A key change in sponsorship over the past number of years has been the shift in emphasis from what was purely a brand building exercise into an era where measurable revenue and returns are being sought.
Partly this has been driven by the growth of digital and the ever more reliable ways of tracking activation via very specific targeted campaigns.
The ability to know your customer is greater now than ever before and having a relationship through the assets that a sporting sponsorship can deliver is being measured by what that relationship delivers in hard cash.
AIG’s sponsorship of the Dublin GAA squad has been very much driven by direct response. Use of players in online and outdoor advertising has been focused on offers of free shirts with every new policy that can be attributed to the sponsorship and its associated advertising.
Guinness’ promotion of the Guinness + App delivers real data on who the customers are and when they are being drawn into specific venues and buying pints.
That is a long way from the generic messaging that Guinness is good of you and putting the brand name onto a rugby or soccer shirt or in pitch side banners at Croke Park.
Ironically though research into online advertising in the US suggests that there is a swing back to branding and that it will be the dominant digital strategy by 2017. The numbers are different depending on sector but the overall trend is strong.
In tomorrow’s Friday Forum we will gather the views of Sport for Business members on their perspective of where the line lies between branding and direct response. If you would like to have your voice heard on the subject simply answer the four questions you will find at this link.
Branding Vs Direct Response
