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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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.

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“We invest in sports for very good reason. Unlike years back when there were only three networks, we now compete with more than 150 cable and satellite channels. It’s incredibly difficult to reach customers in this cluttered realm.

One exception is sports where huge audiences are drawn to live events. NFL games are the #1 rated sports show on television and NASCAR races are #2. FedEx must have a presence in these venues to reach customers. In addition, our research shows that people making shipping decisions are sports fans. We carefully analyze the demographic profile of shippers and this has been a recurring characteristic.”

That a large company like Fedex is committed to sports marketing and sponsorship as a key element of the overall marketing strategy is again demonstrating the paradigm shift from traditional advertising to other areas such as sports sponsorship.

FedEx is also investing in measurement of sponsorship ROI from these events and sponsorship. In fact, FedEx claims it gets a return on investment of $4 to every $1 spent on sports marketing, on average with some promotions even generating up to $14 for every $1 spent.

What FedEx is demonstrating is the media landscape has brought sponsorship and event marketing to the forefront of marketing itself. Traditional advertising, including a reliance on advertising tracking measurement alone is a thing of the past.

Sponsorship, is where the focus is for the marketing and for measurement that should include sponsorship measurement and ROI.

A link to the FedEx blog can be found here

Importantly, SponsorMap™ focuses on measuring outcomes rather than inputs to help you better understand the emotional connection behind your sponsorship marketing.

SponsorMap™ has six modules covering broadcast sponsorship, live events, broad consumer based tracking, corporate hospitality, staff benchmarking and online sponsorship.

Through a partnership with the world’s largest market research company TNS/Research International SponsorMap is available in more than 80 markets across the globe. www.tns-global.com