If you spend enough time working in sports business, your social media feed starts to look very different from that of the average college football fan.
On a typical day, mine is filled with NCAA eligibility lawsuits, temporary injunctions, NIL disputes, conference realignment and the latest debate over federal college sports legislation. This week alone, multiple court decisions determining whether individual athletes can play another season have been working their way through my feed.
It’s easy to mistake the audience you see every single day for the audience everyone else sees or cares about. Brands, like humans, can be guilty of the same thinking when putting together their next partnership and outreach strategies.
A partnership announcement can generate significant attention without reaching the audience that matters most to the business. The value of that coverage depends on what the company is trying to accomplish with the deal. For some brands, a national sports outlet may be the right target. For others, a local television station or industry trade publication may do far more to support the reason they made the investment in the first place.
This summer, Monster Energy became the entitlement partner of Big 12 football and basketball after becoming the conference's official energy drink last year. The deal puts Monster in front of fans throughout the season, and the announcement also gave the Big 12 a chance to make a statement to the broader market.
The conference is open to league-wide partnerships, it’s actively looking for new business, and it wants major consumer brands to see the Big 12 as a national platform worth investing in.
Monster helps make that case. It is a recognizable global brand putting its name behind two of the conference's biggest properties. For other companies considering an investment in college sports, the deal shows both what the Big 12 is willing to sell and the kind of brands it wants to attract.
That makes national sports business coverage particularly valuable. The audience includes brand executives, agencies, rights holders and others who could be involved in the conference's next deal. For the Big 12, getting the announcement in front of those audiences may be every bit as important as getting it in front of fans.
The five-year, $30 million agreement between Illinois Athletics and Busey Bank has a much different business objective.
Busey will become the exclusive jersey patch sponsor across nine Illinois sports, including football and men's and women's basketball. But the patches are only one piece of a much larger sponsorship. Busey is also the official financial services partner of Illinois Athletics, with advertising across stadiums and arenas, broadcasts and digital platforms. The deal includes tickets and suites, athlete appearances and even two paid career opportunities for Illinois athletes each year.
The bank was founded in Champaign in 1868, less than a year after the university, and 21 of its banking centers are in Central Illinois.
The audience here is fairly easy to identify. Busey wants more people in the markets it serves to know the bank, consider it, and ultimately become customers. Illinois gives the company a connection to a team many of those people already follow and a brand they already know.
A national placement on ESPN would certainly be welcome, but it isn't necessarily where this partnership would be most effective for achieving the bottom line. Local television, newspapers, Illinois-focused media and regional business outlets put Busey in front of people who can actually open an account, apply for a mortgage or choose the bank for their business.
For Busey, a national story that reaches five million people across the country may be less valuable than reaching the 175,000 subscribers of The News-Gazette in Champaign. One delivers the bigger number. The other reaches people in a market where Busey is actually trying to win customers. The media strategy should reflect that.
So, before you sit down to negotiate your next big brand deal, and certainly before you put together your external communications strategy, be clear about what the partnership is supposed to accomplish, who you need to reach and where those people actually get their information. Because five million impressions only matters if they’re from the right audience.
The biggest media hit might make the recap deck. The right one might actually pay for the deal.
