Sponsorship Measurement and Evaluation 2nd edition Fraser Holder NOW INCLUDES MEASUREMENT OF SOCIAL MEDIA
Contents About the Author 1 Acknowledgements 3 Preface 5 Chapter 1 An Introduction to Sponsorship Measurement and Evaluation 9 1.0 Introduction 9 Chapter 2 Sponsorship Definitions and Objectives 17 2.0 Introduction 17 2.1 Sponsorship s Coming of Age 18 2.2 Establishing a Sponsorship Strategy 20 2.3 Setting Sponsorship Objectives 21 2.3.1 Awareness 22 2.3.2 Brand Positioning 23 2.3.3 Driving Sales 24 2.3.4 Business Benefits 26 2.3.5 Employees 27 2.3.6 Customers 28 2.4 The Rights holder s Objectives 28 2.4.1 Add Value to the Experience 29 2.4.2 Enhance the Marketing Reach 29 2.4.3 Build the Rights holder s Brand 29 2.4.4 Increase merchandising sales 30 2.4.5 Generate Significant Income 30 2.5 Sponsorship Objectives A Summary 30 2.6 The Role of Research in Sponsorship Selection 30 2.6.1 Evaluating the Right Sponsorship Property 33 2.6.2 Selection Summary 37 2.6.3 Sponsorship Contract 37 Chapter 3 An Overview of the Sponsorship Research Methodologies 39 3.0 Introduction 39 3.1 Quantitative Research 39 3.1.1 Surveys 42 3.1.2 Example Survey 43 3.2 Qualitative Research 44 3.2 1 Focus Groups 45 3.2.2 In-depth interviews 46 3.3 Media Valuation 46 iii
3.3.1 Media Coverage Accuracy of Data 50 3.3.2 Print Valuations 51 3.3.3 Summary 51 3.4 Benchmarking and Control Groups 52 3.4.1 Benchmarking 52 3.4.2 Control Groups 52 3.5 Methodology Summary 53 3.6 Research by Rights Holders 54 Chapter 4 Measuring the Effectiveness of Sponsorship on Social Media 59 4.0 Introduction 59 4.1 Measuring social media 59 4.2 Meaningful measurements 60 4.3 What can be achieved through social media? 60 4.4 A 7-step guide to measuring sponsorship effectiveness on social media 67 4.5 New metrics 68 4.6 Tracking 70 4.6.2 Tools available 71 4.6.3 Case example: Flightdeck social media tracker 71 4.7 Other tracking tools 73 4.7.1 Google Analytics for Social Media 73 4.7.2 Facebook Insights 74 4.8 Measuring the influence of influencers: Klout and PeerIndex 75 4.9 Additional social media tracking software packages 76 4.9.1 HootSuite 76 4.9.2 SpredFast 77 4.9.3 Radian6 77 4.9.4 Addict-o-matic 77 4.9.5 Social Mention 78 4.9.6 Wildfire 78 4.9.7 Sprout Social 78 4.9.8 Objective Marketer 78 4.9.9 EdgeRank Checker 78 4.9.10 Comufy 78 4.9.11 Buddy Media 79 4.9.12 ScrOOn 79 4.9.13 TweetDeck 79 4.10 Twitter-specific software 79 4.10.1 TweetReach 79 4.10.2 TweetLevel 79 4.10.3 SocMetrics 80 4.10.4 Xefer 80 4.10.5 WhenToTweet 80 4.10.6 TweetStats 80 4.10.7 Tweriod 80 4.10.8 TweetReports 80 4.11 Putting a direct value on fans and interactions 81 iv
4.11.1 Comments and Likes 81 4.11.2 Transacting Fans and Followers 82 4.11.3 Targeting Friends of Friends 82 4.12 Getting back to sponsorship 83 4.12.1 Summary 83 4.12.2 Challenges 84 Chapter 5 Timing Effective Measurement and Evaluation 85 5.0 Introduction 85 5.1 Pre-Contract Sponsorship Research 85 5.1.1 Research the Rights holder 87 5.1.2 Estimate return against objectives 89 5.1.3 Sponsorship Pricing 89 5.1.4 Benchmarking 92 5.1.5 Conclusion 93 5.2 During the Sponsorship Term 93 5.2.1 Social media measurement 94 5.2.1 Problems with the sponsored property 95 5.3 At the End of the Sponsorship 96 Chapter 6 Implementing Measurement and Evaluation in Practice 99 6.1 Measuring and evaluating awareness 99 6.1.1 Introduction 99 6.1.2 Methodologies 99 6.1.2.1 Quantitative research 99 6.1.2.2 Media valuations 104 6.1.3 Summary 122 6.2 Measuring and evaluating Brand positioning 122 6.2.1 Introduction 122 6.2.2 Methodologies 123 6.2.3 Summary 128 6.3 Measuring and evaluating Sales 128 6.3.1 Introduction 128 6.3.2 Methodologies 129 6.3.3 Summary 137 6.4 Measuring and evaluating Business Benefits 138 6.4.1 Introduction 138 6.4.2 Methodologies 138 6.4.3 Summary 141 6.5 Measuring and evaluating employees 141 6.5.1 Introduction 141 6.5.2 Methodologies 142 6.6 Measuring and evaluating Customers 147 6.6.1 Introduction 147 6.6.2 Methodologies 147 v
Chapter 7 Undertaking the Research 151 7.0 Introduction 151 7.1 Tips for Successful Field Research 151 7.2 Agency Versus In-house 152 7.2.1 Choosing an Agency 152 7.2.2 Judging the proposals 154 Chapter 8 Sponsorship Measurement Summary and Future 155 8.0 Introduction 155 8.1 Best Practice for Sponsorship Research 156 vi
2.6.1 Evaluating the Right Sponsorship Property As already highlighted, sport continues to attract the majority of the sponsorship spend. However, when it has been decided that sport is the chosen route a sponsor faces the choice of a large number of different sports that are relevant for any country. The number of sports attracting sponsorship is still increasing, however, in any region it is still the high profile sports that take the lion s share of the sponsorship money. Figure 9 shows soccer (or football) continues to account for the largest share of sponsorship spend and in 2007 generated more sponsorship income than the 2nd, 3rd and 4th next sports added together. Figure 9: Top 10 Sponsored Sports in 2010 (Total Reported Value $ million) (Source: The World Sponsorship Monitor, see www.theworldsponsorshipmonitor.com) In addition to the above top 10 sponsored sports, within each country or region there are other sports that will deliver against a sponsor s objectives. For example baseball, basketball and American Football (both at professional and college levels) attract significant sponsorship investments in America. The advantages of sponsoring each sport will vary from market to market. Football, for example, in Europe is the highest profile sport and offers the sponsor a very wide range of opportunities from the international level down to grass roots and community football. However in America soccer has a very different reach and brand image and other sports will attract the highest reach (and price). Indeed, even in Europe in 2011, and in the absence of any major international football tournaments, sports other than football accounted for the top spot in 12 of the 17 countries covered by the Eurodata survey into European sports viewing. Figure 10 highlights the most watched sporting event in each of the 17 regions surveyed. 33
Case Study 2: Bundesliga In Germany most of the top Bundesliga football clubs have an integrated research solution from SPORT+MARKT, combining market research with media coverage analysis. Working with SPORT+MARKT, FC Bayern Munchen was the first German football club to use an integrated solution in the form of an online database and a lot of German football clubs have followed their example. However Bayern can still be considered to be leading the way as they provide transparency and make their online database accessible to their sponsors. The database which SPORT+MARKT has developed allows sponsors to track their return on investment (ROI). Quantitative and qualitative data is kept up to date and insignificant results are filtered out. This creates transparency in the relationships between clubs and their sponsors. The main rationale behind creating the database was the documentation of ROI and not only for existing sponsors. Bayern Munchen also has the possibility to use this database of research as a powerful sales tool for attracting new sponsors. Case Study 3: Volvo Ocean Race To identify how successfully the 2005 2006 Volvo Ocean Race delivered against the objectives of all the various stakeholders a wide ranging research programme was required. Volvo Event Management UK (VEMUK) conducted a thorough pitch process considering proposals from half a dozen different research agencies, following which specialist research consultancy Connexus PreciSion was appointed. Working closely with VEMUK s sponsorship team, Connexus PreciSion designed one of the most comprehensive research programmes of any sports rights holder in the world. Involving a wide range of different research disciplines, this included measurement and analysis for: TV audience TV brand exposure Press exposure Media value Quantitative consumer effects Qualitative consumer effects Economic impact The results of the research undertaken by the rights holder clearly demonstrated that the 2005 2006 Volvo Ocean Race delivered Volvo s key objectives very successfully. Case Study 4: Manchester City Football Club Manchester City Football Club commissioned a programme of research that sought to identify whether, and to what degree, sponsorship of the club actually delivered against their then sponsor, travel company Thomas Cook s brand and commercial objectives. A bespoke research programme was designed in conjunction with research consultancy Connexus PreciSion to track and monitor the performance of the sponsorship and measure its effectiveness. 56
Chapter 4: Measuring the Effectiveness of Sponsorship on Social Media 4.0 Introduction A few short years ago social media was the preserve of geeks; now those geeks are multi-millionaires and social media is an intrinsic part of life and business. Sponsorship approaches to social have also evolved rapidly from being add ons at best to being an important media in their own right. Access by sponsors to the followers of major sports properties and stars is now written in to contracts and some campaigns play out entirely across the social networks. Measurement of all this activity has followed a similar if truncated developmental trajectory to that of sponsorship itself. Early attempts to measure value were dismissed and there are still those who claim that it remains all but impossible to attribute anything but relative value to social media. Like sponsorship, social media measurement suffers from a tendency to measure what is easy rather than what is important. This is compounded by the sheer amount of data generated by social which seems perfectly aligned with the current fashion to justify or support decisions or views with quick stats presented with gimmicky infographics. We are probably all now familiar with the phrase big data which refers to the vast amount of data that online and social media throws up and those organisations who seek to capture and mine it. Those who understand and can learn from this wealth of information put themselves at a competitive advantage and further refine their social media strategies to deliver against objectives. The reality for many sports organisations is that time and resource is put into social media on the basis that it is a good thing but without the ability demonstrate any direct return on investment (ROI). But, the same is certainly not true for their sponsors who have rapidly brought business disciplines to social in the same way as they approach other aspects of marketing. 4.1 Measuring social media The very nature of social media is that it is public and, whilst its impact among consumers may be transitory, it leaves a digital imprint which can be recorded and reported in various different ways. Finally, interactions can be tracked in real time providing insights which simply were not available to organisations of all types before. The level of data is worth considering first of all. Most organisations will be interested primarily in the online and social media world that revolves around them and will track mentions of themselves, their brand campaigns and those of their perceived competitors. This data is of course made up of individual interactions each of which may be more or less interesting in itself. And organisation-centric traffic will combine with all other social media activity to form meta-data. This overarching picture can provide a bird s-eye view of topics, trends, demographics and/or national characteristics and much more. Meta-data from Google, for example showing the incidence of search for particular medical phrases, has been combined with location to track the course of an epidemic before health services are aware of it. Combining 59