Key trends from 3,400 sponsorship deals signed around the world
#1 Sectors that did the most deals
Just four sectors accounted for exactly half of all deals, illustrating the highly concentrated pool rights holders continue to fish in. Food & Beverage led the way – driven by Alcohol, Foods and Soft Drinks – followed by Financial Services, driven by Banks, Insurance and Investment & Trading firms.
This concentration is reinforced by the fact that over one quarter of all deals were accounted for by these four sectors across just four sports – soccer, motorsport, basketball and rugby.
However, Gambling – from the Consumer Services sector – was the most prevalent sub sector, accounting for 6.7% of all deals.
The challenge for rights holders in 2024 is to start targeting and enticing different sectors – particularly large ones who do relatively little sponsorship such as retail, IT, telecoms and real estate.
#2 Properties that secured the most deals
While sports accounted for 87.4% of deals, nearly half of this (39.1%) were soccer rights holders – led by the likes of FIFA, UEFA and the big European clubs, particularly those in the English Premier League.
Soccer accounted for six times more deals than second-placed Motorsport (6.4%), which was dominated by Formula 1 and, to a lesser degree, NASCAR in the US.
Outside of sports, only four rights holder fields featured in the Top 20.
#3 Brands that did the most deals
The most surprising inclusion in the 2023 sponsorship deals list dominated by the ‘usual suspects’ who’ve long histories of sponsorship is that of video sharing platform TikTok appearing joint-second alongside Toyota.
TikTok has also taken an extremely varied approach to sponsorship, with its 11 deals spread across 8 different rights holder fields – with only soccer, music and exhibition/fairs seeing more than one deal. The deals have also been split across 7 different countries with only the UK seeing more than 2 deals.
This varied approach also extends to why they’ve done the deals, including Showcasing Product, Fan Engagement, Brand Awareness and Customer/Prospect Engagement.
It’s all in a central effort to showcase TikTok’s increasing move globally into film, music, fashion, beauty, and games content. This type of brand bodes well for the key 2024 challenge for rights holders outlined above in enticing different sectors into sponsorship.
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#4 How much tended to be spent
Among the annual deal values publicly reported, the under €100k value was the most common reported (one fifth of deals). However, the average annual value was €9.6 million which was skewed by several very high-value deals. Consequently, the median value was far lower at €1 million.
Soccer accounted for 11 of the 13 highest reported values. However, the largest was €150 million for luxury consumer goods group LVMH’s sponsorship of the 2024 Paris Olympic Games.
The largest ‘lifetime’ deal value was EA Sports’ joint sponsorship/licensing deal with English soccer’s Premier League at €560.8 million over 6 years.
#5 Why they did the deals
Driving Brand Awareness was the most common reason publicly cited by the brands for doing deals, accounting for more than 1 in 4. Social Impact (or to be seen to be doing good) has risen in a relatively short period of time to be the second most popular rationale at nearly one in five deals, so this is clearly an element rights holders need to be making more of a play of in pitching – either as the thrust of it or a key component – whether that’s around the likes of gender equality, physical and mental health and/or improving the environment.
Having a local geographic connection to the rights holder remains a stalwart of why brands do deals, being the third most popular rationale, along with Values Alignment – both accounting for around 1 in 8 deals.
However, the most common reasons differ significantly across different brand sectors (which the full report covers), so rights holders need to be aware of these to target their pitching more effectively.
#6 The type of deals they went for
General sponsorships remain the most popular type among 2023 sponsorship deals ahead of Category-specific deals (e.g. Official Nutrition Partner). Racket Sports, Baseball and Combat Sports tend to over-index most on attracting Category deals.
In contrast, Venues, Industry Awards and Industry conferences tend to over-index most on Title/Headline/Naming deals. While Venue deals are all about driving large scale consumer brand awareness, Industry rights holder deals are about strongly associating the sponsor brand with specific B2B sectors they want to target.
On Kit/Training deals are most common among soccer and rugby teams; the two sports accounting for three-quarters of all such deals.
Again, the most common deal types differ significantly across different brand sectors (which the full report covers), so rights holders need to be aware of these to target their pitching more effectively.