In the evolving and dynamic world of marketing, sports sponsorship has emerged as a powerful medium for businesses that aim to enhance their brand’s visibility. A well-calculated and planned sports sponsorship not only grants the business better visibility but also helps them to connect with the target audience and derive a tangible Return On Investment (ROI). However, with the vast category of sports and numerous team options available for sponsorship, it becomes imperative for the business to measure and strategically optimize its sports sponsorship ROI. In this blog, we will explore the essential steps and metrics that help businesses maximize their investment in sports sponsorship.
What is Sports Sponsorship?
With the evolving inclination of the populace towards sports, sports sponsorship has emerged as the best opportunity for the brand to enhance its audience reach, develop trust, and earn the loyalty of its targeted audience. It is a systematic approach that is different from the conventional mode of advertisement. In simple words, it is the result-oriented approach of associating a brand with a sports team, player, event, tournament, or organization that offers an incredible ROI.
How Does a Brand Enhance Its ROI On Sports Sponsorship?
To maximize the ROI, a brand needs to follow a few essential steps and metrics. Let’s discuss the top five important aspects to take into consideration by brands when evaluating the return from sports sponsorship to obtain maximum profit.
Defined Strategy For Sponsorship
Every brand needs to define its clear objective when planning for sports sponsorship. The establishment of the brand’s objective should align with its overall marketing goal, i.e., whether it is for creating brand awareness, driving massive sales, promoting customer engagement, etc. With a well-defined approach, a brand not only derives the desired ROI but also earns goodwill in their respective sector.
Identifying The Key Performance Index
The next step in the process of enhancing the ROI on sports sponsorship is the identification and establishment of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). For any brand, KPIs serve as the benchmark regarding the capital invested in sponsorship. The common KPIs include brand visibility, sales impact, audience engagements, and brand perception among the populace. To measure the growth of the brand, it is mandatory to analyze the quality of traffic on its website before, during, and after the sponsorship.
Before and After Analysis
To measure the ROI of brand sponsorship, a before-and-after analysis of the brand’s growth is exceptionally important. A brand needs to set a list of objectives along with a baseline study with the aid of metrics and a performance indicator before the sponsorship. On the other hand, once the sponsorship period reaches maturity, a brand can measure the growth in the form of the brand’s visibility, exposure, prominence during the event, conversion of the target audience into potential customers, and revenue generated from sales. In addition, the brand can perform before-and-after analysis through consumer research across key markets and target groups, social media trackers, website traffic, and overall brand reach against the established objectives, which helps the brand define its strengths and specific areas to focus on.
Adequately Calculating The Media Value Equivalent- Brand Prominence Value (BPV)
The best way to quantify the impact of sports sponsorship ROI in monetary terms is by calculating the Brand Prominence Value® (TAM Sports) which is the Media Value Equivalent. When a brand calculates the BPV, it assigns a rupee value to the exposure a brand receives through sponsorship. It is an appropriate medium that includes the equivalent cost of advertising on a particular media channel or platform. With the advertising equivalency method, a brand knows its monetary value and provides a justified ROI to the stakeholders for making an informed decision for future sponsorship opportunities and investments.
Cost per Impression and Cost Per Engagement
To ensure the proper allocation of budget that yields a higher ROI, Cost Per Impression (CPI) and Cost Per Engagement (CPE) play a crucial role. CPI and CPE are vital metrics that assess the efficiency of sports sponsorship. CPI is dedicated to calculating the cost of each impression, which highlights the cost-effectiveness of the brand’s visibility. On the other hand, CPE measures the cost incurred for every interaction, i.e., click, share, or comment. For a comprehensive Sports sponsorship ROI, CPI and CPE also play a vital role, as CPI is important in defining the relationship with the audience, whereas CPE indicates a higher level of interest from the user.
Why Is Sports Sponsorship ROI Evaluation Important?
In the ever-evolving, fast-paced, and competitive world of marketing, every investment, including sports sponsorship, needs to be justified as well as optimized for better returns. Sports sponsorship is a valuable asset for generating better exposure and engagement for the brand. The evaluation of ROI acts as a strategic imperative for the brand, aiming to explore its existence in the dynamic arena of modern marketing. Apart from this, there are certain additional benefits for sports sponsorship ROI evaluation.
Insight Into Effectiveness
Evaluating sports sponsorships ROI offers valuable insights regarding the sponsorship strategy. It is different from the traditional metrics as it allows us to quantify the return generated from this unique investment.
Informed Decision-making
Evaluating ROI helps the business make an informed decision for future investment(s). In addition, it helps the brand define the area that empowers them and helps them allocate resources more effectively.
Accountability And Transparency
Accountability and transparency act as the assurance for every entity entitled to brand that their investment is assigned to deliver a tangible return. In addition, it helps strengthen future sponsorships.
Data-Driven Decision Making
Calculating ROI for sports sponsorship helps measure the success of sponsorship against the predefined objectives. It also helps the brand make amendments, such as to boost sales, foster community engagements, or enhance brand awareness.
Fosters Continuous Improvement
The ability to measure the ROI on sports sponsorship fosters accountability, which helps in continuous improvement. It also helps the brand stay ahead of the curve in the evolving landscape of sports marketing.
Wrapping it up!
Evaluating ROI on Sports Sponsorship is important for every brand. It is a strategic approach to evaluate the future initiative towards enhancing sponsorship. With strategic evaluation, a brand can make data-driven decisions, optimize its market investment, and unlock the full potential of sports sponsorship. In doing so, a brand should keep a close eye on various metrics such as Visibility/exposures during the event, website traffic, social media engagement, conversion rates, and customer retention figures from sponsorship.
If you are looking for an effective sponsorship monitoring service provider for your sports sponsorship, then look no further. Contact us today and seek the best assistance from us!