Today, for brands, clubs and federations, what matters in a sponsorship is no longer visibility alone, but the value it generates for the business
More and more often, our partners in sport ask us: “How did the sponsorship perform, and how much did it contribute to the business? Which property should I choose based on my business objectives?” These are concrete needs that show the industry has entered a more mature phase.
Today: we measure activity more than effects
Reach, impressions, screen time, media value: sports sponsorship is already one of the most measured areas of marketing. The limit emerges when the board asks whether the investment has changed perceptions, brought in customers or supported sales.
A media value of €15 million, on its own, does not tell you whether a sponsorship has worked. That is why our first recommendation is simple: before asking what can be measured, ask what outcome you want to achieve.
Our method: the Sponsorship Outcomes Pyramid
To connect activity and impact, we developed the Sponsorship Outcomes Pyramid. The model starts from the investment and rises to commercial results, passing through exposure, recall, engagement, brand impact and behaviour. The higher you go, the more structured the measurement becomes and the greater the value for the business.
The Sponsorship Outcomes Pyramid: each level generates a different outcome, from the opportunity to be seen through to commercial value.
Each level of measurement has its own specific tools: BIS-X metrics weight visibility by the likelihood of recall, brand KPI measurement tracks consumer perceptions of brands, and Profiles, Shopper and custom surveys estimate purchasing behaviour when sales data is not available.
Our second strategic insight is that there is no universal KPI: every objective requires its own measurement framework.
From “Was it seen?” to “How did it work?”: a shift already under way
For years the question was exposure: was the brand seen? Then came effectiveness: did it work? Today brands, clubs, leagues and federations are already asking for the next step, contribution: how did it work, and which part of the partnership generated growth?
What until recently seemed a distant goal has become a concrete demand. Companies are expected to justify every investment precisely, while clubs must demonstrate to partners a value that goes beyond logo presence. Measuring visibility alone is no longer enough.
One premise and four changes already under way
Point zero: exposure remains the necessary condition, not the goal. Without visibility a sponsorship cannot produce any effect, which is why it will continue to be measured. However, screen time and media value describe an opportunity, not a result: they are the starting point of the analysis, not its conclusion.
1. Recall is the bridge between visibility and impact. Being seen does not mean being remembered. Two brands with the same exposure can achieve very different results if only one of them stays in fans’ memory and becomes associated with the team. That is why the most advanced metrics, such as BIS-X, weight visibility by the likelihood of recall, making it possible to compare sponsorships on the basis of their real effect rather than mere presence.
2. Individual fan data makes attribution possible. Today it is possible to observe what a buyer persona has seen, thought and done in relation to an activation: whether they noticed the sponsor, changed their opinion of the brand, considered it or bought it. This is what makes it possible to attribute part of the results to the partnership, instead of simply assuming it.
3. AI speeds up measurement, but does not replace interpretation. Artificial intelligence is already making activities such as logo recognition, social content analysis and data processing faster and cheaper. Having more data, more quickly, does not however mean understanding better. Establishing which elements of the partnership produced an effect, and why, still requires strategic expertise and a critical reading of the results.
4. Competitive advantage lies in contribution. By contribution we mean the share of business results (awareness, consideration, new customers, sales) directly attributable to the partnership, as distinct from the effects of other marketing levers. Those able to quantify it have stronger arguments: brands to allocate budget and renew the most effective deals, clubs to demonstrate the value of their offer to partners and negotiate on objective grounds.
These changes have one thing in common: measurement itself is no longer the main challenge. Value has shifted to the ability to interpret data and connect it.
For a brand new to the market aiming for awareness, what matters is understanding how far exposure has translated into recall and association with the team. For a market leader aiming to acquire customers, what matters is including sponsorship in marketing mix models, alongside advertising and CRM, to estimate its real contribution. In both cases the question is the same, and it is already relevant: which part of the investment produced which result?
From sponsorship to partnership intelligence
Sport is already changing shape. Fans follow events across broadcast, streaming, social media, creator channels and increasingly personalised experiences, while fixed camera shots are losing weight in TV coverage. Sponsors are investing well beyond pitch-side boards and shirt logos: dedicated content, creator collaborations, community programmes, fan experiences, data and technology.
Sponsorship has become partnership, and exposure is just one chapter of a bigger story. There has never been so much data on what fans see, remember, share, try and do. The challenge is understanding which elements of the partnership drive awareness, which drive consideration and behaviour, and which create commercial value. In the boardroom, nobody asks any more how many seconds the logo was on screen: they ask what the partnership has brought to the company. The winners today are those who can bring together visibility, recall, engagement, brand impact, behaviour and commercial results into a single story of contribution.