Sports sponsorship vs. advertising (page 2 of 2)

a successful sponsorship shows increases in brand awareness and commitment by the third year. For one-time events, awareness and media exposure are the key aspects since commitment is not built with single events.

Media exposure is the most common method used to measure ROI. It benchmarks a dollar value on your sponsorship, and includes television, news/promotional segments, print, on-site, radio and any international audience data. However, when evaluating sponsorships, it is important to note that 15 seconds of logo exposure creates a smaller dollar value than 15 seconds of advertising.

Measuring media exposure has traditionally been done by individuals looking and listening for brand names or company logos on signage at stadiums, JumbotronsTM, team marks, verbal mentions and event materials. However, today's newest and most sophisticated method to determine exposure uses digital technology. This provides faster and more reliable information because it eliminates the human error. It also provides a better range of coverage including logo position and size - and can even measure exposure time to a hundredth of a second.

To calculate the potential sales value generated by a sponsorship, the awareness level of the brand is multiplied by the fans' actual purchase or intent to purchase ratio. The types of questions asked to determine awareness include overall awareness of a league or event, category awareness, and the brand image associated with the sponsored team, player, event or league.

Commitment is the final factor in the calculation of ROI. Stronger than satisfaction or loyalty, commitment is a measure that combines both attitudes and emotion and has the ability to predict future behaviour. It determines the strength of the relationship between a consumer and a brand and is a key element in brand building. Commitment measures enable a sponsor to answer questions like:

• which sponsorship creates the strongest relationship with my target customers?

• which sponsorship has the greatest potential for attracting new customers?

The more committed a fan is, the more he or she is prepared to spend. It is possible to calculate the financial impact of sponsorship activities by analyzing the average expenditure for each commitment segment.

Measuring each of the factors in an ROI evaluation independently is necessary in effectively managing your brand communication. When these elements are combined, the result is a wide-angle view of sponsorship that includes opportunity as well as attitudinal, emotional and behavioural measures.