Talking Business.

Companies use sports sponsorship for a variety of reasons, and to effectively use such sponsorships we understand that you have a primary objective. The sponsorship package needs to be a suitable fit for your target audience. Sponsoring sporting events is done to add value to the brand – utilizing sports to help increase brand visibility and to help create a unique position in the mind of the consumer.

 

Investing with the University of Botswana Relics Basketball Club has both an opportunity with a youthful target audience as well as developing adolescents through sports. We have proposed key opportunities for sponsoring our sports teams.

• Brand / Corporate awareness: your name can be placed in front of 15,000 university students as well as the added numbers that attend our games and activities amongst the youth in Botswana and across our borders. We participate in the college league, national league, and host several crowd pulling competitions, such as the Got Game 3on3 (Feb/Mar) and the All Star Weekend (August). Because UB Relics Basketball is innovative, we are constantly looking for cost effective opportunities to push our sponsors’ visibility in the market and with our youthful target audience. As our sponsor you have the opportunity to brand our 3on3 college basketball league, and/or our All Star Weekend, our competition and development teams, and our home courts found in the University of Botswana, where most basketball competitions take place throughout the year.

 

• Brand/Corporate image: we can create a personality and style for your product, which distinguishes it from another in the market. Basketball is known for its prestige image amongst young people and who better to sell it and your brand than a student club that most young people admire and aspire to be. Prestige and sex appeal is an attractive image amongst youth. Our relationships with Yarona FM (Botswana’s Youthful Radio Station) and Campus Radio ensure a consistent vocal presence. Direct Marketing through posters and flyers within the University of Botswana, Botho University and the adjacent malls (Riverwalk and Game City) enable a consistent visual presence. Very few sports teams have access and the creative opportunity to run promotions for such a large captive target audience.

 

• Customer relations: our sports sponsorship can open dialogue between your company and the target audience. Not only do we create a platform for you to do business with them, but we also provide avenues for your sales representatives. UB Relics Basketball not only runs events at a national scale, we also undertake campus focus activities that expose us to direct interaction with the student population. Stalls at our activities and events, direct sales opportunities are just as example of the possibilities.

 

• Employee Relations: our sports sponsorship can encourage company pride and loyalty to support the attraction and retention of staff. We do more than just play basketball. UB Relics Basketball initiated and implements the Street-ball Kids Program, where we build the confidence and social skills of street children in partnership with non-governmental organizations. Team sports teach teamwork, leadership and other lessons.

 

We also implement a mentoring program aimed developing life skills through sports. We work in both schools and communities in Gaborone, Francistown, Maun and Molepolole. These are opportunities to not only have your brand associated with such a corporate social investment but also to engage your employees in community service that makes a difference in young people’s lives.

 

• Community relations: sponsorship can show that a company cares about its community and is prepared to invest in its future and the welfare of its citizens. UB Relics Basketball has the reputation of originating from the oldest existing female basketball club in Botswana with a rich history of sound management and effective participation. Administered through a university ensures our accountability and dependability. We are also the only basketball team in Botswana founded by women, managed by women and promoting the development of women and girls. This vital component of who we are is also integrated in our projects with street kids and the youth we mentor in our community. Our reach extends outside Gaborone to communities with the highest concentration of youth, and are areas that vulnerable youth are exposed to dangers such as alcohol abuse, HIV/AIDS and premature relationships. Young women are also exposed to abuse and violence, which is why we work with our communities to advocate for women’s health, healthy lifestyles in youth and addressing gender.

 

• Resourcing: UB Relics Basketball Club is committed to its administration to professional standards. This requires professionals but limited resources challenge the delivery of professionalism. Our Professional Volunteers Program invites young and established professionals that have both the interest and the determination to do well in your desired profession, and would like an opportunity to constructively volunteer. The program allows the Professional Volunteers to freely give of their time and expertise to the club gaining experience to develop further through practice. The program also fosters a platform for mentoring and skills transfer. The club benefits from the human resource and the participants benefit from the opportunity to hone their expertise. We are offering to extend this program to your organization. We incubate a host of skills amongst our student athletes and volunteers, which can provide you with a resource intern or services that are not particular to your organization. You have a choice of receiving an intern or outsourcing to us certain services within our portfolio of professional volunteers. This partnership provides you with additional resources as well as giving our interns and professional volunteers work experience.

 

 

We believe that as a sponsor you are looking for sports properties that can make a valuable and quantifiable contribution to your brand. The opportunities highlighted above are meant to allow access where we are a good fit with the brand personality and how we are unique to your brand. We deeply appreciate the vitality of media coverage for your brand and can create opportunities for exciting newspaper photographs and television images showing your identity on t-shirts, banners, etc. We also understand that as a sponsor you seek activities that are enjoyable and memorable and provide occasions to build the brand and develop sales. The sponsorship will also provide an opportunity to communicate with the customer in the setting where they are enjoying a quality leisure-time experience – ideally making the customer more favorably disposed to the sponsor.

 

Lastly, since it is important that you and your employees feel comfortable with a sport and feel that you are getting good value for your money, be assured that UB Relics Basketball is a club that can provide not only innovation and security but also publicity. We are a legally registered, independent club managed by an executive committee and administered through the University of Botswana. Our Head of Basketball Operations is a Communication Strategist with a Marketing degree, Strategic Management masters and extensive experience in marketing, advertising and humanitarian work. Our Public Relations is run by an influential radio personality and devoted media strategist. Our technical director is rooted within sports management and our sports development coaching mentor is an internationally accredited coaching instructor. Most of all, our club has over 30 registered volunteers within the universities.