Compared to the international megabrands, Australia’s sporting codes have yet to crack the technology category, potentially leaving a lot of money on the table. Nick Hudson, vice president, ANZ for THE·TEAM, says this week’s visit of the NFL to Melbourne should be viewed as a case study in how multiple integrations can be done effectively.
Aussie sports fans will be watching on intently when the NFL’s first-ever regular-season game in Australia hits Melbourne on Friday. But sports marketers and sporting codes should be scrutinising it through a different lens – there is so much to be learnt from the NFL’s approach to the fan experience, broadcast and the commercial engine that makes the NFL one of the most valuable sports properties in the world.
In the lead up to Friday’s game, we worked with several brands as well as the NFL itself. One lesson that stands out to me is how the NFL approaches technology partnerships — both the sophistication of its approach to the category and the way it activates those partnerships.
The NFL has more than 10 major technology partners across a range of categories from AI to Cloud, Cybersecurity and many more. A quick scan of major Australian codes shows none has a true AI partner, and most don’t have a technology partner at scale.
But beyond the number of partners, it’s how those partnerships actually come to life, with a model built around technology solving real problems for the sporting organisation and being showcased on a global stage — which is truly different from what we see locally.
At the Super Bowl, watched by hundreds of millions of people globally, a coach can pull a Microsoft Surface with Copilot-powered features from under his arm to review plays, develop strategies and get an advantage over the opposition.
I spent five years working on Microsoft’s partnership with the NFL, which began in 2013 and has now spanned more than a decade. It has since become one of the most visible examples of technology and sport working together.
The league-wide deployment of Microsoft’s AI product Copilot is the latest answer to a question the NFL and Microsoft are constantly asking: where can technology solve a genuine problem for the league and, at the same time, become a compelling showcase for what Microsoft can do?
It is a question Australian sporting codes and technology brands should be asking too.
In Australia there are examples of this model emerging: HCLTech has been Cricket Australia’s Official Digital Technology Partner since 2019, most recently helping bring AI into the cricket fan experience; and earlier this year, the AFL partnered with CyberCX to deliver cyber security services across the league. These are meaningful, integrated technology partnerships, but they remain the exception.
In the NFL, these partnerships are commonplace: Microsoft AI powers collaboration and efficiency, AWS showcases its AI through Next Gen Stats, Adobe delivers personalised fan experiences, and Cisco runs connected stadiums.
Each of these companies is solving a business problem for the NFL and most importantly, its fans, while simultaneously earning a global showcase in return, amplified through the league’s platforms to potential customers everywhere.
These partnerships are fiercely contested by the biggest brands in technology across the NFL, Formula 1 and the leading global properties. SponsorUnited estimates tech invested US$920 million — more than AU$1.2 billion — in North American sports sponsorships alone last year, across more than 2,400 deals.
For technology companies, sport is one of the last major sponsorship categories in Australia with real room to grow. It’s an untapped opportunity to showcase your product to customers through a passion point they’re already invested in.
You’ll be hard pressed to find a CIO in this country who doesn’t have a favourite team. That makes sport a powerful place to demonstrate technology solving a real problem for an organisation people care about – whether that’s improving the fan experience, modernising venues, strengthening cybersecurity or using AI to produce content faster – and then take that story to future customers.
And those customers can be anywhere: a government department, a hospital network, a mining company or a construction firm. The underlying challenge is often the same – using technology to improve performance, productivity and outcomes, but sport simply makes the story more memorable.
So why aren’t more of them buying into Australian sport?
Whilst our marketing spend can’t match New York budgets, that should increase the incentive for these brands to work together and make their dollars work harder, especially with so many tech companies wanting to feel more local and relevant to their customer base.
To get the most out of this category, it can’t be treated as a marketing line item. It has to be a holistic, enterprise-level relationship, where the technology company is engaged to solve a real business problem first, and the marketing story gets told around it.
When a deal starts that way, the budget stops being an obstacle because money flows both ways and both sides have something valuable to gain.
Diversifying the category is a critical step to enabling a smarter approach to technology partnerships. Technology has historically been treated as one broad sponsorship category with a major technology or telecommunications brand holding the rights to the entire category, even in areas with little relevance to their business.
That approach is increasingly out of step with the technology industry itself.
The NFL’s sophisticated category structure unlocks incredible potential, with Cloud, AI, cybersecurity, connectivity, collaboration, data and other capabilities all distinct commercial swimlanes, allowing multiple technology partners to coexist with clearly defined roles.
The opportunity is there for both sides: for rights holders willing to open up their organisations to genuine technology integration, and for technology companies willing to see sport as more than a broadcast platform and take the time to really integrate their services as a true product showcase.
So when the NFL arrives at the MCG, look for the Surface on the sideline: solving a problem for the NFL, showcasing a product for Microsoft, and reaching customers through a sport they care about.
As Australian sport enters its next commercial cycle, there’s no reason we can’t build more partnerships like that here. But it requires rights holders to look beyond traditional sponsorship inventory and ask a different question – where can technology make our sport better?
Done well, the result becomes much more than another sponsor – it’s the type of partnership that can truly change the game.
