Sponsorship Awareness Increasing – Study
A study carried out on behalf of Channel 4 and its specialist agency, Wood Lynds, reveals that general awareness levels of programme sponsorship among consumers are increasing.
The survey researched attitudes of consumers, clients and agencies. The objectives of the research were to investigate attitudes to sponsorship, awareness levels, advantages and disadvantages and benefits, as well as the value of targeting, and brand v programme imagery relationships.
Among consumers, audience targeting was seen as essential, with unanimous opinion that programme and sponsor should correlate. One female aged between 20 and 45 commented, “If Peak Practice was sponsored by The Sun, it would cheapen the programme image.”
Consumers had the attitude that sponsors should select the right quality programme. Programmes such as weather, drama, sport, comedy and light entertainment were seen as suitable for sponsorship. However, news/politics and documentaries were not seen as suitable for sponsorship. News was inappropriate because of the large amount of bad news, and the danger of impartiality. Documentaries were deemed unsuitable because “Factual programmes need to be serious,” said a 20-45 yr old male.
Benefits to the viewer were:
- Makes a change to spot advertising
- Does not interfere with programme flow
- Short, sharp
- Programme quality maintained
- Better, more interesting programmes
- No evidence to date that sponsors influence programme content eg comedy, cannot change script
Benefits to the sponsor were:
- Ad production costs avoided
- 2 spots every ad break – better value
- Effective – not all programmes therefore high visibility
- Gains viewer attention – want to watch programme; ads, however, make the viewer want to leave the room, switch channels.
Event sponsorship was also seen favourably, with funding for sport seen as the obvious benefit. Sponsors get the advantage of relatively cheap advertising, increased product sales and high audience reach.
Radio sponsorship, although perceived as valuable, was seen as highly repetitive and therefore irritating.
The second stage of the survey was among clients and agencies. 66% of clients and 58% of agencies believe that TV sponsorship is more important nowadays compared to 12 months ago. 80% of clients and 67% of agencies said that a separate budget was allocated for programme sponsorship.
When asked what the main advantages and benefits of programme sponsorships were, 42% of clients said building brand awareness, with 56% of agencies citing programme association.
Particular benefits of sponsorship, besides brand association, were targeting, as it allows access to core target audiences; it is more cost effective, “good value for money, cheaper than buying air time”; it is also seen as more effective. There is less switch off, and more quality airtime exposure, with a consistency of message and environment.
The main disadvantages of programme sponsorship were seen as;
- Lack of synergy-ineffective
- Poor programme performance and image could reflect on product
- limited life span of certain programmes
- Inappropriate programme could create wrong brand image
- Lack of editorial control
- Clutter – difficult to be visible
- Increasing volume of sponsorship means effectiveness reduced
64% of agencies said they were more likely to consider sponsorship than they were 12 months ago. When asked if sponsorship should be used instead of or complimentary to spot advertising, 94% of clients said complimentary, and 90% of agencies.
ITV and C4 fared best when respondents were asked which TV channels offered the best targeted programmes; UK Gold fared worst.
Contact: Wood Lynds 071 916 9449