Sponsors had claimed that they need a better sense of ROI for their investments that media measurement or other claims of ROI that properties were providing to sponsors. In short, sponsors were demanding that the properties be responsible for providing the ROI to the sponsors. The issue has manifested itself in several measurement approaches that by default let sponsors not become involved in the measurement process. In no way are the sponsors clearly sharing their objectives to the properties, yet at the same time demanding better measurement of the ROI.

The fundamental problem is that sponsors need to take ownership of their own objectives. They need to ensure that their sponsorship objectives are clear and align with the companies overall marketing objectives. This sounds obvious but it is the critical point to which the issue and challenge of sponsorship measurement revolves. If a sponsor lacks clear sponsorship objectives, then they place the onus of measuring sponsorship ROI onto the property. They would therefore expect a property to provide sponsorship ROI on their behalf. This immediately puts the property in a position where it needs to second guess a sponsors key business objectives and motivations for their investment.

How would a property know the business objectives of a sponsor? Virtually no sponsors include properties in their company strategy meetings or in a company plan. Properties simply do not have the insider view of a sponsors objectives and it is unrealistic to expect them to know the sponsors business.

Given a lack of clear objectives, the default measurement approach has been to traditionally use media valuation and sponsorship scorecard systems. Both these methods can be easily used as they are not based on the sponsor’s key business objectives. Hence, properties use these methods in providing sponsorship ROI to sponsors.

The main criticism of the sponsorship ROI by sponsors is related to these measurements not being sufficient to demonstrate sponsorship ROI. The sponsor wants to know if a sponsorship is selling more cars or beer for example. It is a big ‘so what’ if all the sponsorship ROI is about is about counting a logo or rating the sponsorship on a scale of 1 to 10.

It has to come back to the ownership of the ROI measurement process. Only sponsors can really measure their sponsorship ROI, as they know the business objectives and are in a better position to ensure that any ROI justification is in a language that demonstrates a sound understanding of their business. Properties are not in a position to really provide the insight that a sponsor needs, instead they should be focused on doing what they do best which is engaging with fans and providing a marketing opportunity for a sponsor.

Sponsors need to step forward and take ownership of the measurement process as this is not something that a property should have to provide to a sponsor. The methodologies are available for market orientated sponsorship ROI but this is only something that the sponsors can drive forward, never the properties.

“Research is becoming an increasingly important tool to prove the value of sponsorship in an economic environment where investment is coming under greater scrutiny, according to sponsorship professionals.

Tanya Veingard, head of sponsorship at Aviva UK, which sponsors UK Athletics, says investment in necessary to evaluate the success of a sponsorship even in a recessionary environment, adding cutting research budgets is a “dangerous thing to do”. (Source: Marketing Week)

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Unfortunately, many arts organizations do not highlight many of these key elements when seeking sponsorship. Many of the sponsorship proposals from arts organizations are well thought out and have a good sense of style about them but there is often something missing in terms of the value proposition. The value of the arts sponsorship is not ‘consumer-centric’, instead it is focused on a sales package incentives as if they were selling to sponsors the same messages as what you would use to sell to the audience. Too much about selling a sales package and not enough about a potential sponsors marketing and corporate objectives.

The value of arts sponsorship is that it can achieve results for sponsors in ways that cannot be achieved from other forms of marketing. The best advertising, digital media or public relations campaign is often unable to achieve the same type of results. The unique aspects of arts sponsorship simply cannot be replicated with other types of marketing or sponsorship types. This is evident from a measurement perspective, especially in understanding the sponsorship ROI itself.

When looking at value arts sponsorship from a ROI perspective, the attraction of arts sponsorships is related to several key factors.

The Target Audience

Firstly, passion for arts properties is very specific to a target audience. It is highly targeted and more often than not, this particular segment of the market is a hard to reach by conventional marketing methods. The key aspect is the passion. Now with SponsorMap, we use a benchmark called the PassionIndex to measure the level of emotional engagement to properties. The stronger the passion, the higher the level of engagement.

In the example below are results taken from a national sample of adults 16+ that was representative of the the general population. What is shown is the specific analysis of the high income, female segment of the national market. This segment obviously is very appealing for many businesses that wish to build relationships with existing or prospective customers. Whether it is financial products, fashion or prestige cars, this target audience is a key market segment for many companies.

Passion Index Ratings Arts Property in a Segmented Market

Looking at the PassionIndex slide it is clear with this consumer segment arts properties strongly engage with them. Hence, if there is a high level of emotional engagement then that by itself is attractive as corporations can build relationships through sponsorship with these types of arts properties. It is important to remember that the market needs to be segmented to identify opportunities for consumer engagement and this process does often highlight good opportunities in the arts area for sponsorship that can be missed. Not every type of consumer is open to arts sponsorship, but the key consideration is that there are segments of the overall general public that are receptive.

Sponsor Fit/Brand Alignment
Is the partnership between the sponsor and the arts property a good brand alignment? Does it enhance a sponsor’s brand image? This is often mentioned as a key deliverable of all types of sponsorship. It is actually something that can be fairly easily measured as it is just a matter of asking the right questions. A good quantitative survey can be used to do this. Typical results from arts sponsorships are shown in the slide below.

Brand Enhancement of Sponsorship

It shows the image attributes of the sponsor and how the sponsorship is enhancing them. In this case, it is about the arts sponsor property influencing the image ratings of the brand. Ideally, we would demonstrate this with a control sample or a pre and post measurement, but this will often suffice for most sponsorship evaluations for the arts.

Sponsor Appreciation
This is a very strong feature of arts sponsorship. Sponsors of arts properties tend to rate very highly on this measure, meaning there is a strong level of overall appreciation to sponsors for their involvement. They are seen to have done the ‘good thing’ and helped something that is of importance to people. This influence is what as known as Balance Theory, it is the change in attitudes to a sponsor/brand that occurs due to the direct involvement with the property. People will adjust their attitudes to a corporation because they are perceived to have done the right thing. (Not everybody feels appreciation, some feel in more than others and some do not feel it at all.) In the example below, brand advocacy is strongly influence by the appreciation felt towards the sponsor based on gratitude, as measured by the Gratitude Index.

Sponsor Appreciation Enhances the Value of Sponsorship Itself

With arts sponsorships, this influence can deliver major dividends for sponsors and is an influence not generated from other forms of traditional marketing communications such as advertising. Hence, when measuring the value of an arts sponsorship it is essential to demonstrate the gratitude to a sponsor for their involvement as arts sponsorship perform very well on this measure. This is a unique feature that should be emphasized as the impact can be quite dramatic.

Survey methods are highly recommended to measure the contribution of an arts sponsorship. There are several reasons, namely sponsorship is about attitude and behavior change for a sponsor, without this there is no ROI. Sponsorship’s impact is only felt if it achieves a modest amount of attitude and behavioural change. Other measures are also useful, but should be viewed provides additional metrics of overall contribution. If you have them then that is terrific as they build the overall case for the value of the sponsorship overall.

It should be remembered that demonstrating the appeal of the arts sponsorship to prospective sponsors and subsequently linking it to the sponsor’s own objectives in a measurable way provides a strong case for sponsorship. Likewise, for corporations considering sponsorship of the arts, there are ways in which a well planned sponsorship can drive marketing and business results much more effectively than traditional marketing communication methods.

Overall it is the consumer-centric approaches to sponsorship that is the best way to measure value. What is important how audiences emotionally engage with a brand/property partnership in the arts. That is the foundation of the business case for arts sponsorships and the reason why it can be a power relationship building tool for any Marketing Director or CEO looking at the arts.

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It’s an interesting result as it does underscore the key differences between sponsorship and other forms of marketing communication. Advertising is communicating to consumers in an interruption mode wheres sponsorship communicates to people in a passion mode through a property.

In terms of consumer behaviour, a property will have higher trust from a fan than a company. People are passionate about their teams and heros and have a much higher level of trust towards them. A golf fan is going to much more likely to let Tiger Woods into their house than a complete stranger. When brands associate with properties (such as Tiger Woods) they borrow some of that ‘trust’ through association.

Trust is something that is earned from both a brand and a property. It is a rare commodity in today’s saturated marketing environment. Certainly, these survey results do highlight that in terms of sponsorship ROI and effectiveness one of the key dimensions for sponsors that can be improved is consumer trust.

Whilst Man Utd is not necessarily representative of the whole global sponsorship industry, it has been used as a ‘lamp-post’ or ‘barometer’ by many for the general health of sponsorship overall. Questions on the health of sponsorship itself have been raised by much of the media including sports, business and advertising/marketing media based on Man Utd’s ability to forge new marketing partnerships or retain them over time. 

Today it was announced that Man Utd has settled on a new sponsor to replace AIG, called AON (Chicago-based AON specialises in the reinsurance market). The value of the sponsorship deal is not disclosed but is estimated to be worth more than US$130 million over four years.

The comments from AON are quite interesting as they highlight the key reasons for such a significant investment from the company. Greg Case, president and chief executive officer of AON commented:

“It is a unique opportunity when two leaders in their respective fields can come together in a partnership such as the one we are announcing today,” added G. “Manchester United has one of the most recognized sports brands in the world. David and his team are all about winning and about excellence; the same holds true for the Aon team. We play to win in our business, and that is why we believe this partnership will create tremendous benefits for both organizations worldwide.

“While we are delighted that our brand will be showcased to the over 330 million fans of Manchester United as well as the countless followers of football worldwide, we also are extremely excited about the opportunity to maximize the value of this partnership globally.”

The message here is that AON is looking at there partnership with Man Utd to strengthen their brand globally. Based on the AIG experience it is something that can be well anticipated, after its first year sponsoring the team, AIG became the 47th most recognised global brand and jumped from number 84 to number 30 on Barron’s list of most respected companies.

Sponsorship remains a key platform for building global brands even in today’s tough economic environment, as evident from today’s announcement from the world of football.

Marketing Directors and CEOs are seeking more certainty and results to be able to measure sponsorship as part of the overall marketing communications toolkit. Traditional reliance on sponsor recall and valuations of media exposure alone are simply insufficient to hold up for detailed scrutiny, sponsors want a lot more. 

Quoting a highly respected sports marketing agency.

‘Research is the Backbone of Sponsorship, it is like a lamp post for a drunken man – it is just as vital for support as illumination’

There is certainly an increased focus on survey based methods to augment sponsorship research. This is a natural development as survey based methods have been the backbone of measuring advertising effectiveness for at least two decades now. Survey based methods of evaluation both for pre-testing and tracking performance has become ingrained into the advertising landscape. This has made it a lot easier for the advertising business to communicate the value proposition and deliverables of advertising spend and has provided comfort and accountability for significant investments for major advertisers over many years. 

The sponsorship industry has been slow to reach the same level of sophistication as their advertising cousins, but in the last few months this has begun to rapidly change. It is a clear sign that understanding of the value of sponsorship is improving, the challenging economic environment has facilitated a greater focus on the industries ‘biggest issue’ and companies are responding well by conducting more survey based research which has been overdue.

The US$40+ billion global sponsorship market has needed to raise the bar in evaluation and the current environment is accelerating this transformation. 

The webinar is free and is for those properties, sponsors and agencies seeking to learn more about sponsorship measurement. A presentation is conducted via the internet with a conference call and IM to allow for interaction from participants.

The main areas covered include:

• The Business Case for Measuring Sponsorship
• Understanding Sponsorship Theory and how it relates to measurement
• Developing a measurement plan based on clear sponsorship objectives
• An explanation of the various methods for measuring sponsorship
• Examination of some case studies from both sponsors and properties
• Issues particular to properties, sponsors and agencies
• Q&As

The following schedule for is for May:

May Measuring Sponsorship Effectiveness Webinars

US/Americas Zone (2 dates)

• May 12th Tuesday US ET 2.00pm to 3.30pm
• May 20th Wednesday US ET 2.00pm to 3.30pm

To register your interest please leave your registration details. Once registered we will send a reminder email with more information on the webinar.

These sponsorship research webinars will remain free as they are viewable from your desktop. The only thing you need is an internet connection and a phone line to dial-in.  

Sponsorship is about much more than calculating the value of sponsorship based on media impressions. It is about demonstrating the contributions to brands and the financial gains by measuring outputs not inputs.

SponsorMap is a valuable tool for sponsorship research and evaluation which is why we have partnered with the world’s leading market research agency, TNS.

For more details on upcoming webinars, visit our webinar schedule page or contact TNS to learn more about SponsorMap.

The main areas covered include:

• The Business Case for Measuring Sponsorship
• Understanding Sponsorship Theory and how it relates to measurement
• Developing a measurement plan based on clear sponsorship objectives
• An explanation of the various methods for measuring sponsorship
• Examination of some case studies from both sponsors and properties
• Issues particular to properties, sponsors and agencies
• Q&As

The following schedule for is for April:

April Measuring Sponsorship Effectiveness Webinars

US/Americas Zone (2 dates)

• April 3rd Friday US ET 2.00pm to 3.30pm
• April 9th Thursday US ET 2.00pm to 3.30pm

To register your interest please leave your registration details. Once registered we will send a reminder email with more information on the webinar.