Sports marketing strategies and examples that bring brands closer to the fans

Is there a more loyal group of consumers than sports fans? Doubtful. Brands can only dream of the devotion fans show their teams no matter the losses, trades, or heartbreak. Just ask the Toronto Maple Leafs, who haven’t lifted the Stanley Cup since ‘67 but still pack their arena with diehard fans all season long. 

But even the most loyal fans are looking for a deeper connection with their team: 

Source: Infobip sports fan engagement report 2025

That’s where the opportunity lies for the average brand that wants to tap into the energy behind the world of sports. From airlines to retailers, you don’t have to be a sports brand to step in and create digital experiences that resonate with your customers who are also sports fans.

In this blog, we’ll break down what sports marketing is, traditional sports marketing strategies, and innovative and creative strategies that add a new level of fan experience to the game.  

1. Explore endorsements
2. Sponsorships 
3. eSport marketing 
4. Run parallel campaigns 
5. Hold a contest 
6. Social sharing 
7. Predictions and polls 
8. Cause-driven campaigns

8 sports marketing examples and strategies any brand can try 

1. Explore endorsements 

Your mind might go straight to “massive budget” when you hear anything about a sport endorsement, and that is the case if you are after sponsoring big-time athletes. Some of the greatest collaborations have come from athlete endorsements, like Nike and Michael Jordan, or Beckham and Armani (if you know, you know).  

But that’s not always necessary. 

Today, thanks to social media platforms and digital sport-spaces, brands can get more creative and niche with their endorsements and still get amazing reach and visibility for their brand. 

If endorsing the Ronaldo’s and Brady’s of the world is out of your marketing budget, consider collaborating with a social media influencer or a sports podcast. There are tons of creators who focus on sports content, reaction videos, discussing highlights, and more and have a massive following at that. In a recent Infobip survey, sports fans shared how they consume sports content on a weekly basis: 

This is a great way to strategically align your brand with a sport or league. We say strategically because it’s important to ensure your endorsement makes sense. If you’re a fast-food restaurant, endorsing an athlete might lead to some backlash. There are other marketing efforts that will work better for you – more on that later. 

2. Sponsorships 

Sponsorships are one of the most effective sports marketing strategies, and the good news is they can fit almost any budget. While sponsoring mega teams delivers global exposure, smaller wins like backing local clubs, community sports leagues, or grassroots events often resonate more intimately with fans, creating authentic connections that big-name partnerships can’t always match. 

Here are some opportunities brands can explore: 

• Kit sponsorship: Get great brand exposure with your logo on a kit. Every team and player has to wear one, so there is always an opportunity. 
• Product placement: From clothing to footwear, sports equipment to the energy bars that players consume during breaks, there are a myriad of opportunities to get your products in the limelight. 
• Pitch-side advertising: An obvious one but not to be overlooked as the target audience for these billboards can be extended exponentially when events are televised, or clips are shared on YouTube by fans. 
• Transport sponsorship: Teams need to travel to games. Getting your brand on the team bus will get it seen by tens of thousands on the way. 
• Sponsor the little leagues: Parents and communities get just as hyped up about the kids’ leagues as they do about the pros; being a ref in little league hockey is no easy job. By sponsoring the little teams, you can get your brand name out in the community and build a reputation as a family friendly, and reliable brand that parents will love. 

3. Don’t sleep on eSports marketing

eSports may be more niche than traditional sports, but that’s exactly where its power lies. Millions of fans tune in live on platforms like Twitch and YouTube, building tight-knit communities that watch, comment, and celebrate together in real time. Unlike traditional broadcasts, this shared experience feels interactive and personal, making it the perfect space for brands that want to connect more authentically with fans. 

The market is massive and growing fast (projected to hit $2B+ by 2032), but success in eSports isn’t about plastering logos on streams, it’s about showing up where the community is and speaking their language. Brands that respect the culture can build closer, more genuine ties with fans. 

Ways to get started:

• Partner with grassroots leagues and university eSports teams: affordable sponsorships that reach highly engaged players and fans. 
• Collaborate with streamers: creators who already have loyal communities can bring your brand into the conversation naturally. 
• Support community tournaments: local and niche competitions can deliver intimate, authentic fan engagement. 

eSports marketing efforts offer something just as valuable as traditional sports marketing, a deep connection with fans who live and breathe the culture. 

4. Run parallel campaigns 

Run a marketing campaign ‘inspired’ by major sporting events. If you’re brave enough to try ambush marketing, it could work, but it’s pretty risky. If you’re unfamiliar, ambush marketing is when a brand hijacks the attention around a major event without actually sponsoring it.  

For instance, Adidas was the official sponsor of the London Olympics, but Nike ran a clever ambush campaign without spending a dime on sponsorships. The campaign was called “Find Your Greatness” and instead of featuring the Olympics in the London, England, it spotlighted athletes in “London’s” around the world; London, Ohio; London, South Africa; London, Jamaica. 

Now, you don’t have to be so direct to piggyback on sporting events. 

Campaigns can include imagery and copy that suggest the event, without actually mentioning it. After all, you can’t copyright a picture of a football. The connection is even easier to make when the sporting event is front and center in people’s minds. So, for our fast-food or food delivery friends who might not want to sponsor or endorse teams and athletes, these campaigns can be perfect:  

In the UK during a major sports tournament in 2018, a well-known used-car website launched a campaign offering to give away a free car ‘every time England scored a goal’. No mention of the event or even the sport, but people knew exactly what they were referring to, and it was a huge success. With England enjoying their best tournament success since ’66, they did have to give away 12 cars though.  

(Did you notice that we didn’t mention the event either, but you knew exactly what we were talking about?)  

5. Launch a game or contest (quizzes, scavenger hunts, and voice games) 

Sports fans thrive on competition, and fan engagement is the perfect strategy to get them involved with your brand. From simple incentivization techniques to online tournaments that get customers competing, introducing game mechanics can really boost the ROI of your campaigns and provide a rich source of data to extend and enrich your customer data platform. 

Don’t think that you need to create a full-scale fantasy sports league to be successful with gamification, there are lots of techniques that collectively can have a major impact on customer loyalty and retention. If you want some quick wins, launch a trivia quiz to unlock discounts or prizes, like in our delivery example above. You can get even more immersive with voice-powered games or AR experiences that fans can launch right on their phones. 

How does gamification work?

• Enable customers to create accounts where they can earn points and win rewards for their loyalty 
• Incentivize customers to recommend friends and family members 
• Make it easy for customers to share the good news about rewards they have earned on social media platforms 
• Create unique brand hashtags that customers can use on social media to spread your brand message and reward them when they do 
• You can host games on your brands mobile app, but launching games on messaging channels can prove to be more personal  

6. Run a social campaign

Not everything has to be a competition. You can use voice-powered interactions and AR for social media campaigns, creating viral moments with fans. Fans turn to social media platforms to discover news about their teams, chat with the community about the games, and share with friends and family when they are at a live event. It’s the perfect space to leverage the energy of the community built around a team.

AR filters can also give customers something to share on social media platforms. Customers can send your brand a selfie on WhatsApp or RCS, and in a few seconds, they get an AR filter on that selfie that puts them in the front seat of a race car, wearing a team jersey, or a shot with the team mascot. They can share these branded pictures on their own social media. 

Whether you are a sponsor, or just piggybacking on events, you can find really engaging social media marketing opportunities that bring the sports community together. 

7. Predictions and polls  

Let’s be honest, sports fans love to show off how much they know about the game. And there’s nothing more satisfying than getting a game prediction right. 

So, get the fan excitement going by running polls and predictions around major sporting events. Who’s going to score first? How many yards will the quarterback throw? Will the game go into overtime? Fans love testing their knowledge and instincts, and brands can harness that energy to spark engagement. 

Launching branded polls and prediction games around big matches gives fans an easy way to get involved in real time. It also creates natural moments for your brand to step in and reward participation with discounts, loyalty points, or exclusive content. 

The beauty of polls and predictions is their simplicity. They can live on social media, inside messaging channels, or even alongside broadcasts as a second-screen experience. And because results are instant, they tap into the excitement of the game and keep your brand part of the action as it unfolds. 

8. Cause-driven marketing campaigns  

Sports bring people together, and nothing amplifies that more than a campaign tied to a meaningful cause. Fans respect brands that use their platform to support the communities and values behind the game, whether it’s funding youth sports, promoting women in sports, or highlighting sustainability initiatives. 

Cause-driven activations give your brand a chance to stand for something bigger than just selling products. Sponsoring a grassroots league, donating equipment to underfunded schools, or creating awareness campaigns around inclusivity can resonate far more deeply with fans than a pitch-side ad ever could. 

One campaign that comes to mind was Always, “Like a Girl” campaign that went mega-viral because it hit an emotional cord for many viewers. The video campaign highlighted how confidence of girls in sports drops around puberty thanks to phrases like “you run like a girl”, and heavily encouraged girls to remain in sports, challenging the stereotype of what it means to do something “like a girl”. 

When done authentically, these campaigns build long-term loyalty. Fans remember when a brand stepped in not just as a sponsor of the game, but as a partner to the community. 

Sports marketing strategies for the win

From local to global, successful sports marketing campaigns give you the chance to connect with a community of people who have a strong emotional connection to their teams or leagues. So, whether you decide to sponsor a little league team to start, or build a gamified experience for customers, sports marketing can help you grow loyalty and revenue if done right.