If you've ever attended a sports event or watched one from your favourite venue, you know the passion, emotion and (usually) enthusiasm surrounding these moments. These are key emotions brands want to be associated with. The question is how to be visible, relevant and memorable at these critical moments.

This blog will look at three high-impact signage types that can be a winning strategy for any brand willing to take a shot. Choosing or co-creating a signage design that taps into a sports occasion can help your brand stand out and connect to valuable moments in your target audience's life.

The best part? You don't necessarily need to negotiate a (premium-priced) placement at the sports event itself. Instead, you can use the event or sports team to your benefit by identifying the locations you expect the target audience to be watching the game or any central spot they'll be passing by.

#1 Create Special Edition Brand Signage for Sports Bars

Go big and go bold. By transforming your brand with clearly identifiable but neutral sports elements, you avoid excluding the opposing teams’ fans and create a set of signage with multiple purposes. It can either be used across sports bars long-term (where your beverage or product is served) or at bars looking to create a more sports-related atmosphere during important annual events, like the World Cup or Major League Baseball.

Tecate LEDNeon Signage - Design by Dekkers

An additional benefit of neutral sports-related signage is its ability to be repurposed. Successful signage designs can be used across different locations, markets and occasions. If you want to connect your brand in general to a specific sport or target audience, this sport type will be relevant throughout the year. However, at specific periods there will always be an increase in relevancy; those are moments you want to make sure you're extra visible.

Heineken Formula 1 - Design by Dekkers 

#2 Support a Team or All Teams with Personalized Signage

Personalization, a form of hyper-customization, is a widely used tactic in the brand - and marketing world. Simply put, it's adapting your brand to serve a specific audience (or person) by customizing your brand or communication to reach them (you can read more about personalization here). In the sports signage world, personalization can increase visibility at bars or locations where a specific team's fans gather by creating a hyper-customized variant of the sign. 

Crown Royal Vikings - Design by Dekkers

According to research conducted by Marketo, Inc, one of the two things brands should do to make advertising more appealing to their audience is to make the content more personalized and relevant based on consumer behaviour. For example, finding out which teams (s) your target audience is passionate about can be a significant opportunity to build more relevant associations with your brand. 

Crown Royal Texans - Design by Dekkers

Although choosing a team, in this case, is your best choice, it also comes with some risks. For example, if the team loses, it can cause emotional distress for their fans, especially if they see your brand supporting the winning team. Therefore, choosing your location and tactics wisely is advised. Another alternative is to support numerous teams in a league (like the Crown Royal examples) which gives you a better shot at coming across as a neutral supporter of the game.

Crown Royal Cowboys - Design by Dekkers

#3 Use Indoor Digital Signage to Instantly Respond to Key Moments

Digital signage solutions are fast, effective, and the most adaptable in reaction to spontaneous events and important occasions. Thanks to digital technology, brand builders and trade marketeers can create digital content (photos, video, promotions etc.) reasonably fast and change it instantly at the locations the digital screens are implemented.

With narrowcasting and dynamic content-sharing software, you can customize your message to fit the moment. For example, by displaying the match goal counter on a Digital Tap Lens (equipped with digital content sharing) on the bar counter or giving freebies away when the fan's favorite team scores. 

Whether using a traditional screen for the wall or on the bar counter, digital signage offers many benefits for brands who want to be relevant; you can find more reasons to invest in digital signage here. 

Content of your choice at eye-level spots with the Digital Tap lens

To sum up. Being present and bold in key moments of your target group’s life increases relevancy and creates a memorable experience forming a more vital link to your brand. You can make your brand highly relevant at key moments, even with minor adjustments. Want to see how a famous Belgian beer brand increased brand visibility through personalized signs? Check out the Duvel case study here. 

Want to know more about how you can grow your brand and connect it to important sporting events and teams? Reach out to our specialists for advice.