The pandemic is reinventing sponsorship as a performance-marketing channel, with sponsors measuring success through business outcomes rather than brand-building metrics.
Key points
- The types of brands attracted to sponsorship are changing. Travel and automotive brands have pulled back and are being replaced by e-commerce businesses and fintech firms like Mercuryo.
- Newer entrants are pushing for shorter deals. While traditional agreements tended to last years, recent deals, such as ASB Bank’s with New Zealand’s Eden Park stadium, can be measured in months or even weeks.
- Digital brands are inclined to move away from-fixed price sponsorship to deals involving performance-related fees. In the Netherlands, cryptocurrency brand Knaken is sponsoring football club Sparta Rotterdam, which will earn Bitcoins based on the team’s on-field performance.
Why it matters
A major motivator behind much sponsorship investment is the ability it gives brands to reach people attending events. With sports taking place in empty stadia and cultural centres closed, sponsorship’s inherent brand-building qualities are potentially diminished.
Key quote
“[COVID-19] will ultimately end up making this fairly traditional discipline an even more creative, relevant and effective marketing channel for a wider range of brands in the long-term.” – Alex Burmaster, Caytoo.
Caytoo will be hosting a webinar called 'The Future of Sponsorship: exploring 2021 and beyond' on Thursday 4th March at 8.30am GMT. Click here for more details.
Sourced from WARC
