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Across America, every community has its place to come together, usually for a sports team at the high school, college or professional level, that’s able to connect people across different cultures, beliefs and industries. In the Pacific Northwest, it is the Seattle Seahawks.
For Washington natives like me, the Seahawks represent one of the few constants that have persisted from childhood to adulthood. As children, we dream of playing, cheering or working for the Hawks. Our NFL team is our rallying cry, where we take great pride in our home-field advantage — where fan noise reaches 137.6 decibels, comparable to the sound of a jet engine.
For years, I’ve hoped that someday I might be able to become a corporate partner of the Seahawks, but, unfortunately, the cost was always prohibitive for a real estate brokerage. But that all changed when the Hawks launched a partnership opportunity for small businesses.
Today, my brokerage, RSVP Brokers ERA, is a proud Seattle Seahawks Small Business Partner. It took some effort and willingness to explore on our part, but this partnership has opened our eyes to the value of sports in real estate, and I want to pass that knowledge on to the next business owner who is on the fence about doing something similar.
Why you should do it
This year marks my 25th year as a licensed real estate professional in Washington. I’m the co-founder of my family brokerage alongside my son, Andy. My father was a custom homebuilder and a craftsman who prided himself on quality. Andy, my daughter, Kadey, and I have built RSVP Brokers ERA based on that heritage.
Over the years, we’ve been approached by hundreds, if not thousands, of groups that wanted me to sponsor or partner with them. Of course, as real estate professionals, we want to be part of our communities and look for every opportunity to give our agents unmatched name recognition and business opportunities. Yet, over time, I’ve learned to ask myself, “Why am I doing this?”
In the case of the Seahawks, asking that question was critical. It helped me move away from how amazing it would be to be part of the Seahawks family and, with the assistance of the Seahawks, challenge myself to provide real and tangible reasons to participate. It couldn’t be an ego decision.
It came down to identifying ways that the now more affordable sponsorship could serve as a company rallying cry to impact agent morale and retention, recruiting and, of course, generate greater consumer awareness and leads. Before we signed the agreement, we had to have a strategy for each and a way to measure the success of each.
Now that we are “official,” we and all our agents have the right to utilize the Seahawks Small Business Partner logo in our digital marketing efforts. We also have our brand on the stadium’s big screen, stadium televisions and across the ribbon boards that wrap the seating bowl.
Along with access to tickets, we also get access to the Seahawks on social media, where they are the largest brand in the Pacific Northwest, with 10.6 million followers across Instagram, Facebook, X and TikTok. Another great perk we can use at our discretion is Blitz, the team mascot, and the Seahawks Dancers at select events throughout the year.
Even with these offerings, we still knew it would be up to us to “activate” our sponsorship to reach our goals. The team provides plenty of tools and opportunities, but it rests on you as a business owner to capitalize on those resources. We’ve gone all in on the Seahawks and are making certain that everything we do is tied to the power that being involved with the team provides.
Consumer
We decided to offer all Seahawks fans a free home price evaluation. While I know this is a standard real estate marketing activity, we tied it to our sponsorship of the Seahawks, where we drive in-stadium fans and those we reach on social media to a specific URL.
We have just begun our partnership with them, but we expect our site at rsvpre.com/hawks, which will be advertised on all levels of the Lumen Field on Stadium TV, will generate leads.
We also plan to turn pregame hype and the games themselves into our events. We have plans for ticket giveaways, client appreciation events and even ways to use big wins or great plays to draw attention to the fact that RSVP Brokers ERA is part of the action.
Company morale and retention
In my lifetime of experience in real estate, I’ve never seen more excitement within the brokerage than what’s transpired since our Seahawks partnership. Working with the team has inspired a new sense of community and drive across our business that we haven’t seen in any of our previous team-building efforts.
It’s been a challenging couple of years for our agents due to the rising prices, lack of inventory, increased mortgage rates and everything else that has gone on in real estate. But our Seahawks partnership has become a huge motivator for us.
We have seen our agents embrace the Seahawks Small Business Partner opportunity with a rejuvenated sense of fun, being a part of a winning tradition. It’s been amazing to see. Take a look at this video from Julian Gonzalez, which shows some of this excitement.
We’ve plastered that Seahawks Small Business Partner logo everywhere that makes sense, including our website, social media, email signatures and so much more. The same goes for the approved images that the team — which protects its brand heavily, as you would imagine — has provided us. And, of course, we will allow our agents and their clients to be eligible for tickets and events down the road.
Recruiting
The energy is contagious. Our agents and their sense of pride are being seen throughout the local real estate community. We are a “hot” brand. Since the start of the season, we’ve had calls from prospective agents. Our appointment count is up, and they are more willing to listen to what we and the ERA brand can offer them.
As a matter of fact, I just spoke with an agent who is a big Seahawks fan, who was at the game on Sunday, and the first thing she saw when she walked into Lumen Field was our logo right next to the Seahawks crest. You can’t beat that for branding your agents, those who will join and the firm’s clients.
I wanted to provide some tips on how you can get involved in sports sponsorship at your local level:
- Know your budget: Look at your overall advertising and marketing spend and determine if a sports-related sponsorship would fit.
- What team(s) work for you? If your community has divided loyalties, a sports sponsorship might be self-defeating. An example might be if a community has two high schools, and you only choose one.
- Know your why: It’s critical to know what you want to get out of the partnership. Remember our needs in real estate are likely different from other industries. If the team knows what you want to achieve, they can craft a program to meet your needs.
- You have to ask: Teams are in the business to make money, and they are always looking for corporate partners. But they may not have thought of you before. Call them as far before the opening day as possible. The Seahawks have sophisticated in-house sponsorship teams and are customer-centric. At the higher college levels, they will either have in-house or outsourced sponsorship staff that operate similarly. Smaller colleges and high schools usually won’t have that level of sophistication so you can start with the athletic director.
- Sponsorship is just the beginning: As I said before, if you buy the sponsorship package but don’t take advantage of all the perks and extend the relationship as far as possible in every facet of your business, it will not be as effective.
I’ve personally seen the opportunities the Seahawks sponsorship has provided my company. If you have the opportunity to align your brand with a local sports franchise, whether it be at the professional, collegiate or amateur level, don’t be afraid to go for it.
Steve Kloetsch runs RSVP Real Estate ERA Powered alongside his son, Andy. Connect with Steve on Facebook and Linkedin.
