Consumers are used to watching paid actors implore them to ask their doctors about any number of pharmaceutical drugs or treatments. But when more than a third of Americans say they follow or pay attention to sports teams, leagues, or favorite athletes at least semi-closely, according to a 2023 Pew Research survey, there is a whole field of underutilized marketing opportunities available for pharma. CMI Media Group’s proprietary 2024 Media Vitals™ research across healthcare consumers and professionals showed that 2 in 3 patients/caregivers regularly engage in sports content. We also know that doctors are consumers too, and in digging into healthcare professionals, we found that they have a strong affinity with sports, with 72% stating they regularly follow at least one sport or league.
Not only are sports fans a captive audience, but they’re a loyal and growing one. Athletes themselves are natural advocates for health and proactive health practices, but just like any other demographic, many athletes have personal backstories or causes that predispose them to promoting certain treatments or prescription drugs. And who is a better spokesperson for health and wellness than a professional athlete?
For the pharmaceutical industry, which is really just now able to speak directly to consumers the way over-the-counter drugs have always been able to, finding meaningful partnerships with athletes could prove to be their biggest score of the season.
CMI Media Group is focused on putting a health lens on a lot of the sports partnerships we work with because we believe this is an opportunity to reach both patients and providers via America’s pastime—sports.
Innovation doesn’t have to be expensive
When it comes to speaking to sports fans, brands don’t need a Super Bowl budget to reach a dedicated fandom. There tends to be a mental sticker-shock when we mention sports partnerships to clients—the first thought tends to be NFL multi-year sponsorship opportunities that carry sizeable brand investment, which can cost millions of dollars. But there are so many partnership opportunities with professional sport leagues that come with a lower investment point of entry, especially when looking at omnichannel approaches.
Pickleball, for example, is the fastest growing sport in America right now both professionally and recreationally, and it is significantly less expensive than going straight to the NFL, MLB, or NBA. The crazy rise in popularity of women's sports dovetails perfectly with the many women's health brands that we work on, and niche sports like surfing, racing and extreme sports all have highly marketable audiences.
We’ve found success working with athletes within certain leagues where we can craft condition-specific initiatives with impactful tactics that align to client objectives, like partnering with the NHL’s Hockey Fights Cancer program. It's a good way to stand out in an extremely crowded marketplace right now, and we work with both clients and athletes to come up with something personal, authentic, and unique. For instance, our influencer team has been working with a number of NASCAR drivers who aren’t quite Earnhardt-level household names, but they still have a massive following on social media. These opportunities aren’t forced, rather they are germane to the athlete as well as the condition and the brand.
Regardless of your brand's budget, there's a way in with sports partnerships, and there are many scalable opportunities. We’ve even found it’s been a good testing ground for some of the bigger pharma companies that were initially a little hesitant to try sports as a channel or market for their products.
Athletes have personal causes too
Professional athletes might be great at promoting sneakers and electrolyte drinks, but they shouldn’t be limited to the obvious. And, many are able to speak about conditions or issues that are relevant to them personally without the involvement of their sports league. For instance, if a soccer player has a personal history with diabetes and can promote a new insulin pump with empathy and authority, they can do that through both their personal social media and through omnichannel campaigns without the pharma brand having to deal directly with the major soccer leagues.
That is one way in which we can start on a smaller scale and then scale up. We’ve found we’re able to make a much more genuine and meaningful partnership with individual athletes, as opposed to slapping a logo on an ad and just playing that everywhere. Making sure the messaging is authentic and reaching the right audience is important, but even when we focus on a targeted audience, doing it through the lens of sports offers an innately larger, broader audience.
Sports fandom is always in season
There is a strong emotional component to fandom—one that extends well beyond the sanctioned season or the team’s playoff run. Whether a favorite team has 162 games or 17 in their given season, fans will buy merchandise, discuss new recruits and follow any and all team news year-round. Fans are natural ambassadors, and aligning brands with them is the rising tide that raises all ships.
Not only is this true of professional sports, but college allegiances can be just as diehard. And, considering many universities either have or are affiliated with major research centers and initiatives, the link between pharmaceuticals and sports runs even deeper. (Remember which university’s clinical research lab produced the first COVID vaccine, in partnership with Moderna? Thanks, Vanderbilt! Go Commodores!)
Because college colors don’t bleed, we’re able to leverage partners regionally (think: Ivy Leagues, the SEC or Big 10) and target consumers nationally. There are a ton of ways to go after college sport fandoms—streaming services like CTV, in-person signage and activations at campus events and games, radio, digital buys—and they are all much more affordable than many of the other options out there.
Overall, while sports certainly lend a cool factor, our strategy goes beyond with data-backed knowledge that sports is a way for healthcare brands to reach their audiences. Patients, caregivers, and professionals are active in the opportunities around sporting events, presenting a channel for meaningful engagement. Considering the reputation boost that the pharma industry gained following the COVID-19 pandemic, it’s a smart, strategic time to align pharmaceuticals with fan-favorite athletes. Pharma brands want to be associated with health and vitality, and that really hits at the nexus of sporting as well. Celebrating the human body, being healthy and pushing the limits of what humans can achieve is, at their core, what both pharmaceutical research and athletics are each about.
