Big sponsorship deals and the benefits of event sponsorship have been much publicised in the news recently. Here, Exhibitions.co.uk shares some of the benefits and developments shaping event sponsorship as the market continues to expand and adjust its offering to the marketplace with a much more complex and integrated approach.

Event sponsorship is a great way for a company to increase visibility, image and reputation with a target audience. Event sponsorship has become a dominant part of many brands’ marketing strategies and is an essential way for exhibition organisers to increase revenues and deliver sophisticated features and content.

In the US, sponsorship expenditure on fairs, festivals and annual events is forecast to rise by 2.9% during 2013 while expenditure on sports events rose 6% year-on-year and cause sponsorship by 4.8%. The sponsorship market as a whole is expected to expand by 5.5% according to IEG, the sponsorship research specialists who produced the latest set of figures.

Research from advertising intelligence agency Exponential analysed the online activity of almost 7 million Britons during May this year and found that brands could be making more of their associations with sport.

The behaviour of fans of six major sports, including rugby, tennis and cricket, was mapped against 50,000 attributes to see which sectors most interested specific sports fans. The research provides an understanding of the audience attracted to certain sports and what other brands would be best suited to their interests. For example, the research reveals that cricket fans are 64 times more likely to be interested in men’s suits than the general internet population. “If you’re advertising men’s suits, cricket might not be important to you but it is important to your audience and they are the ones who are going to be buying your product,” says insights manager at Exponential, Francesca Baker.

It is not just the way that brands target the audience that is changing; the type of sponsorship packages available have also developed drastically since the days of adding a logo to a brochure. The impetus is now on packages that offer interactivity with the audience and that display a particular brand message or product. Sponsorship may not always be as quantifiable as other advertising opportunities but it does offer benefits that are impossible elsewhere, namely exclusivity, credibility and affinity with the audience.

A recent example of an integrated approach to sponsorship is the multi-million pound deal agreed between Phones4U and SMG Europe to sponsor the Manchester Arena. The arena will be rebranded as the Phones4U Arena for the next five years. Phone4U’s latest campaign messaging will feature heavily across the venues’ properties and their customers will get exclusive access to competitions to win tickets for events held at the venue via its social media channels.

Sponsorship deals do not solely increase event revenue; they also increase the prestige of the event within the industry. Sponsorship from a key brand within the industry will demonstrate the support of the sector, increasing regard and popularity for the event.

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