Scout

Insights to support data driven decisions in sponsorship

Alex & Mark from Analyst Economy
November 01, 2023

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Hi there,

As you may have seen, we’ve recently launched Scout. Powered by Analyst Economy, Scout is an insights solution to support data-driven decision making in sponsorships. This week we thought we’d share some examples of how Scout can work in action.

Feel free to share this article with your sponsorship colleagues.

Mark and Alex

Check out Scout on LinkedIn

While over $1bn is spent annually on sponsorships in Australia, there is very little support for sponsorship managers on where to focus their efforts. Which categories should a sport/team be targeting? Which brands? With what unique messaging?

In this article, we explore three approaches, enabled by Scout, to help sponsorship decision making:

Staying on top of category trends
Identifying complementary partnerships
Creating opportunities based on market dynamics.

Category Trends

Keeping on top of what’s happening in the broader sponsorship market can help Sponsorship Managers stay ahead of the curve. As an example, the top categories investing in Women’s teams are very different from those investing in Men’s teams.

Education is the second-largest sponsorship category for Women’s teams, a trend that continues to grow following the recent Adelaide Strikers WBBL team deal with Flinders University. Other Women’s Teams with Tier 1 Education partners include the Cats, Lions, Giants, Lightning, Suns, Titans, Canberra United and Adelaide United.

This is driven by partnership objectives, with Universities favouring localised partnerships, and Women’s teams reaching new, relevant and diverse audiences.

This category-led approach can help Sponsorship Managers prioritise these categories for their Women’s partnerships.

Complementary Partnerships: Brisbane Heat x TripADeal

TripADeal’s recent partnership with the Brisbane Heat complements their broader sponsorship portfolio nicely.

With other major sponsorships in the AFL (Carlton) and NRL (Dragons/Sea Eagles), TripADeal were previously lacking a presence in Queensland, and in Cricket (or any other summer sport).

The Brisbane Heat partnership delivers on all of these fronts - TripADeal now has a presence in the three most-watched Leagues and the three most populous States.

What it means for other Sponsorship Managers:

Other clubs can position themselves as the next complementary partnership for TripADeal. For example, a WA-based team might be particularly appealing in future, as the next largest State.
When overlaying data from the broader Travel category, we see TripADeal’s market share lagging in WA - further justifying a WA-based club investment strategy.
To further reach new consumers, TripADeal may consider leagues where they can reach new fans (e.g. A-League or NBL). Perth Glory or Perth Wildcats could be good candidates for this and may consider proactively approaching TripADeal with this messaging.
Competitors in the Travel category are mainly invested in the winter codes (Flight Centre x Netball, Crows; Wotif x Rabbitohs), meaning TripADeal enters a relatively clutter-free summer - a key time for the travel industry. Teams in summer-based codes may look to use this dynamic to entice investment from other Travel brands looking to protect their share.
Each team offers unique and compelling selling points that differ by category. Scout unearths these and brings them front and centre during partner prospecting/renewal.

Market Dynamics: St. Kilda x Chery Motors

Auto is the largest sponsorship category in the country, spending over $100M annually. This is partly driven by market tension in the category. Over 10 brands make up two-thirds of the market, compared to other categories where share is dominated by a few large players (e.g. Supermarkets or Banking)

It’s well documented that a brand’s share of market will trend towards its advertising share of voice, all things being equal.

After a recent return to Australia, Chery currently has a very low share of the market (less than 0.5%). With their Saints investment, Chery’s share of the sponsorship market is much higher than this (~10% of Victorian Auto sponsorships).

This excess share of voice will help the brand gain market share quickly.

Chery also enters a relatively competitive environment in AFL (with 11 other Club partnerships and Toyota at league level), further helping position themselves as a major player in the category.

For Sponsorship Managers, overlaying trends in market share can be used to help understand if brands are growing or shrinking, and how this varies by market.

This can be used to help identify brand targets, but also ignite strategic partnership conversations from Day 1. Does a sponsorship provide an opportunity to quickly grow share? Or protect it? Will it be entering a clutter-free environment? Or an ability to position itself with long-established brands?

Get in touch

The above is just a flavour for how Scout can help. To learn more, check us out on LinkedIn

If you’d like to read more like this, get Scout insights straight to your inbox:

Or, get in touch directly:

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All analysis contained within this document is strictly non-commercial and has been derived from publicly available sources. To access more comprehensive data and insights tracking across the sporting landscape, reach out direct to [email protected] or [email protected]