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Every time a plucky Brit has even the slightest chance of global glory, it is a big deal. Let's face it, we haven't exactly burned a trail of glory in the sporting world in recent years.

But it is almost impossible to ignore sports, especially when David Beckham can make the front page simply by going shopping for some new Gucci or Prada on Bond Street.

Depending on which events you target, sports can vary significantly from the mass market of key Champions' League football games to the more niche appeal of extreme sports.

With the possible exceptions of sports such as tennis and figure skating, most sports events are likely to be male-dominated affairs. However, even the audience profile of tennis can vary.

Female attendance at Premiership matches, for example, is between 11 and 20%, depending on the club you talk to. However, 38% of the audience for ITV's highlights package The Premiership comes from the fairer sex.

The growth of tennis' inter-country Davis Cup matches have revealed a different side to the fan base, argues Mike Spicer, client services director at Publicis-owned Arc.

"Look how that's changed it around from being a stuffy Wimbledon environment. It's a much less upmarket audience than one would have thought," he says.

Similarly, ice hockey has seen a growth in its female audience, partly because it's a new sport and not part of male culture. "Women didn't feel they could compete in football, but wanted to find something that they could know about," he adds.

Plethora of options

For those looking to live events to target the sporting fan base, there is a plethora of options ranging from traditional outdoor formats through to on-screen adverts at the ground. Radio coverage provides another way of reaching the keen sports fans, as they drive to or from games or events.

Outside the ground there is traditional outdoor. Those clubs that retain grounds in city locations are easier to target, although opportunities for "edge of town" stadia can be more limited.

"You can buy these sites on a two-weekly basis as opposed to trying to get into the clubs where you have to buy for a whole season," says Posterscope board client director Nick Davis.

Activity in bars near grounds, where washroom ads and other bar media provide an opportunity for commercial messages, are good for targeting fans who are attending an event or those who simply want to be near the action.

"From our perspective, generally people go with the same sex group of a similar age," says Richard Weir, marketing director at Hi-Tech Solutions. "We believe that in the pub environment they're early adopters and opinion formers."

He says the audience tends to be 18 to 35 years old with up to 87% ABC1. Advertisers who have booked with Hi-Tech include Betfair.com and computer game firm Eidos. These days, even bars away from grounds will attract a fair audience for major sporting events, although it is not something that registers on Barb.

According to OMD UK's Pub TV research project, the out-of-home audience is strong.

Big-screen occasions

"Viewing live sport in a pub has become an established part of many drinkers' repertoire. These occasions are planned events and the big screen provides the focal point and adds to the event status," it found.

A study by ZenithOptimedia's Sponsorship Intelligence found that out-of-home viewing would add about 13% to terrestrial broadcasts and 49% to satellite broadcasts.

And inside the ground it seems that clubs are now more willing to talk about advertising opportunities. "A lot of venues seem to be becoming a bit more flexible and a bit more accountable now," says James Davies, associate director at Hyperspace. "They're starting to become more amenable to non-standard opportunities."

Stadium Radio, sold by First Radio Sales, offers access to 68 football clubs, putting out a national package of ads right across the stadia before the game, at half-time and after the game via the public address system.

The national audience is 600,000 every week and the venue list includes Chelsea, Manchester City, Leeds and Celtic.

Match Day Media has developed plasma screens placed on the concourse areas, showing ads as well as broadcasting relevant content such as first-half highlights and scores from other grounds.

The system is currently in five clubs, including Newcastle and Aston Villa, but will be in 18 venues from the start of next season including Leeds, Everton and Manchester City's new stadium. Advertisers on the trial network included Samsung, Guinness and Universal Pictures.

"It's starting to get a critical mass," says Davies. "While very specific targeting is good, you often want big numbers as well, especially if you're targeting a group that's as broad as men."

The big screens inside the stadia are also a potent advertising vehicle. Chris Tate, managing director of Chelsea Digital Media, says the screens bring fans into the stadium early with interviews or coverage of previous games and reach the typical Chelsea fan, an ABC1 with a household income of more than £50,000.

Ambient opportunities such as washroom ads have also made it into sporting venues. MZUK has a network of more than 6,000 sites, mostly in male washrooms, although it does have a female presence in some North-Eastern clubs.

Next season it also hopes to offer a network of six-sheets in some Premier League clubs. The aim is to develop between 400 and 600 sites, says head of sales Ron Hutchison.

"Six-sheets will be a very different proposition. Once we've reached a critical mass, it'll be talking to national brands that perhaps wouldn't like a rest room ad," he says.

Advertisers that have used MZUK's washroom network include Eidos, Eurosport, TalkSport and Argos.

Other ambient opportunities include seat-back advertising, although these have yet to become a regular on schedules. "No one's done it on a large scale. If they can get the pricing right, I think they've got a lot of opportunity there," says Hyperspace's Davies.

Goal poster advertising

Other new opportunities for next season include goal poster advertising, an opportunity for brands to put their name between the sticks at football and rugby grounds both before the game and at half-time.

Sized between a 48- and 96-sheet, the package is on offer at 96 football clubs and during the Six Nations rugby, says First Radio Sales sales manager Rebecca Merchant.

The product was launched mid-season and has yet to be used, but according to Merchant "there are people in serious discussions for the start of next season".

The most traditional opportunities at sporting events are perimeter boards. However, Posterscope's Davis says that many football clubs now demand a long-term commitment in return for access.

"We bought some stuff for News International at some of the England away games - these are one of the few games you can get into," he says. "At home games you have to be a tied-up FA sponsor."

Other footballing opportunities include the FA Cup from the third round to the quarter-finals. Boards are also a possibility at horse racing, although the audiences will be older and more downmarket. High costs at golf and motor-racing can make this an expensive option.

Very often the presence at the live game is merely the starting point for other activity. After all, only a limited number of fans will see your ad at the game.

Brand legitimacy

Spicer says involvement in live events is useful because it gives brands legitimacy.

"Take someone like Heineken or Carlsberg, the live event is important because it gives you legitimacy to be involved," he says. "They can then take it into an ad campaign or a broader experience."

He cites the Shell Optimax campaign as an example of how a company can leverage its involvement with Ferrari to promote its products to a wider public.

Hamish Dawson, publishing director of IPC's Rugby World and Golf Monthly, highlights the difference in size between the live audience and the total fan base.

"In the golf market, four million play regularly, 5.5 million will watch it on TV, but 2.5 million read monthly golf titles. The number who watch it live is about 200,000," he says.

According to figures from Sponsorship Intelligence, analysis of the TGI research report of fans who have paid to watch sport in the past 12 months shows that while the football live audience is heavily male, cricket and rugby union attendees are even more so.

While interest in rugby union and football peaks at 35 to 44, cricket peaks a decade later. Rugby league has been successful in targeting younger fans, with its highest index at 15 to 24 years of age. Sponsorship Intelligence's analysis indicates that TV is less male-dominated, although shows such as The Premiership and World Cup games index highly on "like to watch".

Cricket and rugby union coverage garner strong AB indexes, but coverage of the Commonwealth Games attracted a strong female audience.

The most fundamental difference between the live audience and the TV audience is that it is a passive audience. Even the audience for one of the most exciting matches of the past season - Manchester United versus Real Madrid - will have included a large passive element.

Figures include "a whole lot of people, mainly passive females who happen to be in the room but who aren't really showing a lot of interest", says David Peters, broadcast planning director at Carat.

Other sports can provide a more committed audience. "Sky Sports gets a particular hard core of attentive golf audiences. With that amount of choice, if you still want to watch golf you've got to like golf to do that," he adds.

The bulk of advertisers will be male-focused and the mix will be dominated by beers, cars and sports equipment. While it is possible to build a brand association with sport through spot advertising, it can be difficult.

Strong creative

"If the creative's strong and the strategy's consistent, you can derive an association with a sport or an event through advertising," says Peters.

"Three brands have managed it - Nike, John Smiths and Adidas - but most don't because they're either inconsistent with their strategy or they've got creative that doesn't entertain."

Broadcast sponsorship transcends this problem by being part of the coverage, he argues, citing Toyota and F1 and Guinness and the 1999 Rugby World Cup.

Specialist channels such as Chelsea TV or MUTV offer another way to target committed sports fans. Chelsea Digital Media's Tate says Chelsea TV now has "tens of thousands of subscribers" after 40% growth year on year.

Multiple scheduling of Premiership games shown "as live" pulls in a strong audience from this committed viewer base of predominantly wealthy Londoners aged between 18 and 44. "I expect 100% of our subscribers to watch it over the first two days," he says.

Nevertheless, the fact that the channel is not on Barb has restricted opportunities as a numbers buy, but  advertisers with a close link to the club are likely to benefit from additional access to the TV channel from next season.

"[We're going to say] if you've already bought into Chelsea then, from the next season, let's allocate some of that spend toward Chelsea media across all media, Big Blue radio, internet and the TV channel," he says.

While it is possible to target sporting events, either live or via TV, a number of brands are doing both.

Sports watch brand Sector has been active in the Moto GP arena, as a sponsor of the Aprilia racing team. It is now launching a pan-European TV campaign on Eurosport.

"The effect of the two initiatives is expected to be synergistic," says Paolo Maggi of Mediaedge:cia's Milan office.

Closer to home, The Times combined its sponsorship of the England cricket team with a TV sponsorship of Channel 4's coverage. "The purpose of our live event activity was to make spectators aware of the quality of The Times' cricket coverage," says David Reilly, director of Carat Sport.

"Our presence and activities on the ground were then reinforced by the broadcast sponsorship."

When Arsenal play Manchester United, it is not just a case of two football teams battling it out. It is also a case of rival mobile networks going head to head.

The league's top teams have benefited from this telecoms rivalry to the tune of a reported £7.5m a year from Vodafone in the case of Manchester United and £5m a year for Arsenal, courtesy of O2.

"Shirt sponsorship is a particularly effective vehicle for achieving greater brand saliency among 16 to 34-year-old men," says David Reilly, director of Carat Sport. "A football shirt sponsorship gives you a drip presence across the year and the weighted media value in the UK delivered by shirt sponsorship is likely to be three times greater than the price paid."

Sponsorship is a growth market and, according to figures from Sports Marketing Surveys, the UK market is up five per cent since 2001. "The audience is being targeted through sponsorship rather than through advertising," says director Nigel Geach.

For Vodafone, which also sponsors the Ferrari F1 team and the England cricket team, association with the Manchester United brand value of "success" brings a big reward.

Terry Gorst, associate director at OMD Affinity, says the deal gives the brand exposure both in the UK and internationally. "It gives them a platform to use outside the UK too, with other teams that wouldn't be possible," he says.

Media value is calculated from media exposure both on TV and in the press, while, on the commercial side, the deal also includes text services for fans, providing exclusive texts and news.

The deal that O2 signed at Arsenal also has a strong commercial side. In addition to an up-front sponsorship fee, it included a partnership to share revenue from new interactive services.