Sponsorships | From ritual to ROI, fans create loyalty, brand advocacy and commercial value

Uyanda Manana, head of account management, Levergy says from ritual to ROI, fans create loyalty, brand advocacy and commercial value (Image supplied)

Yet, it wasn’t Erling Haaland’s heroics that burnt deep into the world’s psyche. It was the Viking Row. Norway’s fans heaved and rowed in unison, willing their heroes to sporting immortality.

The celebration appeared spontaneous, but it had existed long before that victory.

It wasn't created because Norway suddenly had more supporters, or happier supporters, or more creative supporters. It was a ritual that helped create the connection Norway’s supporters already felt before the game.

The power of ritual in fandom

Fast forward six days. The Springboks were hosting Scotland at Loftus Versfeld for a rugby match in the nation’s capital.

Soon after the game, clips circulated on social media, showing Springbok fans performing the Viking Row, shouting “rooi!”, symbolically transporting their heroes out of choppy waters and into a clear margin of victory.

This is the power of ritual in fandom. It is tempting to think of traditions as the reward for successful fandom.

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The mechanism of fandom seeds

In reality, they are often the mechanism through which the seeds for fandom are sown.

A child wears the team’s jersey before understanding the offside rule. Friends meet every Tuesday evening because a running club has become part of their social lives.

Supporters sing songs they learned from the generation before them.

These are not habits that sit alongside sport; they are how sport is lived and becomes part of someone's identity.

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The Grateful Dead case study

Sponsorship has traditionally been optimised for visibility. Marketers typically ask how many people will see the logo, remember the campaign or engage with the content.

Those questions still matter, but visibility has little value if it fails to change behaviour.

This isn't just sports culture, it is the fundamental architecture of modern brand loyalty across food, art, music, fashion and lifestyle. And it is not a new phenomenon either.

The Grateful Dead case study is one of the most famous business and marketing success stories taught in business schools around the world.

Simply put, the case study explores how a counterculture rock band built a multimillion-dollar commercial empire by breaking every existing rule of the music industry – long before the internet or social media.

Just as The Grateful Dead transformed music lovers and concertgoers into an active, self-organising community through participatory rituals, such as “tapers” and parking-lot “Shakedown Streets”, contemporary phenomena like Norway’s viral Viking Row prove that the highest level of fandom is built on co-creation rather than the typical model of passive consumption.

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One of the biggest lessons

For brands, one of the biggest lessons from The Grateful Dead playbook is that true impact doesn’t come from forcing a product or slogan onto an audience, but rather from supplying the infrastructure, authenticity and freedom for fans to express their collective identity.

These communities with shared identity already exist, and brands need to discover how to show up in these spaces appropriately.

In other words, when a brand facilitates, participates and steps back to let the community “own the oars”, it shifts from being a mere corporate sponsor and becomes something far more impactful: An indispensable member of the tribe.

Ask this question

One of the most valuable questions a brand can ask is whether people will start doing something they were not doing before. Will they adopt a new matchday ritual? Will they join a community? Will they bring someone else with them? Most importantly, will they still be doing it after the sponsorship has ended?

Consider the Nedbank Running Club network. Its value is not measured solely by the visibility the sponsorship receives, but by the behaviours it has helped sustain over time.

Every week, thousands of runners pull on the green vest, meet training partners before sunrise, encourage newcomers, celebrate personal milestones and then return the following week to do it all again.

For many runners, being part of the club is no longer simply about participating in races; it has become part of their identity.

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A behaviour repeated, a sponsorship’s greatest value

The moment a behaviour is repeated, it is no longer an activation.

Repeated behaviours become rituals and traditions.

Rituals and traditions create belonging. Belonging creates fans, and fans create loyalty, brand advocacy and commercial value that no media schedule can sustain on its own.

That is where sponsorship creates its greatest commercial value.

It’s why some sponsorships become woven into the very fabric of sport while others disappear the moment the campaign ends.

The difference is rarely the size of the investment. It is whether the sponsorship gave people something worth repeating.

If supporters continue to sing the song, wear the colours, meet every Saturday morning or repeat the celebration, then the sponsorship achieves something no media metric can ever fully capture.

It changed behaviour. And that is how fandom is created.