Thought Leader: The summer of sport offers potential for outstanding activations

With the 2024 UEFA European Football Championship underway and the Paris Olympics coming in August, this summer is shaping up to be a true Summer of Sport. According to Mintel’s UK Sporting Events Market Report, 63% of UK Brits are expected to follow one or more sports during 2024.

Over the years we have seen that experiential marketing can be particularly effective when tied to sporting events, where the energy of fans creates amazing opportunities for memorable brand interactions.  So, what makes a good sporting activation?

We take a look back at some of the sports related activities from the past few years to see how different brands have reached their target audiences through key sporting events.

Building pre-event excitement

• F1 Silverstone – Alpine’s F1 roadshow in 2021 toured 8 different cities in the fortnight leading up to the British Grand Prix, visiting a range of venues (city centres, train stations and shopping centres) to reach as wide a demographic as possible, raising awareness of the Alpine F1 team and providing photo opportunities with the car.

• UEFA Women’s European Championship – Fan zones in London Waterloo and London King’s Cross stations enabled people to show off their skills in a ‘keepy uppy’ challenge and built anticipation for the final matches of the tournament.
• UEFA Euro 2024 – Just before the start of the tournament, visitors to London King’s Cross had the opportunity to get of photo of themselves with the Euro’s trophy through an activation by Unilever as well as the chance to test their skills in a penalty simulator.

Opportunity to watch the action

• Giorgio Armani Tennis Classic – Marriot Bonvoy worked with IMG UK to host an immersive experience, live streaming the tournament as well as providing drinks and a photo opportunity with a giant tennis racket installation.

• The Ashes –LADBible’s takeover of Birmingham New Street station coincided with the first test in The Ashes last year, with the station seeing an uplift in footfall of 16% during the four days of action compared to the previous year, making it the perfect location to raise awareness of the Now TV coverage.

• FIFA Women’s World Cup – McDonald’s hosted screening events to watch the Lionesses on their journey to the final last year at venues throughout the UK, culminating in the final at Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park. The variety of venues allowed the brand to invite consumers from a range of demographic groups, who were all connected by their love for football.

These promotions all featured elements that the public could capture and share on social media, extending the reach of the activation to consumers that may not have been able to get involved in real life but will participate in discussions with other fans online. One brand we worked with gained over 800 pieces of media event coverage throughout their campaign and a significant amount of social media coverage, showing there is significant potential to amplify experiential activations through PR and social pre-, during and post the event.

Opportunity to engage with sporting fans en route to the event

Although the action for the summer sporting events this year is concentrated in Germany and France, sampling campaigns can be created to reach the masses who will be travelling to watch the events (whether in person or screenings). Based on the activation details available on CORE, our on-site insight platform, an average of 9,000 samples are distributed during 1-day activations so there is broad scope for brands to connect with their target demographic in this way too.

So, what experiential activations will triumph in the Summer of Sport 2024? Only time will tell but we have visibility of some of the exciting activations planned and look forward to seeing them take place!