As emaSwati continue to celebrate a young dancer by the name of Ndoniyamanzi Luhlanga who won a silver medal in the Dance Word Cup, the PR Watchdog is pretty sure that most organisations in Eswatini regret not sponsoring the young athlete. We at PR Watchdog have observed that many organisations in Eswatini have been shying away from sponsoring athletes and hopefully the heroic of Ndoniyamanzi will soon change that.
There are in-fact many benefits that come with sponsoring athletes who are excelling in their crafts. This is why formidable brands like Nike and ADIDAS have fully embraced the culture of sponsoring athletes who are a force to be reckoned with. The Return Of Investment (ROI) has been incredible to say the list.
Kantar data states that 74% of consumers feel more loyalty to a brand that’s involved with sport and, similarly, The Playbook suggests that 63% are more likely to buy from a brand that aligns itself to something they’re passionate about.
With many scholars in the Public Relations and Marketing field backing sponsoring athletes as one of the most important steps organizations can make, the PR Watchdog has identified a few reasons why organizations in Eswatini should sponsor athletes or sporting activities in the near future:
INCREASES BRAND AWARENESS
one of the primary marketing objectives and goals of organizations is to raise awareness about their brand. By associating themselves with events or athletes who are shining, it goes without saying that this goal to raise awareness is achieved.
In the case of Ndoniyamanzi, her pictures are spreading like wildfire on social media but there is no brand that is gaining except for the country’s image as she has been uplifting the Eswatini flag. Can you imagine the positive impact this would have had to a company that dressed her for the Dance World Cup? Phew! What a missed chance.
Sponsoring teams and individuals drives excitement around the brand
Truth be told, most emaSwati didn’t know about the existing of a Dance World Cup out there until Ndoniyamanzi’s heroic which has now brought excitements amongst them. That is the power of sports as many scholars have attested that sporting activities have the power to unite a nation.
We have seen how the schools’ soccer games in the country always drive excitement that is centred around Instacash, a new mobile money company that is taking the country by storm. It goes without saying that the news of Ndoniyamanzi bringing home a medal would have had the same impact on any organisation that sponsored her trip to the World Dance Cup.This excitement is crucial in the architecture of a brand’s image.
Sponsoring athletes can lead to increased sales
Many organizations, except for NGOs, are always concerned with making profits. They make profits through sales. By sponsoring athletes or teams that are shining, many organizations in the world always trend carefully to ensure that they venture into activities that will lead treao the Return Of Investment (ROI).
It is an open secret that during sporting activities, brands that have supported the cause will be visible this leading to the generating of sales. When Ndoniyamanzi comes back, we are sure that there will be a Thanksgiving celebration and those who sponsored her will surely have the chance to showcase their products or services. The only organizations that can have that privilege is the Princess Temtsimba’s foundation and the Eswatini Sports and Recreation Council who sponsored her trip to Prague the Capital city of Czech Republic. These two organisations are not after sales compared to the organisations that are out there competing for a larger portion of the market share who will now have to be reactive by awarding her if they want to ride on her success!
Conclusion
We at PR Watchdog Eswatini can boldly predict that organizations will review their sponsorship strategies after missing out on the chance to ride along the success of the current national gem, Ndoniyamanzi. There are just too many benefits of sponsoring athletes who are excelling in their crafts as that can also turn them into brand ambassadors and lead to increased traffic to their social media pages and websites. Not everything is lost through in the case of Ndoniyamanzi as organizations can come through to sponsor her in one way or the other. After all, at PR Watchdog we believe that the best best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago and the second best time to do so is now. We take our hats off for this astonishing accomplishment by this gem who ooze unmatched confidence that will make her a force to confidence
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