Leave Your Mark

Brand-Building Tools For Event Merchandising

Event merchandise is one way organizers of sporting events try to leave a lasting impression on participants, spectators and volunteers. And, whether it’s a T-shirt bearing the event’s name and date or a plastic cup detailing a team’s schedule or roster, event merchandise can also serve as a valuable marketing and brand-building tool for both the event and its sponsors, according to sports industry experts.

Terry Hasseltine, assistant deputy director of the Kentucky Sports Authority in Frankfort, Ky., said offering merchandise at sporting events is an important branding and marketing mechanism. “Merchandise is a natural way to extend the brand. You may buy a T-shirt at a sporting event, then wear it to work out at a local gym, and you have just provided free advertising” for that event and its sponsors, he said.

Event merchandising is also a “tie to pride” for players and coaches who like to identify with an event they have participated in and for fans who can proudly boast about a championship they attended, for example, Hasseltine said.

Volunteers are often rewarded with event merchandise, especially T-shirts, which they often wear at an event to help spectators identify them. Susan Pass, a member of the local organizing committee for the 2007 National Senior Games, said her staff provided the volunteers at this year’s games with T-shirts. “We do T-shirts for volunteers, and they have the names of the sponsors on there as a way to recognize them,” she said. The 2007 Senior Games were held in Louisville, Ky., and will be next held in San Francisco in 2009.

Handling The Merchandise

According to Hasseltine, most national governing bodies and event rights holders he’s worked with contract with a third-party vendor to handle the event merchandising so that there is better control over the brand and marketing. “Organizations spend a lot of money to create a design and logo, so they don’t want to lose revenue to improper merchandising,” he said.

One such company that Hasseltine has worked with is Team IP Sports, an apparel decorating and national event marketing company based in Port St. Lucie, Fla. Team IP partners with sports organizations, such as Amateur Athletic Union, National Federation of State High Schools, National Collegiate Athletic Association, the Bowl Championship Series and many others.

“Sometimes when you walk up to a vendor table or event tent, you have to rifle through stacks and boxes to pick out something,” Hasseltine said. “But this vendor really sets everything up so that you know what you are getting.”

Jim Hilb of Associated Premium Corp. in Cincinnati, who has been in the merchandising business for 30 years and whose company services major professional and grassroots sporting events all over the country, said the responsibility of selling event merchandise often goes to the event owners themselves. “They may set up a location for merchandise and have their own people selling,” he said.

Hilb said another option, especially for larger events, is to work with a company that specializes in turn-key merchandising. “They accept all responsibility for the merchandise itself, for selling the merchandise and for contracting with the event owner,” he said, emphasizing that planners should strive to work with a reputable merchandising company that can support their event and with whom they can build a relationship.

While some events have the power to bring in good revenues through the sale of merchandise, Hilb and Hasseltine agreed that planners shouldn’t depend solely on merchandise sales to fund their sports events—partly because the amount of revenue from merchandise sales depends on the level of markup on the retail products, Hasseltine said. “The people who produce the merchandise want to make their money back, the NGBs will get a percentage of gross sales, the host will get a percentage…and the rest of the cost is passed on to the consumer,” he said.

Moving The Merchandise

The main purposes of offering merchandise at a sporting event are to offer spectators the chance to identify with an event or team and to provide exposure for sponsors. And, according to Hilb, there are many different approaches that a sports event planner can take to achieve these goals.

“For any event, you brand the event and establish an identity for it, so you want to also brand any premium [giveaway] or retail product with the event logo. The sponsors will also want their logo on the merchandise as well,” he said.

According to Hilb, merchandise is most often distributed in three ways. One is a straight giveaway by the event or sponsor to the attendees, which extends brand recognition and identifies the sponsor with the event. “[Sponsors] are doing this to drive traffic to purchase a product or service,” he said. For example, sponsors may secure staff members or a volunteer base to stand just inside the event gate or turnstiles to give away pens, cups or magnets to spectators.

Another way to offer event merchandise is to set up a retail booth on site, where items such as T-shirts, hats or sweat shirts could be sold, Hilb said.

The third method of event merchandising is when sponsors or other retail entities sell their own products and offer merchandise or other values with each purchase. For example, one sponsor may set up a hot dog stand at the event and tell customers that in addition to the hot dogs they are selling on site, they are also co-branding with a local grocery store by giving coupons redeemable for more event tickets or merchandise if they buy the sponsor’s products at that grocery store.

Marketing The Merchandise

The two all-time best event merchandising items are hats and T-shirts, “no matter the size or scope of the event,” Hilb said, with commemorative pins, such as the ones offered at the Olympic games, next. But regardless of what it is, to be effective in building recognition for the event and its sponsors, all merchandise should prominently feature the event’s logo and the sponsors’ names or logos, he said.

It is important for sports event planners to consider the use of the merchandise they want to offer and whether they want to give it away or sell it to event attendees, Hilb said. It’s also wise to consider the type of event, the venue and even the weather during the event when determining what kinds of merchandise to offer. “For a tennis tournament we just worked on in Cincinnati, since it was so hot here, we had a sponsor who bought battery-operated hand fans, which we sold a lot of,” he said. At that same event, sponsors set up hospitality tents for guests and VIPs, who were given towels, tote bags and seat cushions, all bearing the event’s logo, Hilb said.

Sports event planners should consider offering some type of event merchandise that would appeal to all parties involved in their event, including volunteers, players, judges, referees, coaches, staff members, spectators and the media, Hilb said. “The event may not have a large budget, but they should have some budget to give all of the participants something,” he said.