Most of us who played sports growing up dreamed of one day being good enough to turn pro. Even after reality set in, our passion for sports remained undiminished and exists to this day. What our parents and coaches told us about the “life lessons” we’d learn playing sports has rung true and continues to have an indelible impact on how we manage our personal and professional lives.

Which brings us to the business of sports — sports marketing — an industry built on tapping into fans’ passions to influence behavior. Ironically, as companies embrace an increasingly consumer-centric approach to their marketing, brand loyalty continues to decline. In light of that, the lessons learned from sports marketing can effectively reverse this trend when applied to general marketing campaigns.

You may be wondering why you, a “real” marketer, should consider taking a page out of the sports marketing playbook. Isn’t sports marketing nothing more than scoring tickets for your customers and serving them big shrimp at your hospitality tent? Keep reading. Properly leveraged, sports content can create differentiating and sustained consumer engagement, unlike anything else, while delivering a measurable return on objectives.

Sports marketing has come a long way from sponsorship selection based on “execu-whim” (when the CEO says, “Hey … I like golf. Let’s sponsor a tournament.”). No longer is sports marketing a veiled extension of advertising. Sports content is the core of an increasing number of brand campaigns providing the inspiration for advertising and other elements of the marketing mix.

Sports marketing has also accelerated “channel neutral” marketing, described in these pages as an approach where there are no “preconceived notions as to what will work best and what should lead.”

That’s a scary thought for many marketers. We’ve all been conditioned to gravitate toward certain tactics as the focal point of our programming. A world in which the golden pathway to success isn’t just laid right out there in front of us can be disconcerting. As a marketer who comes from sports, I submit that the avoidance of convention is the new golden pathway. Marketers who change the game can change the way people perceive their brands.

There are no preconceived notions when it comes to successful sports marketing — save one. Success is the result of creating genuine engagement by embracing fan passions. It only stands to reason then that in the general market, connecting with people’s emotions is the only way for marketers to cut through the “clutter.”

Another attribute of successful sports marketing is an unwavering focus on engaging consumers from a position of authenticity. Authenticity is critical for any brand seeking to create kinship with consumers, particularly when leveraging third-party associations.

Consumers are cynical and more inclined than ever before to avoid over-commercialized content. Yet, they remain highly vulnerable to relevant, authentic content made available to them without pretense. When marketers create authentic experiences around content about which consumers are deeply passionate, they are well positioned to demonstrate the role they can play in people’s lives beyond their brands’ attributes.

With sponsorship spending on the rise, more brands are using content to engage consumers. The value of the deals we strike is directly related to the programs created to leverage the acquired assets.

Enhancing the fan experience (as opposed to trying to buy customer loyalty through one-off promotions) is the difference between merely borrowing the powerful equity of sports content and truly sharing it. Establishing a lasting kinship with fans is a long-term proposition that requires activation. Those who do it right understand that signing on as a sponsor creates an expectation among the fan base that, just like them, you’re in it for the long-haul.

Marketers striving to have their brands embraced by consumers as genuine members of their “team” need to deliver on the implied commitment to enhance the consumer experience over the course of many “seasons.”

Major marketing expenditures are in flux, and bigger changes are on the horizon. With more resources being diverted from traditional advertising, what does sports marketing teach us?

Initiatives tied to sports content teach us to search for the underlying passions and authentically connect them back to the brands in our everyday lives. That’s how brands earn the respect and trust of their consumers and establish sustained and mutually beneficial relationships.

If you’re not doing that for your brands … you’re simply not in the ballgame.

Jeff Shifrin is president of Octagon Marketing North America. He can be reached at [email protected].