If we are honest, too many sponsorships still look like media plans in club colours. Logos on shirts, perimeter boards, a few corporate seats, a glossy launch photo, job done. Visibility might get you noticed, it rarely gets you remembered. Fans do not fall in love with placements, they connect with moments that feel human.
At Trunk, we see sport for what it is, not a stage, but a living, breathing space for story, identity and belonging. When brands show up to add something to that, not just sit on top of it, perception moves, and it moves faster than any GRP can manage.
From impressions to participation
Most legacy deals were built on exposure. The smarter play is participation. Give fans something to be part of. That could be access they do not usually get, a shared value brought to life, a problem solved for matchday.
What matters is alignment. When the activity fits what the brand actually stands for, you stop borrowing a club’s equity and start building your own.
Think of sponsorship as an experience strategy that sits inside your brand, not a bolt on. Presence is not participation. If you only buy the space and never activate, you will pay for awareness and miss the point.
Why sport is rocket fuel for brand perception
Marketers spend fortunes trying to manufacture emotion. Sport has it built in, joy, heartbreak, belonging, tension. If you respect those emotions and play a real role in them, you can shift how people feel about your brand faster than any paid plan alone. The trick is to match the feeling you want people to associate with your brand to the moments when fans are already feeling it.
Case in point
Zalando x DFB signals a retailer leaning into lifestyle. The play is not just eyeballs, it is identity, showing up where fashion, fandom and everyday culture intersect. They have a plan, it’s going to be fascinating to see how they actually execute it.
TeamViewer x F1 Academy (a Trunk campaign, so excuse the shameless plug) another smart move, using a partnership to stand for progress and inclusion. When you put your money and your tech behind opening doors for talent, you are not renting relevance, you are earning it.
Nivea x LFC, World in One City started as a community World Cup and has grown across sports. For a brand pushing male skincare, that is showing up where the conversation already is, supporting something fans care about and letting participation do the heavy lifting.
Different categories, same principle: if you add meaning to what fans already love, you change how they see you – not just how often.
What smart sponsorship looks like in 2026
Smart deals will be purpose led and fan first, but they will also be properly connected to the business. The days of the isolated partnership are done. The must haves:
- Clear why: A simple, defensible reason to be in this sport, this team, this moment. If you remove the logo and the idea still feels like you, you are on the right track.
- Experience design: Blended in stadium and digital moments that people can join, not just watch. Think access, utility, community, not stunts for the highlight reel.
- Omnichannel integration: The story shows up across brand, retail and CRM. Sponsorship is a thread through your calendar, not a weekend costume.
- Data that proves feeling: Blend behaviour and attitude. Track who engaged and purchased, alongside how their sentiment shifted, before and after. Impressions matter less than impact.
- Long term commitment: Authenticity looks like consistency. Build a role in the fan experience over seasons, not sprints.
If it doesn’t feel like part of your brand operating system, it’s not really a sponsorship – it’s just an ad in disguise.
Measuring perception, not just media
We finally have the toolkit to show change in how people feel, not just how many saw. Use sentiment analysis to monitor the conversation around your brand when you show up in sport. Layer in brand lift studies around the moments that matter.
Combine participation data, repeat engagement and downstream commerce to show the full picture. The real unlock is blending behavioural data – who interacted and bought – with attitudinal change – what people now believe about you. That is how you prove brand impact, not just delivery.
What actually moves fans
The activations that land are simple and human. Give people access to the people and places they care about, or tell stories that feel honest and timely. Sometimes that is a small moment done with empathy, not a multi million pound spectacle.
And please, less “forced fun”. If your idea only works because a player’s pulling faces for the camera, it probably says more about your content plan than your brand.
Authentic beats borrowed
Forced activations wear the kit for the weekend. Authentic ones look like the brand’s normal behaviour, just turned up in sport.
Test it this way: strip the logo off. If you can still tell it is you, you are building equity. If not, you are borrowing it.
Fans can smell the difference a mile off.
Trunk’s take
Sponsorship should be connected, measurable and meaningful. Consult, to align the partnership to the business and to what fans actually want. Craft, to design experiences that people choose to join. Connect, to run the story through the full funnel and prove the impact. Do that and you are not buying spots in sport, you are earning a place in it.
Because the future of sports sponsorship isn’t about being seen in sport – it’s about adding something to it.
