By Nqobile Gama
August, also known as “Women’s Month” in South Africa, will always be a month of internal contention for me. While it’s amazing to have a month earmarked with the overt purpose of celebrating all women, young and old, across all walks of life, doing really incredible and selfless things in the spaces that they exist in, as a woman I just can’t ignore the fact that the more we celebrate women in this country, the more frequent and gruesome the acts of violence towards women become, specifically during the month of August. So, excuse my sigh of relief as “Women’s Month” comes to an end.
Alas!
I recently had the honour of being a speaker at the 2020 edition of the South Africa Women and Sport Foundation’s (SAWASF) Conference themed “Creating a future that matters for women and sport”. The conference was a three-day virtual event and each day’s discussion was guided by three sub-themes; Day 1: The pandemic of gender-based violence, Day 2: Personal branding and sponsorships, and Day 3: Taking up space.
As I was contemplating how I was going to tackle my topic ‘’Sponsoring sport for women’’ on Day 2 of the conference, I came across a tweet on Twitter which read: “What more would it take to get corporates and brands behind women’s football in South Africa?” I engaged with the tweet as best as I could with my 280-character allowance, and it was at that exact moment I decided that I was going to take the conference audience on an educational journey – let’s call it Sponsorship 101.
Ok, so what’s the story?
We can’t deny the increasing interest and appetite for women’s sport both locally and internally. We can’t deny how fantastic our national women’s teams are doing, think of the Spar Proteas, Banyana Banyana and Springbok Women. We also can’t deny how incredibly well many of our women athletes are performing both locally and internationally, think of the likes of Thembi Kgatlana, Babalwa Latsha and Caster Semenya, just to name a few. So why as women’s sport and women athletes are we still struggling to attract and secure sponsorship?
Let’s quickly address the elephant in the room so that we can quickly move passed it and not dwell too much on it.
As women’s sport and women athletes we’re on the back foot, and unfortunately this is an inescapable truth that is attributed by various reasons. And of course, naturally we don’t agree with some, if not all these reasons. BUT, the great part of being on the back foot is that there’s literally only two directions move in, FORWARD and UPWARD. With this said, how can women’s sport in its entirety organise itself in such a way that we can start to attract sponsorships?
Firstly – let’s educate ourselves on what sponsorship is in its truest nature. Sponsorship is an investment that must yield a commercial return for a sponsor. We need to move away from treating women’s sports as CSR projects for the sake of securing funds. What value proposition as women’s sport can we offer sponsors that will yield a return on investment (ROI) for s sponsor?
Secondly – let’s be very clear about what we want to achieve in and through women’s sport and have a plan that articulates this vision and how we intend on achieving this vision. Sponsors what to know that you have your house in order as a rights holder. What are our objectives as women’s sport, and do they align with the objectives of the brands that we are approaching for sponsorship?
Thirdly – let’s be credible and accountable as women’s sport. While it’s easy to glance over at men’s sport and envy all the financial backing that they keep on attracting, I think it’s important for us to first study what makes their properties attractive and secondly, to reflect on why some sponsors are either pulling out or not renewing their sponsorship agreements in men’s sport. Make good governance and excellent leadership of our unique selling point in women’s sport.
Fourthly – let’s celebrate our “small” victories along the way. Sponsorship is a long-term game, and the reality is that it will take some time for women’s sport to secure big sponsorship deals. Let’s not get discouraged by the fact that we’re securing sponsorships that are in-kind in nature and treat the sponsorship with the same amount of respect that we would if it was in monetary terms. Because the truth is, today we’re receiving a kit sponsorship from a brand, tomorrow we’re signing a multi-million Rand sponsorship agreement with the SAME brand.
Lastly – let’s keep on knocking on closed doors. The other reality is that more women are occupying decision-making positions within various corporate organisations specifically as Chief Marketing Officers, Marketing Managers, Sponsorship Managers and Brand Managers and these women will one day be internal champions for women’s sports properties. Let’s build value-generating properties that will have the potential to be lucrative and enough strategic purpose that these managers can then justify their investment to their executives.
These five tips may seem elementary, but I say let’s go back to basics like women’s sport. Let’s take the time to understand what sponsorship is and what it takes to build successful sponsorship properties that will attract and secure sponsorship deals. Things may look bleak for women’s sport in South Africa at the moment and the task ahead may seem a bit daunting and discouraging especially when compared to men’s sport. But I can guarantee this much, the dawn of a new era for women’s sport in South Africa is near. Nearer than you think.
