The Nature of Sport Marketing In Nigeria

Hello, My name is Benson Chukwueke, I am a football marketing consultant, founder and CEO, GreenHunters Sports International, a sport marketing agency based in Lagos Nigeria. I think I am in a good position to share my thought on this Subject: "The Nature of Sport Marketing in Nigeria;"

The Matter of Operating A Sport Marketing Agency in Nigeria
For most business analysts, sport marketing isn't a viable business in Nigeria and I don't blame them for saying that. It's a venture largely established out of passion and requires a lot of patience as well as perseverance to pull through in an environment such as the one we found ourselves in this West African country.

Running  a Sport Marketing Agency in a country where the sports industry are largely not structured to operate commercially, can be daunting. The thing is most people out there, even many in the industry and the business class, doesn't even understand what sport marketing is all about.

The question I have to answer always is, what do you do? WHAT DOES A SPORT MARKETER DO?

"Marketing of Sports products?" "Do you sell sports equipment and kits?" Not really, I am into the marketing of football players, coaches, clubs, stadium, events to fans and corporate bodies. "Are you a Player's Agent or a Scout?" Not really.... The person will just wink at me. I know, perhaps, I have gotten him or her even more confused.

I guess "sports product" and "sport consumption"  are a little bit complex to understand, being unique from the usual kind of products people are use to.

Sport Marketing Defined
Without going into the technicalities of defining Sport Marketing in it's indept meaning... that may lead to further misunderstanding of the discipline, because of it's complexity. I will define it in simple terms:

 Sport marketing comprises of two components: marketing of sports products directly to sports consumers and marketing of other industry products through sports.

For example, you package a football player and contract him or her to a club. The club persuade fans to pay gate fee to watch the players perform, and corporate brands like the breweries, also promote their products as the large crowd converage to watch the match.

So Sport Marketing consists of all activities designed to meet the needs and wants of sport consumers and users through exchange processes.

The job of a sport marketers is to deliver a more satisfying products and services to sport consumers and users.
 For instance:
1 Package players to become more attractive, then contract them to football clubs
2. Package team (style, star players, uniform, stadium, league and fixtures) to attract fans
3. Package star players, team style, stadium, league, fans  and use it to attract corporate brands
4. Get corporate brands to take advantage of the popularity of the league and the large crowd it attracts to provide sponsorship funds and in return promote their product(s).

The Nature of Football Marketing in Nigeria
It may be sublime in other sports, as many sport associations in Nigeria keep complaining that football gets all the attention; sponsorship and government funding. So I'll concentrate on football here as the number one sports in the country, which may be the best example of what could be happening in other sports.

Indeed, sport marketing hasn't been given it's proper place in the scheme of things. Their role are not recognized or rightly considered in football operations in Nigeria. The resultant effect is most of the local clubs and the leagues are not properly packaged (enough) to attract large number of fans. Consequently, stadium are virtually empty and could hardly attract any form of corporate sponsorships.

For example, Nigeria Professional Football League (NPFL) has ran for several years without title sponsors and most of the clubs without shirt sponsors or endorsements. The elite league isn't well packaged to attract large number of fans to their games; and due to the complex operational system, corporate sponsors choose to stay way.

Well, it may not entirely be so for the lower division league and other sports. Nigeria National League (NNL) is sponsored by Bet9ja; Nigeria basketball league sponsored by Nestle Milo, Lagos marathon by Access bank and lots of associate sponsors in Copa Lagos Beach Soccer, to mention a few. These sponsorship deals are mostly brokered by sport marketing agencies.

Sadly, Nigeria has a large football market, over 80million active fans, that prefer to consume European Leagues such as Premier League, Laliga, UEFA Champions league, what Senator Ben Bruce fondly called "colonial mentality."

 They purchase satellite payTV decoders and watch these leagues from home, viewing centers or sport bars, called "stadium next door." They purchase their replica jerseys and other memorabilia and proudly flaunt their affinity with these European clubs.

In response to these trend, Sport marketers are directing corporate brands to establish sport bars such as Heineken Planet of Champions or partner with popular viewing centers... to get fans to experience their brands in their preferred rendezvous.. So the South African Multi Choice company, provider of DStv and GOtv decoders as well as SuperSports TV are well positioned in the market to take advantage of the lackluster football system in Nigeria.

In Conclusion 
Sport marketers in Nigeria are left only to package local players and contract them to clubs abroad... Be involved in merchandising European clubs kits and memorabilia to local fans, which is fine, but sport marketers can do more in the commercial growth of sports in Nigeria.

Outfits like GreenHunters Sports International are engaging NPFL clubs such as Enyimba Fc, Kano Pillars fc, Enugu Rangers Fc, Lobi Stars as well as League Management Company (LMC) to bring a change to the status quo. Sports property owners,  if they want to maximise their revenue potentials. have no choice but to accord Sport marketing professionals and agencies tbeir proper place in the commercialization of football in Nigeria.