For years, media value ruled the sponsorship world. If your logo was big, bright and front-row on a stadium screen, the job was done. But new research from sports and entertainment consultancy Gemba suggests we’ve hit a turning point: signage is no longer the main event, Intellectual Property (IP) is.
An IP-led sponsorship gives a brand the right to use a team, event, league or athlete’s name, logo, imagery or story in its marketing, not just on the field, but across every touchpoint. It’s the right to say “Official Partner of the Olympics,” to put a Wimbledon logo on your packaging, or to feature Real Madrid players in your next campaign. It’s about buying access to the fan passion that surrounds the property, and embedding that emotional equity into your own brand.
According to Gemba’s GEM 2025 InTel Report, IP now makes up 80 per cent of total deal value for top-tier global events like the Olympics, Wimbledon and The Masters. These events famously offer little-to-no branding opportunities, yet they’re among the biggest sponsorship earners on the planet.
Why? Because they sell something exposure can’t: emotion. Put simply, it’s no longer about how many people see a brand, it’s about how they feel when they do.
The Emotional Edge
Gemba’s Turnstile model has tracked a 35 per cent increase in deals that explicitly price IP since 2021, with nearly half of all modern sponsorship contracts now assigning standalone value to IP.
It’s a significant shift, one that suggests the industry is finally recognising the power of emotional association, not just media impressions. And that shift isn’t just theoretical. It’s already reshaping how creative is developed and how campaigns perform.
Take Gemba’s case study on Real Madrid. In Spain, brand creative that simply featured the club’s badge delivered a 25 per cent lift in likeability, a 13 per cent increase in perceived relevance, and a 20 per cent boost in brand consideration compared to control ads with no IP.
But the real kicker came from international markets. Among Real Madrid fans in the US, who typically have weaker institutional ties to the club, creative featuring both the badge and players significantly outperformed badge-only executions across multiple brand categories.
The data supports a growing trend that many marketers are already sensing: fans connect more strongly with individual athletes than the club itself, especially in overseas markets.
“Our finding here is consistent with evidence we are seeing elsewhere in our data of a ‘player first, club second’ mindset among significant cohorts within overseas fan bases,” the report noted.
“If it wasn’t already, negotiating effective access to premium players during the contracting process has become a key consideration for sponsoring brands”.
The takeaway for agencies and brand teams is clear: IP isn’t just a nice-to-have, it’s a creative multiplier. And to be effective, it needs to be part of the campaign from day one. Waiting until post-production to slap a logo on the end won’t cut it anymore.
“Audiences are more receptive to brand messages in the context of the things they are passionate about. An inherent emotional connection already exists which explains why messaging performs better coming from our favourite passion points,” Gemba noted.
“Effective execution requires seamless integration of Intellectual Property into existing brand and creative narrative, or, ideally, is integrated at the point of ideation”.
It’s Not Just a B2C Play
While it’s easy to understand why categories like sportswear, alcohol and gambling are shelling out for IP, all of which top Gemba’s IP spend index thanks to their endemic ties to sport and culture. But it’s not just the usual suspects driving this trend. Some of the most strategic plays are coming from unexpected sector.
Case in point: NexGen, a Canadian uranium exploration and development company, is using IP-led sponsorships not to reach mass audiences, but to shape internal culture, attract high-performing talent and reinforce its values to stakeholders.
Through partnerships with the Aston Martin Aramco Formula One Team and Canadian teams like the Vancouver Canucks and Saskatchewan Roughriders, NexGen is aligning itself with elite sporting organisations that share its own commitment to excellence, safety, and innovation.
“Everything we do has to return more benefit than cost, this is no different and our partnerships deliver that objective. Our story is one of delivering generational positive change and incorporates positive economic, environmental and social outcomes,” said NexGen CEO Leigh Curyer.
“The exposure component is last on the list of key objectives for NexGen, but we are aware as a result of these sponsorship programs it has positively influenced other companies to replicate these programs which has resulted in positive benefits broaden beyond our own stakeholders – that is a great outcome”.
The F1 partnership, for example, isn’t about brand impressions on a racetrack. It’s about importing best-in-class safety and performance practices from the world’s most technical motorsport and applying them to mine development, a process that, according to Curyer, has helped attract top-tier talent from outside the traditional mining sector.
“Interestingly, it has also connected NexGen with a whole new non-mining investor base whereby exposure of our elite sustainability profile while highlighting the material and global importance of our Rook I project from an environmental, social, and economic perspective has resulted in new commercial outcomes,” said Curyer.
For B2B brands, this signals a shift in how sponsorship, and IP, is being used. It’s no longer just an advertising tool. It’s a way to codify corporate identity, build employer brand and embed aspirational values across the business. In NexGen’s case, associating with F1 isn’t about reach, it’s a shorthand for high standards and high performance. And that resonates far beyond the track.
Who Pays the Most (and Who Should Be)?
Gemba also breaks down which brand categories are paying the most for IP rights, and the leaderboard makes sense. Sportswear, alcohol and gambling sit at the top, all with strong cultural ties to sport and a direct route to sales. These are brands with an inherent need to be close to fans and they’re willing to pay a premium for that emotional proximity.
But where it gets interesting is in the categories that aren’t yet dominating the IP space, but should be. Gemba’s data highlights a powerful growth opportunity: identifying categories where there’s both high consumer alignment and strong commercial potential, but low current saturation. One standout example is soft drinks and non-alcoholic beverages.
Gemba’s analysis of Olympic fan consumption habits shows that these consumers over-index on non-alcoholic beer and premium beverage choices, and are significantly more likely to have recently travelled in business or first class, pointing to a health-conscious, lifestyle-oriented segment with spending power. At the same time, the category pays above-average rates for IP access but remains relatively under-leveraged in global sponsorships.
This sets the stage for a brand land grab. Categories that align with the values and behaviours of passionate fanbases, but haven’t yet flooded the field, have the chance to build meaningful, ownable positions through IP-led sponsorships. The key is getting in early, before the space becomes crowded and costs climb.
Gemba’s message is clear: the sponsorship game has changed, and the scoreboard is no longer measured in media impressions alone. As exposure becomes harder to quantify and audiences become harder to engage, marketers need to rethink what they’re really buying and what fans are really buying into.
Sponsorship isn’t just about visibility anymore. It’s about value. The brands winning now aren’t the ones shouting the loudest, they’re the ones telling the most compelling stories, built on emotional connection and cultural credibility.
