Public Relations & Social Marketing Insight

How much is it worth to sponsor Tiger Woods or Lionel Messi or Rafael Nadal? What’s the payoff for being a sponsor of the Super Bowl, Olympic Games or the World Cup? Considering the huge amounts being spent on sponsorships, companies have surprising difficulty answering these questions.

Corporate spending on sponsorships in the United States is expected to grow to $20 billion in 2013—equal to one-third of total US television advertising and one-half of digital advertising. Yet industry research reveals that about one-third to one-half of US companies don’t have a system in place to measure sponsorship ROI comprehensively.In our experience, executives who implement a comprehensive approach to gauge the impact of their sponsorships can increase returns by as much as 30 percent. A good marketing ROI program uses five metrics to measure the performance of sponsorship spending....

How much is it worth to sponsor Tiger Woods or Lionel Messi or Rafael Nadal? What’s the payoff for being a sponsor of the Olympic Games or the World Cup? Considering the huge amounts being spent on sponsorships, companies have surprising difficulty answering these questions.Corporate spending on sponsorships in the United States is expected to grow to $20 billion in 2013—equal to one-third of total US television advertising and one-half of digital advertising. Yet industry research reveals that about one-third to one-half of US companies don’t have a system in place to measure sponsorship ROI comprehensively.

In our experience, executives who implement a comprehensive approach to gauge the impact of their sponsorships can increase returns by as much as 30 percent.US companies that don’t have a system in place to measure sponsorship ROI comprehensively.

To manage sponsorship spending effectively, advertisers need to first articulate a clear sponsorship strategy―the overall objective of their portfolio, the target demographic, and which stages in the consumer decision journey (awareness, consideration, purchase, loyalty) sponsorships can support. Companies should then implement a complete Marketing ROI program based on five metrics to measure the performance of sponsorship spending...