With live events on pause, rights holders across the world are searching for answers on how to proceed in these unprecedented times: How can they understand the true economic impact? How can they ‘make good’ with their partners?

Just as we’re been looking to our network for insights, we’re looking into our products. One interesting stat that we have noticed is that our product KONNECT experienced a 110% spike in usage from March 8 – March 20th, the period following the announcements of major league season suspensions in the US.

KONNECT is focused on the activation of your sponsorship deals, so the spike is particularly interesting considering activation opportunities out there have certainly decreased. So, what is happening?

Determining the Impact for Rights Holders

As they strive to determine the revenue impact, rights holders are trying to make sense of their inventory across all active deal sheets that will not be fulfilled as planned.

KONNECT is a central repository for these assets that provides visibility in a turnkey, organized way, so we’re able to see how teams across the globe are interrogating their systems of record:

Aggregating Assets for Postponed or Canceled Events

Teams need visibility to begin planning for the transfer of these assets as bonuses or make goods for future events. The information needs to be sliced into views at the event level and the account or sponsor level. This is especially critical for teams whose games have been permanently canceled and need to reallocate significant assets.

Here is an example of how one team has leveraged KONNECT to gain visibility across their categories to better determine which upcoming events they can reallocate events too.

While perhaps a bit dramatic in terms of color saturation, this view represents an automated roll up of all available sponsorship inventory for the team. In addition, it is categorized with performance indicators clearly visible through both percentages and color.

As new games, whether rescheduled or in the new season, are finalized, this level of operationalized visibility will help teams be organized and responsive in maximizing their inventory for their partners.

Examining Event Costs and Rates to Determine Revenue Impact of Missed Games
The ability to see the complete revenue picture, both costs and rate card, for all sponsorship deals is key to understanding total economic impact.

For leagues with seasons close to the end, like the NHL, NBA, and European Soccer, this will be critical in building organizational budgets for upcoming seasons as they determine accurate value to make good with partners in the midst of deals and up for renewal.

Identifying Available Assets
Without events to wrap assets around, teams are looking to find all available digital opportunities and non-event assets to deliver value to partners even without games. We’re getting lots of inbound inquiries to help organizations with this view.

The partnership between Bud Light and the New York Rangers is a perfect example of this approach. The MSG Network aired eight hours of Rangers playoffs games earlier this month in partnership with Bud Light’s new Open for Takeout platform, a creative take for their long-standing partnership. (For more, click here)

New Reporting

When we first started hearing whispers across the industry, our team got to work on new reports to handle these unprecedented times. These reports are available for free for all KONNECT clients – if you do not have them, just let us know.

Event Costs & Rates: Understand which assets are scheduled for upcoming events in aggregate and on a per account basis and dig into the monetary values associated with both the sold rate, which can affect a team’s revenue, and any related costs. The report can also be pivoted to look at all assets including those not associated with events. It’s important to keep in mind that many of the hard costs are commonly associated with Ticketing & Hospitality assets but can vary depending on your asset setup.

Account Delivery Overview: Identify which assets are currently unscheduled, which assets are scheduled for postponed events and will need to be rescheduled, as well as bonus units.

Tip: Events can be set up for games/matches or for other occurrences such as player appearance or community events.  Make sure to factor this in as you’re looking to identify what may be postponed or rescheduled.

Have Something to Share?

We intend to build on what we’re hearing in the market to best tackle the changing needs for all of our clients. The KORE network includes thousands of industry professionals from more than 700 properties across the world who are dealing with the circumstances in unique ways.