Nielsen Sports, a global leader in sponsorship analytics and fan intelligence, today released insights on the Australian and New Zealand sponsorship market, focusing on opportunities for better alignment between sponsors and rightsholders, maximising partnership success, and identifying the key trends most likely to impact the the industry in 2023 and beyond.
The research shows sponsorship spend has increased in 2022, rising to 21.3 per cent of total marketing budget, compared to 19 per cent last year, reaffirming the year’s positive trend and bolstering stakeholder confidence.
Head of Nielsen Sports for Pacific, Scott Gillham, said: “Nielsen’s Annual Sponsorship Outlook Survey, now in its third consecutive year, takes inputs from leading brands, agencies and rightsholders in Australia and New Zealand to help them build better sponsorship strategies.
“Encouragingly, it shows increased positivity and optimism from all stakeholders – a sign the industry has found its feet again, and continues to grow after a challenging couple of years. While sponsorship investment continues to grow, it’s still not quite at pre-covid levels, and revenue growth for rightsholders could also be better, so we’ve placed particular focus on key growth opportunities beneficial to all stakeholders, and areas where efficiencies and ROI can be improved.”
Nielsen’s Sponsorship Outlook also highlights the increasing importance of Brand Impact (up +25 per cent pts on 2021) and Independent Research (up +25 per cent pts on 2021) when measuring the performance of partnerships, suggesting accurate sponsorship ROI measurement is quickly becoming a must-have.
Nielsen’s data also covers crypto currency, NFTs, the Metaverse, and identifies significant growth opportunities and solutions to make sponsorship investment more efficient, including key emerging categories, plus a list of Top 5 Greatest Misalignments between brands and rightsholders.
