• by Tanya Gazdik , October 29, 2013

Insurance, banks and pharmaceuticals are the three most active corporate sectors sponsoring associations and membership organizations, according to the IEG Sponsorship Report.

Lifetouch, Goldman Sachs and Nestlé are the most active sponsoring brands. Eleven percent of associations/organizations report having Lifetouch or Goldman Sachs as a sponsor.

Other top sponsors include Wells Fargo, Bank of America, MetLife, AT&T, Barclay's Bank, Toyota, Microsoft, Chevron and CitiGroup.

According to IEG, Insurance companies are 7.6 times more likely to sponsor associations/membership organizations than the average of all sponsors.

Sponsorship spending on associations and professional membership organizations is expected to total $572 million in 2013, up 4% from 2012.

Compared to other property sectors, the increase exceeds spending on fairs and festivals (2.9%) and the arts (3.3%) but lags sports (6%), entertainment (5.1%) and causes (4.8%) as well as the projected 5.5% increase for the overall sponsorship industry.

The increase is fueled by the growing number of associations that have moved beyond signage, goody bag exposure and other standard inventory in favor of integrated packages that offer access to members and other year-round benefits, said William Chipps, IEG Sponsorship Report senior editor.

“Associations and professional membership organizations are boosting non-dues revenue by overhauling their go-to-market strategies from top to bottom,” he said.

IEG is a unit of WPP’s GroupM.