What’s your name and position within the organisation?
My name is Tero Kalsta and I’m the Sales Coordinator at IFF. My job is to secure new main sponsorships for our federation, as well as nurture the existing ones with activation models and by developing new concepts.
While doing this I also act as an “evangelist” for our sport. Bottom-line is, that while creating value for sponsors, the partnerships support our mission to spread and support floorball globally.
How did the organisation come to work with the current sponsors/rights holders? What ‘bigger picture’ did this relationship seek to meet?
This is an important factor for us as it directly supports the mission to spread the sport into new countries.
Our current sponsors are a natural evolution from our federation’s perspective. They are material sponsors which are connected to the sport: floorball apparel (sticks, balls), sports apparel (referee outfits, shoes), rink provider (floorball is played in a rink) and flooring provider (indoor sport flooring material). All the agreements also include barter clauses.
A big part of the partnerships also enables the development work of the IFF in the developing floorball countries. This is an important factor for us, as it directly supports the mission to spread the sport into new countries. During this process, many stakeholders get exposed to the brand in question to establish the primary brand awareness.
On the other hand, the sponsors have a natural touch point to their target group by their presence in the major floorball events, as well as active floorball social media channels. Our partners also substantially contribute to organising the events by sponsoring the rinks and the flooring.
How is the effectiveness of the relationship(s) measured? What metrics do you use?
Many of the future players receive their first exposure to the brand in this fashion. It is work with long-tailed effects.
We are discussing this with our sponsors, as the targets can be very different. For instance, the floorball apparel manufacturer Unihoc has a grand picture of growing the sport of floorball in general and so shares our mission. The bigger the cake, the more there is for everyone. Obviously, as an IFF sponsor, they do gain brand awareness while doing this, as they have extensive visibility at the events and host sales booths at the events to promote novelty products among other things.
As we use Unihoc floorball sticks provided by them in our development work, many of the future players receive their first exposure to the brand in this fashion. It is work with long-tailed effects.
We also measure media and social media reach by utilising Meltwater tools. We have just recently had a development discussion with Unihoc and have several new ideas which we can put into action and measure i.e. generating them more followers by utilising our social media channels.
Other ways of measuring effectiveness have been by evaluating how many quality leads the partners have gained during an event through hosted meetings in hospitality areas.
From a broader perspective, we are also working closely with Sportcal and the Global Sports Impact (GSI) study. The program involves the analysis of world championships, series and multi-sport games from a diverse range of sports and events, to help event owners and hosts understand the true impact of their events across a wide range of sectors, and to support them in the further development of their event strategies e.g. the impacts to Riga (Latvia) which hosted the 2016 World Floorball Championships.
What are the current trends within your business area, and how are they affecting how you work and how you deliver on strategy?
It will be interesting to see how virtual and augmented reality solutions will influence sports consumption at home, although there is still some way to go.
I believe technology is a major factor impacting the sports industry. Especially as we serve a young, tech-savvy target group, we need to keep up-to-date on the development. It will be interesting to see how virtual and augmented reality solutions will influence sports consumption at home, although there is still some way to go. As for now, for the last few years we have invested a lot of time in constructing our social media presence.
Secondly, it maybe isn’t as much a trend as it is a choice of ours. We are aiming to broaden our sponsorship base to include sponsors outside the “traditional” floorball related ones. We are looking for partners in the FMCG sector, electronics, travel and fashion which have the best value-base fit.
The biggest impact this has on my work is the research project we have initiated. We will, in close cooperation with one of the top schools in the world, survey our fan community to pin-point the values they represent. This information will be used to identify companies with the best value match. This lays a strong foundation for future partnerships. It obviously also makes argumentation much easier for us and the decision-making easier for them.
How has sponsorship changed in your industry over the past few years? And how do you think it’s going to change in the next five years?
I strongly believe that value-based marketing and partner selection will play a bigger role in the future.
Sponsorship has certainly become more demanding. Just like any other industry, the demand to be able to prove measurable results has set foot in sponsoring too. The use of digital channels enforces this trend. I think this is a healthy trend, as long as the target setting is well thought out.
Incentive-based models are also an interesting trend. Anheuser-Busch InBev has recently introduced incentive clauses in their sponsorship agreements. I strongly believe that value-based marketing and partner selection will play a bigger role in the future.
And finally, as mentioned before, technology also has a major impact on sport. We need to closely follow what this has to offer the fan experience (AR/VR) and how this can be combined with sponsor activations.
How are you harnessing and executing on digital strategy, and what problems / opportunities has this created?
The backbone of our digital strategy is streaming. We have offered our games for online viewing close to 10 years already and this has proven to be right solution considering our target audience.
On the other hand, our digital strategy is as living as the sport itself. It mostly revolves around our annual events and we work in cooperation with the local organisers. This kind of cooperation is very fruitful as there are new ideas and opportunities each year. We also receive a lot of news from our versatile member associations throughout the year, which gives us the chance to show floorball from around the world.
One of our aims is to be consistent with the material we are publishing, but this is sometimes problematic during summertime, as the season is over and it’s a bit quieter on the floorball front. However, we are constantly coming up with new ideas during summer to keep the buzz going i.e. Urban Floorball played outside.
Out of the 31 disciplines in the event, floorball was the most discussed sport in social media thanks to our active feed of material and active fan society.
We try to improve ourselves in digital media constantly and we are especially strong in social media and keeping up with the latest trends. One example of this is The World Games 2017: out of the 31 disciplines in the event, floorball was the most discussed sport in social media thanks to our active feed of material and active fan society. Social media is the perfect platform for us to reach our young audience and to interact with them.
A recent addition to our strategy has been the activation of our LinkedIn presence. As on one hand, we need to serve our fan base, on the other hand we need to attract interest in the B2B sector to find sponsorship leads. We execute this via updates regarding our sport, sponsoring and other interesting topics on the IFF company profile.
Social media – cure or curse?
For the last couple of years, we have consistently developed our social media channels. It is most definitely a cure as 1). it is the ultimate channel with which to serve our fan community and 2). it´s a must-have from a sponsor partner perspective.
We are currently working on developing new ways to leverage these channels together with our partners.
What challenges have you encountered, and how have they been overcome?
As floorball is still a young sport, we need to prove ourselves again and again
As floorball is still a young sport, we need to prove ourselves again and again. Even though this is demanding, it keeps us on our toes all the time. We like to turn the whole situation upside down. We believe this is a possibility for sponsors.
Floorball is one of the fastest growing sports in the world. Jumping on the bandwagon now presents a chance to become the top-of-mind brand in the floorball community. And from a long-term perspective, the reasonable investment now will get you a lot more than would the same amount of money in a mainstream sport.
Is there anything else you’d like to add?
There is one topic I would like to bring forward. As Corporate Social Responsibility has risen in its importance, we know this is something the IFF needs to display in its actions. As a sport federation, we obviously need to emphasise that we closely follow the WADA anti-doping program and are also committed to fighting corruption. It is in our DNA that we do not tolerate any discrimination according to race, gender or religion, nor tolerate violence, hence engraved in our statutes.
The IFF runs a program called #GoGirls aiming to involve girls in floorball and also to keep them playing when they reach adolescence, something very similar to what P&G has displayed in their #LikeAGirl campaign . Furthermore, we have been working with the Special Olympics over the last eight years, a cooperation which has been very fruitful for both parties. Roughly a month ago, we were invited to a workshop by the IUCN together with the IOC to discuss topics regarding the conservation of biodiversity. We are planning ways of how to include the environment in our host candidature applications.
I’m always ready for a chat, so do feel free to contact me. Floorball is a team sport. We are stronger together, so with the power of networks – one reason why we joined ESA – we will more likely achieve our goals.
And finally, it is with great pride that I can inform you that floorball is being included as an official discipline in the 2021 World Games in Alabama, Birmingham, USA!
