A Huge ‘Like’ For Sponsorship
Here’s one… Like me, you may have woken this morning to huge news in the sporting world of a landmark deal between Facebook and the 2023 Rugby World Cup hosted in France. The deal sees the godfather of social media become the ‘Official Social Media Services Supplier’ for the tournament. It’s a first on a number of levels but mainly the first time this designation has been sold and the first time Facebook have taken an official foray into the world of sponsorship.
Welcome to the party, Facebook… You get an immediate ‘like’ from me as a rugby fan, and you can count this as a share too.
There are a few layers to this deal I thought was worth sharing with you all, but what really got me thinking was what this deal represents. Look at it this way, Facebook has ‘existed’ around every major sporting and cultural event since its inception. I used it at the 2012 Olympics in London, the FIFA World Cup in Russia and more recently at the 2019 Rugby World Cup in Japan as did gazillions of other fans around the world.
As a user generated content platform whose role is to ‘facilitate the ability for people to connect with their friends’, they’ve been able to associate to all of these events without the need for a formal rights relationship. So what changed?
Before I give my view on that, it’s worth winding the clock back slightly to the UEFA EURO 2020 Championships which took place in June of 2021 (owing to the pandemic). The brand which caught my attention most was TikTok who signed on as an official sponsor only as recently as the February. While social media platforms have long been associated with aspects like media rights and streaming rights, it’s not been all that common if at all to see them associated with the other consumer-facing brands as sponsors.
In the case of TikTok and the Euros, it was an opportunity early in their evolution to position the brand as more than just a platform for teens who dance and lip sync, but as a brand that is also relevant to an older 25-40 audience. A smart move to ensure their proposition isn’t a panfire, but an evolving part of the zeitgeist.
So what changed? Well, nothing really. If you separate how you personally use these platforms for a moment, they’re like any other service-based business that needs to differentiate themselves. TikTok had a perception issue, so they turned to the strongest channel available to address this; sponsorship…
As far as Facebook is concerned, the rationale behind this deal is likely a play at driving brand preference in the face of increasing competition for consumers' time. As an official supplier, they’ll be afforded access to event IP, promotional opportunities, access and the ability to build targeted and integrated activity like they plan to run around the events legacy program ‘Campus 2023’.
There is a bloody powerful message here for me. Facebook is one of the wealthiest brands in the world. They have a huge footprint and access to a media budget that would make your eyes water, but have turned to sponsorship as the channel of choice to help tackle a business challenge.
Imagine the consumer insights they have access to. The way they know how our minds work (tell me you’ve seen ‘The Social Network’??). They know how to reach their audience, and it’s little surprise to me that they’ve chosen a sponsorship to do that.
There’s a saying “your network is your net worth”. Well, having Facebook (and TikTok) join our global sponsorship network is a huge vote of confidence in the channel. This is a big day for our industry, people. A big day.
