Paige Mosberg, ONSIDE Senior Consultant
The volume of sponsorship deals has fallen dramatically during the pandemic and consumer recall of sports sponsorships is suffering, but supermarkets are reaping the rewards of their community-focused sponsorship initiatives.
Every quarter since 2016, ONSIDE has tracked public sentiment towards sponsorships in sport and non-sport. At the end of the second quarter of 2020, we also asked the public which brands stood out to them for using sponsorship to help communities during the Covid-19 crisis. Combining this information with our Deals Tracker – a monitor of globally reported sponsorship deals – we are able to paint a clear picture of how the sponsorship industry in Ireland is holding up through the most significant period of uncertainty for the industry in over a generation.
Key findings from the ONSIDE Quarterly Sponsorship Review were released this week.
To Spend or Not to Spend?
That’s a question that many marketers have been asking themselves over the past five months.
During the previous recession, the global sponsorship industry contracted, but it continued to track above GDP and in some cases — such as top tier European football — recovered very quickly. The recovery in Ireland was slower, but over recent years the industry has experienced strong annual growth.
Since 2015, ONSIDE’s Deals Tracker has noted that April is the month that has the highest number of sponsorship agreements finalized and reported. During the months of April, May and June this year, there was a 74% decrease in deals when compared with the same months last year. This decline would have been even lower were it not for deals starting to come through from June with the return of live sport behind closed doors.
A Community Connection
While the number of new and renewed deals in Ireland dropped significantly during the first full two months of lockdown restrictions, some marketing departments made good use of what they had and put resources towards activating at the grassroots level.
The absence of live sport definitely made sponsorship executives’ jobs more challenging and made it more difficult for the public to recall their favourite sponsors. The number of people who couldn’t name a sport sponsor DOUBLED from 12% at the beginning of the year to 24% last quarter. Even though it became trickier for the public to recognise the big names in sport sponsorship, brands that used their sponsorship as a platform to further community initiatives stood out above the rest.
Vodafone Ireland repurposed #TeamOfUs to have a more timely meaning, launching the Team Of Us Rewards with the IRFU to surprise and delight members of the community who had ‘gone the extra mile’ during the pandemic.
Garry Ringrose launched the ‘Team Of Us Rewards’ campaign for Vodafone during the pandemic. (Image Credit: Vodafone Twitter)
Boots and the FAI teamed up to help deliver medicines to vulnerable customers across the community, protecting those that were cocooning and required assistance.
Lidl continued to build on their partnership with the LGFA by bringing their partner, Jigsaw into the mix. Lidl’s LGFA Brand Ambassadors raised awareness of the mental health issues exacerbated during lockdown and helped bring support to young people, parents and teachers.
Most non-sport sponsors had increased or stable levels of appeal, thanks to their continued connection and support to community initiatives. And when we needed it most, brands who helped us smile again were called out, as well. Alongside TK Maxx and Just Eat, Bank of Ireland’s support of RTÉ Does Comic Relief helped them remain in the Top 10 Most Appealing Non-Sport Sponsors in this wave of ONSIDE’s Sponsorship Performance Tracker.
Brands that gave back to the community in general were recognised for their support. Over half of respondents were able to name a brand or organisation that stood out to them by using their sponsorship to help communities.
Supermarkets Superheroes
Remember April and May? We couldn’t leave our homes except for essential trips. Healthcare workers were (and still are) risking their lives for us, and our needs started to shift. All of a sudden, we were spending 20% more on groceries, and thinking less about other expenditures like travel or clothes or luxury items. Supermarkets became the one public outing we were making each week.
Grocery spend increase by 20% during the start of the pandemic. (Image Credit: Getty Images)
Unsurprisingly, with groceries as our number one priority and supermarkets working overtime to make sure their employees and shoppers were kept safe, these retailers topped the charts for appealing sponsors in sport (3 of 10) , non-sport (4 of 10), and specifically during the peak of the Covid-19 outbreak (top 4).
29% of the public named a supermarket as a sponsor that stood out to them during the coronavirus pandemic for helping the community, according to ONSIDE’s latest research.
SuperValu’s Club Together Initiative with the GAA and Centra was an example of a campaign that stood out. Not only has it featured prominently in the Sponsorship Performance Tracker, but industry stakeholders and members of the Sport for Business Community identified this activity in the ONSIDE Sports Impact Monitor, Waves 1 and 2, as remarkable. Club Together was developed to help the elderly in our communities by having GAA clubs nationwide volunteer to help with food shopping and delivery for those in need.
SuperValu’s Club Together Initiative with the GAA and Centra. (Image Credit: Supervalu.ie)
A Light at the End of the Tunnel
This new decade has started badly, but June saw a glimmer of hope in the form of 3x more deals being announced in Ireland than in the previous month. Industry practitioners are also feeling less concerned about the sponsorship industry according to the ONSIDE Sports Impact Monitor, with 8% fewer practitioners feeling extremely or very concerned as of June, compared with their sentiments in April.
The crisis has brought rights holders and their sponsors together to talk openly about value and think creatively about delivery. The industry has suffered significantly in the short term but these frank conversations are driving innovation that will serve the industry well in the future. In the case of brands like the supermarkets, this has also shown the important role that sponsorship can play in supporting communities and improving society.
ABOUT ONSIDE
ONSIDE is a leading specialist in marketing and sponsorship consulting and research services – With a proven track record and strong industry experience in a cross section of sectors, ONSIDE is currently feeding into the marketing and sponsorship decision making of circa €50m+ of Irish spend – working on many of Ireland’s premier sponsorships – on sporting, music, cause-related, broadcast and other platforms.
