Industry experts at the first Sponsorship and Marketing conference in London, organised by The World Advertising Research Centre and Admap, discussed the different elements and future progress of sponsorship and advertising last week.
Sandra Greer, director of the European Sponsorship Association, cited viewer recognition and brand awareness as two areas in which sponsorship excels itself, backing up her claims with two campaign case studies.
A sports marketing survey looking at brand awareness over the 1999 Cricket World Cup, found that 50% of viewers correctly named a sponsor of the event, while 24% named an advertiser. The study revealed that campaigns that received 10%+ awareness used both sponsorship and advertising, while the lowest levels of awareness, under 5%, were received by those who just advertised and were not official sponsors.
These findings were confirmed in a similar survey over the 2003 Rugby World Cup, which revealed that consumers had good recall levels of brands that sponsored and advertised. However, of those who did only one or the other, only 3 advertisers were recalled, compared to 7 sponsors.
David Peters, head of sponsorship at Carat, argued that media sponsorship was “more than just media buying by another name”, citing Carat’s highly successful campaign for Baileys, sponsoring Sex and the City.
The results of the campaign saw brand awareness rise by 26% year on year, with sales of Baileys during the sponsorship period increasing by 14%. The number of respondents who claimed seeing the campaign make them ‘want a Baileys’ increased by an impressive 72% year on year. Following the successful sponsorship of 2001, Baileys renewed the deal in 2002 and went on to sponsor Sex and The City, until the last series in April 2004.
Peters and Greer both advocated the use of sponsorship as a medium able to achieve more than advertising, if executed correctly using research and consumer insight.
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