These days sports stands as the closest friend of the citizens of the world. The reason Miller cannot help but take up sports marketing is that we want people to ‘breathe’ Miller like they ‘breathe’ their favorite sport.

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Sports marketing has become a red-hot business recently. If you think back to the Australian Open, where Lee Hyung-taik entered into the second round on January 15, you maybe remember that there was a distinctive emblem in the stadium.

That was no other than Kia Motors. The logo and company name of Kia, the main sponsor, were exposed throughout the game. In addition, Kia improved its brand recognition status in the US and Europe as Andre Agassi, its advertisement model, won the championship. Thus, Kia had a highly effective advertising campaign.

More generally, people are becoming more interested in how to spend their leisure time, with the current spread of the five-day work week. With this, there has been a rise in the demand for opportunities both to watch and participate in sports.

However, while these factors provide a major marketing opportunity, specialists combining marketing skills and sports mind are in short supply compared with the growing demand. Moreover, this demand is likely to increase so that marketers equipped with the right planning and publicity skills will be able to profit from this positive job market.

What is sports marketing?

Sports marketing can be divided into two categories: spectator-sports-based and participant-sports-based. The former is a field which offers consulting services and advice to professional clubs, federations and leagues, on effective ways to draw in more fans. Sports agencies like Jerry Maguire are included in this category.

The latter mainly involves events planning and consulting on ways to encourage the general public to participate in popularized leisure sports, such as skiing, inline skating and golf. Ultimately, this involves a chain of activities to sell commercial-scale sports to customers.

Then, what is the present situation for sports consulting within Korea? Domestic sports consulting bussinesses are classified into three groups: foreign sports marketing firms with Korean branches, like Octagon Korea and IMG Korea; sports marketing departments within local advertising firms, like Cheil Communications and Diamond Ad; and sports marketing specialist enterprises like Sportizen.

If you want to gain experiences in sports marketing, you can participate in an internship program in sports consulting corporations through Sportizen < http://www.sportizen.co.kr > or else undertake a sports marketer practical affairs training with the Korea Sport Science Institute of the Seoul Olympic Sports Promotion Foundation < http://www.sosfo.or.kr >. For a certificate related to this field, there is S.M.P(Sports Marketing Planner).

The Korea Institute of Vocational Development < http://www.kivd.or.kr > has been offering this certificate since 2001. The S.M.P is an expert who works from start to finish on projects ranging from the negotiation of a player’s annual salary to business planning for the launch of new sports in the expanding sports industry field.
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