UKSA’s Year in Sponsorship: Part 5 Grass Roots Sponsorship: Six Ways To Make It Work

The pandemic may have eased but now communities are faced with a cost of living crisis brought about by inflation, rising interest rates and crippling energy price increases. With consumers struggling to make ends meet, the continued commitment of companies like McDonald’s is crucial. The fast food giant has been supporting grass roots football coaching for two decades and this year unveiled plans to extend its Fun Football plan for another four years. 

All told, the company will provide more than 10.5 million hours of coaching in parks and playgrounds across England, Northern Ireland, Scotland, and Wales. Launching the new phase of the programme, McDonald’s UK and Ireland CEO Alistair Macrow said: “Football is at the heart of every community - and after 20 years as a major supporter of the grassroots game, nobody knows that better than McDonald’s. And we now want to increase our support to ensure more children, families and communities directly benefit from the beautiful game.”

Digital era brands have also recognised the importance of supporting sports-based communities through tough times. PayPal, for example, worked with The FA and consultancy Cake on a scheme to address the fact that 40% of matchday fees were going unpaid, meaning that the grassroots game was missing out on millions. As The FA’s Official Payments Partner, PayPal made it possible for fees to be paid through The FA Matchday app, reducing admin and freeing up time.

While clubs and communities get the benefit of financial support, the quid pro quo for brands is threefold. Firstly, it’s an opportunity to present an empathetic and responsible dimension to the brand’s image. While elite sport is great for demonstrating gravitas, dynamism, charisma and excellence, grass sports is all about emotional engagement and community connection. It demonstrates a kind of back to the floor humility that contrasts with glamour deals.

Secondly, grass roots sport is an opportunity to reach a different target audience in a distinct mode of behaviour.  Elite sport is often about fans and tribalism whereas grass roots is about family and inclusion. Parents who have no interest in an elite sporting event are still likely to bring their children along to grass roots activities because of the prosocial benefits they bring. As a spin-off benefit, grass roots becomes an opportunity for sampling, sign-ups and honest feedback.

Finally, grass roots sports sponsorship can be a cost-effective way of engaging with audiences. While it’s true that some grass roots programmes are built on the back of big sponsorship investments, it’s perfectly possible for brands to design community-based activation programmes that are less expensive and more tailored to their own brand objectives. Grass roots is a great leveller, where the distinction between sporting activities is less important than at elite level. A football coaching session, a mini-tennis lesson or an opportunity to mess around on bicycles can all be the basis of an impactful grass roots strategy.

So far, so good. But what does it actually take to create an effective grass roots sports sponsorship? Well there’s not a one size fits all solution – but here are a few factors that brands might want to keep in mind as they plan their strategy.

Employ high-profile ambassadors: For its latest Fun Football launch, McDonald’s brought in current England Internationals Jack Grealish, Jordan Henderson and Beth Mead, former England defender Micah Richards and former Team GB and England Cerebral Palsy Captain Jack Rutter as ambassadors. In doing so, the brand created a spectacle that guaranteed media exposure. Current stars like Grealish are unlikely to have much time to spare to becoming actively involved in grass roots programmes, so it also makes sense to work with recently-retired stars or people who have become celebrities in their post-athletic careers. Being able to bring ambassadors along to grass roots event is a way to generate local buzz. This was what Dacia did with its #FlairPlay Awards, a UKSA Finalist a few years back. Devised in partnership with Fuse, the #FlairPlay Awards invited players to impress judges for the chance to win a training session with players and coaches, hosted at their local club.

Forge partnerships: Grass roots sponsorships are undoubtedly more effective if partners are involved. The most obvious partners are sports federations which often already have a local presence that can be piggy-backed. But there are other interesting ways to leverage the power of partnerships. Last year, for example, eBay won several categories at the UK Sponsorship Awards 2022 with its Small Businesses United strategy, entered by MediaCom Sport & Entertainment. Created in partnership with the EFL, Small Businesses United saw eBay subsidise small to medium sized businesses, so that they could sponsor their local football teams within stadia. This model aligned well with the way eBay does business – and it also allowed the brand to lean on the local expertise of the companies involved in the programme. As a result, positive word of mouth and purchase intent increased significantly. 56% of online shoppers surveyed agreed that eBay supports small businesses and local communities.

Cherish and foster diversity: The world of elite sport is not always the most effective place to drive a brand’s DEI agenda. But grass roots sports sponsorship is a highly impactful context to drive home messages about diversity, equality and inclusion. McDonald’s, for example, places accessibility at the heart of the Fun Football programme through training of coaches. Elsewhere, Barclays has invested heavily in women’s football at grassroots level, alongside its Women’s Super League sponsorship. An example is the Barclays Girls’ Football School Partnerships, established to ensure girls in England have equal access to football in schools by 2024. In 2021 the bank also became lead partner of Barclays Game On, a programme developed by the Youth Sport Trust that uses football as a tool to develop and teach key life skills to young girls. Energy firm npower also took a targeted approach to diversity by partnering the Superhero Series, a highly-effective way of supporting participation in disability sport. With coverage on Channel 4 and social media, as well as awareness building via email marketing, the partnership helped create a positive impact for those living with disability.

Plan for PR and social media amplification: A well-constructed grass roots campaign will secure local media coverage, but the goal must also be to create a ripple effect that goes further than that. We’ve already mentioned the role of ambassadors, but a unique creative idea can also drive interest. For example, one of UKSA 2022’s Finalists was Nationwide Building Society and the England Football Coin for Respect, entered by Hatch. Here, the client was looking for a PR led project that would reach a young family demographic and get them talking about what respect means and why it’s important. The Coin for Respect campaign was developed as the focal point to help achieve these goals. The overall campaign exceeded expectations and saw 15,000 referees using the coin for respect every week. As for social, it’s not difficult to flood platforms like Facebook and Instagram with videos and photos from grass roots events – but that isn't to say anyone will be very interested. One idea would be to create an entertaining spin on proceedings which has potential shareability. Is it possible to create a challenge or a stunt that would engage social audiences? In the case of DHL’s ‘Race to RWC’, for example, adventurers Ron Rutland and James Owens cycled from London to Tokyo ahead of the 2019 Rugby World Cup. They raised awareness and funds for rugby-related charity ChildFund Pass It Back, as well as promoting the cause of grassroots rugby to many underdeveloped nations.

Link to employee engagement: Employees live in local communities, so it makes sense to try and get them involved in grass roots sports activities. This isn’t about using them as free labour (though they may be happy to volunteer). Instead it is about finding ways to make the workforce feel valued as part of the wider community while also showing the organisation’s human face to the local population. One possible way to do this is through rewards and incentives – perhaps offering hot tickets or away days to employees who help take a grass roots event to the next level. That said, if the grass roots activity is exciting enough in its own right, that might be enough to drive employee involvement.

Find an authentic angle: Just like anything in the media business, a grass roots programme will create more of a splash if it has an intriguing angle that sets it apart from the crowd. True, it’s hard to compete with millions of hours of free coaching, but some of the UKSA Awards’ most prominent entries in recent years have resonated by being different. The Land Rover BAR Sailing Roadshows, for example, stood out because they supported the brand’s adventurous values while simultaneously engaging young people in STEM subjects. Likewise, the Mitsubishi Motors Volunteer Recognition Programme, in partnership with the RFU, was a welcome acknowledgement that volunteers play a vital role to the sustainability of rugby in England. One innovative grass roots programme is the Connected Club Cup, an esports competition for gamers launched this year by England Football and EE. Navin Singh, commercial director at the FA, said the Cup “will give esports fans across England the chance to show off their skills and build a future in FIFA esports. It will bring together football communities through esports and promote improved digital connectivity at grassroots clubs.”

Interested in entering the UK Sponsorship Awards? The 2023 edition of this prestigious event is now open for entry with the early bird deadline approaching fast. There is a dedicated category for Grass Roots Sports Sponsorship which is supported by the Sport + Recreation Alliance. For more details on the awards event and how to enter, visit www.sponsorship-awards.co.uk