Sponsorship Data Identifies 2018’s Top Brands


Which Brands Have The Most Effective Sponsorship Portfolios?

Data enables brands to make decisions more effectively. A recent Forrester study revealed that “companies with advanced analytics cultures averaged a 9.1% increase in marketing ROI over the last one to two years – a 1.7x performance improvement over those without.” When it comes to sponsorship, the effectiveness of data holds true as well.

Data, and the insights derived from it, are now being used by many brands to understand the latest trends. For example, the unstructured data from social and digital media can be used to understand the content, media (image or video) or sponsored influencer who most resonated with a brand’s audience and even identify one they may not have thought to leverage. Using these insights, a brand can plan and execute highly effective campaigns, achieving the highest engagement rates and maximum ROI.

With so much data available and the demand for marketing accountability by finance departments, brands have begun to implement performance-based sponsorships. Here’s a quick breakdown of how the performance-based sponsorship model works:

  1. Brand & Sports Property agree upon goals
    • Objectives can be on-field (wins, making the playoffs, etc.) or off-field (social engagement, brand awareness, etc.)
  2. Progress is tracked toward goals
  3. Incentives are paid when goals are achieved

These performance-based sponsorships help brands understand which sponsorships result in maximum ROI and help them stay relevant and connected with the consumer.

One of the key components of performance-based sponsorships is the ability to identify and measure the sponsorship metrics that matter, to ensure that the sponsored properties meet the objectives of the sponsor. Here are a few of the most important metrics for brand marketers:

  1. Sponsorship ROI
  2. Brand Preference
  3. Localized Sales Lift

At the early stages of sponsorship evaluation, brand marketers typically rely on property-provided metrics because they are free and easy. However, according to Marketing Accountability Standards Board, these metrics typically “lack transparency and have bias.” A third-party platform such as Hookit can provide unbiased measurement for a brand sponsor. In order to help brands understand the effectiveness of their sponsorship portfolio, we have developed the Hookit Brand Score. This score looks at how well sports properties are promoting each brand, assigning a score across three metrics that combine to one final total, the Hookit Brand Score. For a look at how the average Hookit Brand Score differs across segments, download the full report here.

Figure 1: A look at the Hookit Brand Score for top spending brands in the Beverage category


About Hookit: A pioneer in the spontech space, Hookit is the leading single source platform for quantifying sports sponsorship value across all forms of media. Hookit works with brands and rights holders to expand their sponsorship intelligence, allowing them to buy and sell sponsorships more effectively. Learn more at www.hookit.com.