Gaining a sponsorship as a sportsman is something worth celebrating. They’ll gain access to important funding for training, to increased awareness that they exist and it can help promote them as a player worth taking seriously. As of late, we’ve seen the eToro trading platform sponsoring Gael Monfils and of course, football team Arsenal receiving sponsorship from CashBet but the question on every curious crypto user’s lips is whether or not these sponsorships might have an effect on the popularity of cryptocurrencies and not just an effect on the players. We’ve decided to do a little digging of our own.
What Is Influencer Marketing?
Sponsorships for players are essentially a form of influencer marketing, but without understanding what the latter is, it can be difficult to see how. While some believe that influencer marketing is the act of using influencers to promote your product, there’s a little more to it than that – in fact, ‘influencer marketing’ as a term refers to the act of focusing marketing on certain influential individuals rather than the entire market. Brands will pick out people that have influence over a potential portion of their target market, many of whom will have a large proportion of followers, and will then promote their own products to the influencer, though this often comes in the form of sponsorships and paid advertisements.
In terms of sports influencers, sponsorships often just manifested in equipment or clothing with the company logo printed on, but as of late, leading sports people tend to have a bigger presence online and on social media. As a result, sports sponsorships can lead to products and services being promoted on their platforms and, of course, reaching eager fans and potential customers.
What Could It Do For Cryptocurrencies?
With the above in mind, the potential for cryptocurrencies is undeniably huge. The number of cryptocurrency owners is small compared to those who don’t necessarily know of or understand these coins and how they work, and so arguably, these sports sponsorships could be an ideal way to spread the word that this market even exists. Through increasing trust, spreading awareness and improving understanding, cryptocurrencies have the potential to go far:
Increase Trust
One of Bitcoin and it’s altcoins’ biggest downfalls is that there is limited, if any, trust in these digital assets. The news has been rife with cryptocurrency downfalls as of late, with talks of crashing prices and a number of heists and coin theft, and so it’s understandable that so many people are losing trust in cryptocurrencies as anything more than a digital coin to be ignored. However, with sponsorships and the effect of influencers, this trust could start to see an increase rather than a decrease. People are likely to listen to those that they trust, and if sports stars and teams are promoting cryptocurrencies, perhaps we could see a positive effect.
Spread Awareness
Another downfall that cryptocurrencies have is that awareness for these coins is surprisingly low. While millions of us have likely heard of the term ‘Bitcoin,’ very few have taken enough of an interest to have a basic knowledge of what it is beyond its title. Some may not even know that’s a ‘cryptocurrency’ or that the word ‘cryptocurrency’ even exists. As a result, sports sponsorships could help to push further awareness that digital currencies exist and are something to be taken seriously.
Improve Understanding
Following on from the point above, another potential downfall is that people simply don’t understand cryptocurrencies. If someone isn’t interested in complex technologies, they may skim over all things cryptocurrency and as a result, don’t have a true understanding of what it is or how it works. Through sports sponsorships, more avid sports fans might take an interest or start listening to the star as they promote these currencies, learning more about the world of cryptocurrencies, blockchain and even the likes of trading and investments.
Sports sponsorships have their benefits for both the star and the company sponsoring them, but where cryptocurrencies are concerned, they could even hold benefits for the market as a whole. Through increased awareness of cryptocurrency brands, trust and understanding could be built and we could see popularity rising considerably in the future.
