About the project
Tish Monahan, owner of She Science, was at the very first seminar that we delivered to business owners on the topic of “How Athlete Ambassadors Benefits Your Business”.
Her retail store, She Science, is a unique concept store in Melbourne providing a sports bra fitting service as well as a range of female specific running and fitness apparel.
She Science’s ambassadors are the most diverse cross-section of female athletes you can imagine! From footballers, runners, adventurers and horseriders the women are all shapes, sizes, ages and abilities, and definitely not your typical sponsored athlete.
We commend Tish and her team on identifying the value in the non-elite athlete, and in the way that they have used the skills and engaging stories and experiences of their ambassadors to create a powerful social media presence and true connection with their target market.
Challenges
For Tish it was about having a clear path in front of her and the confidence to progress her fairly intuitive understanding of how the non-celebrity, non-elite, everyday woman could represent her business in a way that her target market would be receptive to.
She was confident the target market would not only be influenced by these women but get a true connection with them and ultimately the business….she just needed to make the decision and take action.
From Tish Monahan, Owner of She Science
"Attending The Brand Builders seminar gave us insight into the way other brands run their sponsorship programs and ideas on how to get the best result for our business and our sponsored athletes.
We didn’t have the confidence to start! We always thought this sort of marketing would be a good fit for our business, but we just weren’t sure how to take the first step.
Like every business, we’ve had a few moments where we have realised we made a wrong turn, or could do things better regarding particular things. I genuinely enjoy making those sorts of discoveries because it means the next time round our programme is going to be even better.
The thing I enjoy most about sponsoring athletes is the relationship building that comes along with it!
As a small business our ambassadors transform in to friends which is great on a personal note, and just as good for our business in the long run. We love watching the women we work with really step up to the role of being an ambassador. For most it is seen as an honour, and I enjoy seeing the extra spark it creates for our Athletes.
Since attending the seminar, we have significantly increased the number of ambassadors we take on board, which as a result has obviously increased the marketing opportunities we have had. We were able to increase the size of our programme after learning how to structure it in a well thought out and purposeful way. This takes less time and effort and therefore keeps the cost down and value up!
I think it’s important for other companies who sponsor athletes to know that it’s not ‘set and forget’. It’s important to set up a system for communication to build strong relationships in order to get the best out of your athletes, and the best for your athletes. It can take some time particularly at the start, but it’s so important and you will benefit greatly from it.
We’ve had plenty of feel good moments over our journey of taking ambassador’s on board. The best bit for me is not just being able to provide a platform for athletes, but rather seeing the connections made between our ambassadors and watching each and every one of them connect and work to build each other’s profiles. We’ve seen some of our ambassadors work together to achieve really great things for women in sport."
Meet The Brand Builders
Our Athlete Sponsorship and Ambassador education and consultancy is delivered to businesses of all types and sizes. We're based in Brisbane, Australia but work all over the globe.