The way in which sponsorship is evaluated, judged and recommissioned could be about to change with the unveiling of a new approach to monitoring value by The Brand Fans.
The consultancy, headed up by one time Vodafone Sponsorship leader Daragh Persse already works with Heineken here and the Barclays Premier League in the UK and is rolling out a comprehensive evaluation tool so that business involved in sponsorship can be shown real financial metrics on the impact which sponsorship is having.
“There is a strong move towards proving a commercial return from sponsorship as part of the marketing mix,” Persse told Sport for Business this week.
“We have developed a framework where the actual impact on the bottom line can be shown through a number of key indicators that are impacted by sponsorship.”
Activation
“As with everything in this space, it’s all about how a brand seeks to activate the assets which sponsorship gives them and how the sentiment towards a brand can be shifted through association.”
“People are less likely to buy a product they are familiar with just because they saw an ad or a logo.”
“The important thing is how seeing it in a particular context is able to change the way they feel about the sponsor.”
“Sponsorship is a critical part of any marketing campaign now, at local as well as international level because that is what gets you connected to the passion people feel around events and activities.””We help look at data which the brands themselves have and fill gaps that exist in terms of behaviour, sentiment and activity so that a full picture of how advertising has impacted on the buying decision has been reached.”
Sport for Business works with and alongside a number of companies engaged in making the most of sponsorship, from large agencies to individual specialists. The future is about interaction between those agencies and the value each can bring to what is being spent.
Model
The industry in that sense will mirror more closely the advertising model where research, creative and buying strategies are often developed collaboratively as opposed to just within a single entity.
Kantar Media and companies like Olytico in Ireland are developing sentiment analysis tools that will help evaluation. The Brand Fans will be leading players in making sponsorship and partnerships between sport, the arts, communities and business come to life in a more measurable way than has ever been the case before.
