Sine Qua Non

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Blogvent Day 16: A new year and new decade in 16 days time

Sponsorship

For most of the last 10 years growth in sponsorship has been both consistent and strong. With significant growth in the Asia/Pacific region leading the way, the global sponsorship market accounted for about £43.5 billion in 2008. Europe and the US were by no means left out, also posting double digit growth rates for much of the decade, even after discounting very high growth areas such as broadcast sponsorship.

But then the global recession of 2009 has hit hard. It is not so much the short term impact as a large number of sponsorships are multi-year deals, but the knock on effect over the next few years. Just like employment figures are a lagging indicator of economic times, we think that while there will be clusters of growth and development, sponsorship as a whole will still face a few tough years. This in no way bears any relation to the success or value of sponsorship as a marketing tool; in fact the opposite is true. It is just the plain simple economics of corporations reducing expenditure in tough times, with marketing in many businesses, like it or not, an easy target for cuts in discretionary spending.

But as companies realise that marketing is a sine qua non for a healthy and sustainable business, sponsorship will surely continue its steady growth. While advertising and many above the line marketing activities offer a certain level of control in terms of exposure and message they lack the interaction and engagement delivered by sponsorship. It is that engagement that drives a real “hearts and minds” connection that creates sustainable loyalty and ultimately returns.

Sponsorship has always been more of a qualitative tool, but it can also back that up with real hard numbers in terms of impact on the business. This is just one of the reasons that we think sponsorship will continue to develop and grow strongly over the next decade.

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