Empowering Marketers Every Play

Today, every brand is competing for attention. This means the success of sponsorships can make or break a marketing program. With big budgets on the line, brands need access to timely information that tells them exactly what’s working across every game and every play.

A decade ago, that information was delayed or walled off entirely. Brands had to wait for performance data from their sponsorship partners, which was often too high-level, inconsistent, and delivered months after a season or event had ended. In some cases, the goalposts would have already shifted by the time marketers learned if their efforts were paying off. 

According to a study by the Association of National Advertisers (ANA) and the Marketing Accountability Standards Board (MASB), 96 percent of marketers feel it’s important to have metrics that show their sponsorship performance in relation to other marketing expenditures.

Fortunately, emerging technology has helped make sponsorship data more readily available than ever. Speed, transparency, and accessibility are all on the rise. Instead of sitting on the sidelines, today’s brand marketers have direct access to data to make smart decisions in real-time that boost ROI.

“As a data-driven company, having a more granular, objective, and integrated view of sponsorship performance is essential to Dell as we assess new opportunities and structure and maximize the benefits from our existing relationships.”

—Anne Ristau, Head of Global Sponsorships at Dell Technologies

One of the most effective ways to do this is through media value equivalency, which lets brands capture the benefit of all sponsorship exposure from a given campaign.

Only 56 percent of companies isolate the impact of sponsorships compared to other branding initiatives, according to the ANA/MASB study. This offers brands a huge edge over their competitors, letting them drive value across the full sponsorship cycle. They can see the channels and signage that generate the most revenue. With this sponsorship data in hand, marketers can then layer in other intel about fan behavior, purchases, hospitality programs, and more to get a complete picture of ROI.

In this guide, let’s take a closer look at how media value equivalency empowers brands with greater insights, efficiency, and transparency in their sponsorships. The field of sports marketing is changing, but with the right tools, here’s how brands can stay ahead of the game.

Uncovering the Benefits of Media Value

Brands can use media value equivalency to measure the effectiveness of their sponsorships and compare performance with other marketing channels.

At Relo Metrics, we use the term “sponsor media value” to capture what it would have cost a brand to run the same amount and quality of exposure in a broadcast commercial or social media campaign. This metric levels the playing field, giving brands a clear way to compare the effectiveness of different media buys.

The Perfect Game Plan for Calculating Value

1. Monitor media platforms.

Brand exposure data from TV, streaming, and social media platforms is evaluated using proprietary computer vision and technology-enabled analysis. This is similar to tracking impressions, providing insights into the impact of a brand’s sponsorship.

2: Calculate media value.

Platform-specific advertising rates are applied to determine a unique cost equivalent. Cost per impression/cost per engagement data is used for social media. The cost of a 30-second spot is used for broadcast.

3: Determine exposure quality.

Ingested data is analyzed using a formula that assigns a discounted exposure score based on six factors: clarity, visibility, prominence, size, share of voice, and placement. Measuring media value is key to unlocking sponsorship’s full potential. Let’s see it in action.

Media Value Play-by-Play

• A sponsor’s logo appears in a game broadcast on TV for a total of three minutes.
• The cost to run a TV commercial for this particular game (the “spot cost”) is $100,000 for a 30-second commercial.
• Three minutes of logo visibility for this game is worth effectively $600,000 in TV commercial exposure.
• Given that many elements impact the quality of that screen time or brand exposure, a formula is then applied to determine a discounted score based on six factors. 
• These six factors are visibility, prominence, share of voice, clarity, placement, and size.
• 22 percent (discount factor percentage*) X $600K (cost)
• After our calculation, we get a sponsor media value of $132K.

*Determined using proprietary media value percentage algorithm.

Turning Insights into Action

Optimizing Sponsorships Through Measurement and Analytics

Sponsorship data delivers powerful insights. Brands can use this knowledge to increase performance across the full sponsorship cycle.

1: Strategize.

Leveraging sponsorship data to influence property and asset selection helps determine performance objectives and renewal strategies.

2: Optimize.

Using the media value approach makes it easier to refine creative and optimize decisions for the highest ROI possible.

3: Evaluate.

Evaluating Sponsorship Strategies

With the right data, brands can set themselves up for sponsorship success. Let’s take a look at how brands can leverage performance data for a variety of decisions.

1: Selecting partners

Choose properties and assets with the highest potential for success. 

2: Setting Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) Using Benchmarking Data

Use benchmarking data from comparable assets to set suitable campaign KPIs with partners.  

3: Analyzing Athlete and Influencer Impact

Optimize athlete and influencer strategies using the power of data. 

Optimizing Campaigns Throughout the Season

Waiting months for postseason reports and sponsorship recaps is a thing of the past. Today, brands have full visibility into sponsorship performance in near-real time. This enables brands to make adjustments throughout the season.

Here are a couple of examples of strategic campaign optimizations that could be made with sponsorship data:

1: Optimizing Sponsorship Creative

Uncover opportunities to improve branded content and in-arena creative. 

A sponsor may notice that social media highlights showing field-side signage aren’t moving the needle. If the brand figures out what’s happening in real time, it might realize that the problem stems from the level of detail on the signage, which isn’t coming through on social clips. To solve the issue, the sponsor can work with its partner to improve visibility and make the creative more impactful.

2: Assessing the Value of Local Campaigns

Pair social media value with market sell-through data to assess local campaign performance. 

A clothing brand may run an ambassador program to market its products to college students, planning for sales events around the country. To understand the ROI of those events, the brand could analyze the media value generated from social media.

The brand could analyze whether one type of event generated a higher media value than another on social media. Then, it could apply sell-through data for a more complete picture before optimizing its ambassador events moving forward.

Measuring Your Worth

As sponsorship deals wind down and the planning cycle begins again, it’s important for brands to analyze possible improvements. Media value equivalency is an invaluable tool that helps brands refine their marketing strategies, inform renewal plans, and fuel negotiations.

1: Optimizing Portfolio Mix

Compare ROI generated by multiple partners in a single portfolio mix.

Say a home improvement brand sponsors five sports teams—two NBA teams, two NHL teams, and one MLB team—and they would like to compare each investment. While the costs may differ, looking at the media value generated by each team would allow the sponsor to determine if the price paid was too low, too high, or just enough. This insight, layered with other objective-specific performance data, could be instrumental for the brand when deciding how to adjust its portfolio mix for the future.

2: Optimizing Asset Mix

Ensure the best deals for a positive return. 

At the end of a partnership with a pro sports league, a luxury watch brand wanted to evaluate the performance of the sponsorship, which included five different signage assets. Sponsorship performance data could provide a granular breakout of each component throughout the season. The sponsor may find that 70 percent of the value came from one asset, and the remaining 30 percent came from the other four assets combined. Armed with this data, the watch brand could reassess its asset mix and negotiate a more favorable deal with its partner to generate optimal impact.

Playing to Win

As brands continue to invest in ways to connect directly with fans, sponsorship investments are on the rise. Technology and data are now easily accessible, which means every brand should know the score when it comes to sponsorship performance across channels.

While rights holders and agencies still play a valuable role in sponsorship analysis, brands now have more visibility into the performance of their sponsorships, giving them greater leverage and control and ultimately enabling them to directly influence the outcome. New tools provide necessary transparency and objectivity. As a result, marketers can be more self-sufficient and determine the best course of action at all times. As the battle for attention heats up, make sure you’re in the best possible position to succeed.

Contextualizing the Value of Your Sponsorships with Relo Metrics

Our platform helps brands, agencies, and teams better understand the ROI of their sponsorships in real time, so they can make decisions that make a difference.

About Relo Metrics

Relo Metrics is an AI-powered sponsorship intelligence platform that allows rights holders, properties, and brands to understand, measure, and maximize their sponsorship investments.

Relo tracks sponsor exposures across live broadcasts, social media, and OTT streaming platforms and leverages an allin-one platform with a single methodology in near real-time. Over 200+ global stakeholders in the sports marketing and sponsorship industry trust Relo’s data to power their partnership performance.