Greatest challenges in sports licensing and technology-driven promotion strategies

Sports Specialist Profession

What do you see as the greatest challenge confronting the sports licensing specialists? How would you overcome the challenge?

As anybody who has ever attended an American sporting event can attest, the presence of merchandise, both of the licensed and unlicensed variety, is nearly ubiquitous. From the high school level up through the major four professional leagues, calling yourself a fan of any particular team or requires a tangible show of allegiance, with baseball caps, jerseys of all stripe and style, and basketball sneakers considered to be standard apparel for the vast majority of males, and a growing number of females, throughout the country. With hundreds of professional teams, along with thousands of NCAA and high school squads, all seeking to assure as rights holders that the logo-emblazoned T-shirt or jacket purchased in the stadium parking lot has been approved, with a portion of profits from any sale being returned by the concessionaire, there is a growing need for the services of qualified sports licensing specialists.

Professional sports licensing specialists are trained to anticipate and respond to a whole host of contractual and commercial issues, as teams and players hoping to license their image or proprietary content are inevitably confronted with competition from unlicensed concessionaries, shifts in market value due to injury or ineffective play, and conflicts between licensors and concessionaries over the preferred route of distribution (Belter & Hanna, 2009). Another major concern for sports licensing specialists is the advent of online commerce, and because the "online sale of sports products is gaining ground, the licensor and licensee should consider whether the licensed products are suitable for sale in this manner" (Blackshaw 2012). The thriving resale market for Nike branded "Air Jordan" shoes, in which thousands of unlicensed vendors pre-purchase as many pairs of shoes as possible at the store price and resell them for an exorbitant mark-up to collectors, clearly demonstrates the need for sports licensing specialists to develop a thorough understanding of modern e-commerce techniques and trends.

Question # 2: What forms of technology could be used by sport promotion specialists to promote their sport products? Explain which products you would use this technology to promote.