Member Spotlight: TEAM Marketing

What’s your name and position within the organisation?

My name is Alex Smith and as Director of Marketing Partnerships at TEAM Marketing, I lead a team of 25 talented sports marketers in support of our client UEFA and its men’s club competition sponsor and licensing partners.

Can you give us a brief outline of TEAM Marketing as a company and your approach to partnerships specifically?

Strong and enduring relationships are the foundation of our business. For over 30 years, our staff have helped build some of the best football competitions – including the UEFA Champions League (UCL) and the UEFA Europa League (UEL) – while creating a thriving network of long-standing commercial partners.

By prioritising the authenticity of our connections, by delivering on our promises and by maintaining a commitment to the highest possible delivery standards, the Marketing Partnerships department fosters mutually beneficial relationships between UEFA and its commercial partners.

We focus on partners’ businesses, objectives and needs, helping sponsor and licensing partners maximise their return on investment. We also provide valuable insights into rights development and rights value generation, acting as a crucial link in the TEAM sales chain.

What about your approach differentiates TEAM?

Building a business around our partnership with UEFA for over 30 years has allowed us to develop strong relationships with our colleagues in Nyon, gaining a truly deep understanding of how UEFA and European club football operates.

These strong connections enable open and transparent communication, which is the foundation of the meaningful relationships we strive to create across our wide variety of stakeholders.

At the beginning of each season, we work closely with UEFA’s partners to clarify objectives and we maintain consistent dialogue throughout the season, regularly checking in on progress and offering solutions to help improve performance and ensure we are consistently adding value.

A key differentiator is the extensive research programme run by TEAM’s Insights department, which provides UEFA’s partners with a level of reporting that I think is unrivalled in the sports industry. In addition to live dashboards that monitor digital performance, the data and insight we share regarding competition audiences, consumer research, commercial exposure and brand performance is one of our most valuable offerings.

Finally, TEAM excels at continually finding ways to evolve and enhance partnerships cycle after cycle, meaning regular growth and value for UEFA, its commercial partners and the competitions. The length of Champions League partnerships with Heineken (29 years), Mastercard (29 years), PlayStation (26 years) and adidas (22 years), for example, are testament to this.

Has your approach to sponsorship changed in any permanent ways since the pandemic?

Like most in the sports industry, UEFA’s competitions were heavily impacted by Covid, with matches cancelled or played behind closed doors, and marquee events like the 2021 UEFA Champions League Final relocated three weeks before the event.

The impact on rights delivery was significant and it led to some frank and challenging conversations, but these conversations gave us an even better understanding of what represents meaningful value to UEFA’s partners.

Specifically, the lack of in-stadium experiences forced us to pivot and get creative. We sharpened our focus on digital rights to create additional brand exposure opportunities and virtual events. A good example is when we helped Mastercard implement a virtual player mascot experience at the 2020 UCL Final 8 tournament in Lisbon. Mastercard worked with the UEFA Foundation to offer children suffering from life-threatening illnesses the chance to virtually meet players as they entered the stadium.

The pandemic also highlighted the need for flexibility and adaptability. We see brands now seeking much more clarity about how their partnerships and investment will be protected in the case of the unexpected, like a pandemic. The often-ignored force majeure clause of partnership contracts is certainly now having its moment in the sun.

What do you see as the key sponsorship trends in 2023, and how are they affecting how you work?

More than just a trend, purpose-driven activation has become a strategic priority for almost all of the brands with whom we work, and it’s impacting the industry in a positive way.

Whether their focus is to be more environmentally sustainable (like PepsiCo and UEFA’s circular economy practices to minimise the environmental impact of the upcoming UCL Final) or to drive inclusion and diversity (like Heineken’s “Cheers to all fans” campaign that challenged gender bias in football), sponsors are increasingly placing purpose at the core of their activation.

At TEAM, we have proactively strengthened our knowledge and expertise on these topics, to not only best advise UEFA and its partners, but to put purpose at the heart of our own operations as well.

In addition, I think brands and rights holders are seeking new and better ways of integrating technology into their fan engagement models. The acceleration of AI technology in the past couple of years has opened everyone’s eyes to its great potential, and perhaps great threat, and it will be interesting to see the impact on the sports industry.

How has sponsorship changed for TEAM in recent years and how do you see it changing in the next five years?

The ever-changing digital landscape and the rise of new platforms has driven significant change in the ways brands utilise their partnerships. While they still benefit from the incredible media value UEFA’s competitions provide, sponsor partnerships allow them to engage and connect with consumers at deeper levels.

The focus on access to first-party data and the ability to target consumers through increased personalization is a key priority for sponsors. Looking ahead, with global economic conditions continuing to be challenging, there will be a need for rights holders to think creatively about the rights inventory they offer, and to demonstrate a willingness to be flexible. Brands will expect a more bespoke approach to partnerships, and an increased focus on driving ROI will keep us on our toes.

Is there anything else you would like to add?

This weekend is the UEFA Champions League Final, closely following last week’s UEFA Europa League Final and yesterday’s UEFA Europa Conference League Final. It’s one of the busiest periods for TEAM staff and the culmination of an entire season’s hard work and effort.

The Marketing Partnerships team is onsite helping to ensure sponsor activations, as well as their guest programmes, go according to plan and every potential concern is anticipated. It’s a true highlight and an amazing opportunity to connect and collaborate with UEFA’s commercial partners and contribute to their success.