG, Lifestyles Marketing Group or Action Sports Marketing. Publishers may also want to hook up with non-established sports or tours. Getting in on the ground floor with a new tour has given U.S. News & World Report more leverage than if it sponsored an event on the regular tour.
'We can get Jimmy Connors |a partner in the new tour~ to do things like come to parties or give a group lesson to our advertisers' customers that we couldn't get Boris Becker to do at the U.S. Open,' says Tom Evans, publisher of U.S. News. Evans points out that even before a single tourney on the new tennis tour has been played, one advertiser has added four pages to its schedule and two new advertisers have come aboard.
He also notes that out-of-pocket costs can be kept to a minimum through barter. U.S. News will supply a page of advertising for each event (there will be three in '93 and six in '94), as well as produce brochures and provide other marketing support. The actual money changing hands between the magazine and the Champions Tour is kept to the low five figures, although the deal is worth much more.
'At the end of the game,' says Evans, 'we're looking to drive revenue, not to hang out with sports stars.'
