Sponsorship 2010: review and trends by Sonja Kreye

Despite of the credit crunch and the financial crisis, arthritis the sponsorship industry has grown. Slower than expected – but marketers and sponsorship experts are sure: sponsorship is the marketing measure of the future.

The number of deals during the crisis period has obviously fallen. 78 deals have been reported in November 2008 due to the “World Sponsorship Monitor”. The same source reports 162 deals in August 2010. Although hardly hit by the crisis, even the automobile and the banking sector continued to sponsor. In the ranking list of “most sponsoring industries”, they however lost their leading position to clothing, telecom and airlines.

A very obvious trend it that sponsorship is continuing its way of professionalization. Return on Sponsorship has to be guaranteed from the very beginning of every deal. Sponsorship deals above the border of 10 million US$ become fewer (source “World Sponsorship Monitor). Nevertheless, a few big deals raised the attention in 2010: Dow Chemicals signed a 250 million $ deal with the IOC that will last for 10 years, adidas will be contributing 240 million $ to Chelsea’s F. C. in the next 8 years and Vodafone will continue to support the Scuderia Ferrari in Formula One with 225 million $ in the next 3 years. Even the banking sector is back in the big deals: UBS will be Global Partner of Formula One for 5 years – a deal worth 200 million $ (source “World Sponsorship Monitor”).

All these deals are another sign that sponsorship is the future: While advertising suffered dramatically from the economic downturn, digital media grew and sponsorship is considered the ideal activity for total marketing and brand communication. Sponsorship thus offers an alternative to traditional TV or print advertising approaches.