• by Joe Mandese  @mp_joemandese, November 28, 2023

Sponsorships account for 12% of total marketing budgets -- second only to media spending -- among the world's biggest advertisers, yet less than half are confident that they are reaching the right audience with the right assets at the right spending levels.

That's one of the big findings of a new study from the World Federation of Advertisers, which makes me think there's a big opportunity for agencies -- especially media planners and buyers -- to step up and play a bigger role in managing the ROI of their clients' sponsorship deals.

In fact, the study -- which is based on a survey of 34 multinational advertisers fielded by consultancy Lumency -- shows agencies currently play a relatively minor role in strategy and planning, as well as rights negotiations, but are the dominant player when it comes to media planning and buying associated with their clients' sponsorship deals.

While that makes eminent sense, maybe it would behoove marketers to let their agencies manage more of the ROI for sponsorships overall.

For example, the study found that sponsorship activity remains relatively unmanaged and unmeasured.

"For many brands, sponsorship is the second largest spend in the marketing budget, second only to media. Yet, for many brands, sponsorship activity remains relatively unmanaged and unmeasured," the report -- "The Evolution of Sponsorship" -- notes, adding: "Measuring the impact of sponsorship investments is simple, but it is not easy. As sponsorship, and its activation, can address multiple objectives across the sales and marketing funnel, from awareness and brand health to sales and loyalty, the data sources tend to be distributed across an organization."

Sound like a job for media pros?