This article draws on Scout’s sponsorship investment insights, looking at what it all means for brands.
With 5,000+ active deals across 200+ properties, we know it’s a constant challenge to stay on top of what’s happening in your category.
Scout is here to help. We segment all sponsorship activity and spend by category, so that you can answer key questions to help your sponsorship strategy:
Who sponsors what in your category? What are competitors doing?
How much is being spent? What’s your share of sponsorship vs competitors?
Where is spend going? Where are the gaps? Where should I spend next?
These questions are addressed in more detail through Scout’s Category Diagnostic Reports, ensuring you know the sponsorship market before your next decision.
For a limited time, we’re offering a free insight specific to your category - just answer the poll on what you want to see, and we’ll be in touch:
1. Who sponsors what in your category?
First, see who sponsors what, all in one place. See below example for Health Insurance.
Health Insurance Sponsorships, by Sport
Health Insurance Sponsorships, by State
There are 36 Health Insurance partnerships across 14 active brands. It has been a high-growth category, with 16 new deals in the last year, and only 3 exits.
At a macro level, we see there is competitive tension in Health Insurance in VIC (12 sponsorships), vs relatively clean air in QLD (2 sponsorships).
At the brand-level, we can uncover specific partner strategies:
Market leaders BUPA and Medibank have large national plays with NZ Rugby, AO and AFLW; reinforcing their dominant market position
NIB has a diverse Clubland strategy across AFL, NRL, Football and Rugby, spanning VIC, NSW and NZ; helping it show up against competitors in four different sports; and three major markets.
HCF dominates Netball, with total ownership of the sport
Health Partners takes a similar approach in its Adelaide HQ; blocking competitors.
With weekly tracking, you stay on top of competitor activity and what it means for your sponsorship category.
FAQ: How is sponsorship data collected?
Data is updated weekly based on announcements + Scout’s AI-assisted tracking of websites and socials to detect unannounced and expired deals. Data is captured on the property, sponsor, sponsorship tier, assets, start date, expiry & estimated Spend.
2. How much is being spent?
While you might track marketing spend vs competitors in other media, it has historically been lacking in sponsorship.
Scout helps brands understand their spend, where its going, and how it compares with the category.
Back to Health Insurance, see below the total amount of spend (hidden for this article) per year from each brand (Australia + NZ)
Sponsorship Spend, by Brand (Aus & NZ)
BUPA has three national deals (NZR, AO, Aus Paralympics), as well as a Tier 2 Shorts partnership with Carlton – all multi-million, multi-year deals that make BUPA the largest sponsorship spender in the category.
While HCF has the most sponsorships, these are primarily Tier 2-3 deals with Super Netball Clubs, with lower total spend.
To simplify trends in spend within a category, Scout uses share of sponsorship.
Share of sponsorship (SoS) = brand spend / total spend in the category.
For example, if BUPA spent $4-5M in sponsorship in Australia, vs $20M from the total category, its share of sponsorship would be 20-25%.
Share of sponsorship can be compared with share of market to understand which brands have an excess; and which are under-represented. See below for Australia only.
Share of Market v Share of Sponsorship (Aus only)
BUPA’s high share of sponsorship re-enforces its Australian market leadership, helping fuel its growth in the category.
Medibank, on the other hand, is significantly under-invested in sponsorship relative to its peers. The average sports fan might assume Medibank is one of the smaller private health funds.
NIB is a challenger brand well-represented in sponsorship – sports fans may see NIB as the leading Health Insurer, based on their sponsorship spend.
It is well documented that excess share of marketing leads to growth in market share – succinct summary from Mark Ritson here.
Share of sponsorship helps you set your sponsorship budget vs competitors, based on data. The next question is where that spend goes.
FAQ: How is sponsorship spend calculated?
Spend (per year) is assigned to every sponsorship, based on public data where available; or otherwise modelled based on the property, tier of sponsorship and assets held. Modelling is backed by Scout’s Benchmark data and decades of experience in sponsorship research.
3. Where is spend going?
While media spend is planned across different audiences, markets and timeframes, sponsorship investment can be a black box.
Which fans, states and seasons does your investment reach?
Where are the gaps in your sponsorship portfolio?
Where are you diluting competitors? Or being diluted?
FAQ: How is spend assigned by State and Season?
Scout assigns spend to State and Month based on the audience of each property. For example, 45% of AFL fans are in Victoria, so a $10M deal with AFL is assigned $4.5M to Victoria. The same principle applies based on month in the calendar.
Taking AIA as an example, the brand has Club partnerships in AFL (Collingwood), NRL (Storm) and A-Leagues (Victory), delivering on key potential objectives:
AIA sponsorship footprint - Spend ($)
Unique reach: 3 distinct football codes, 3 fanbases
Always on: covers both winter and summer codes, with peaks in Finals
Victoria-skew: 3 x Melbourne-located Clubs
Collingwood anchor: Tier 2 Collingwood partnership highest value deal
Still a National Footprint: Collingwood has significant audience share in WA, SA and TAS; while the Storm skews NSW and QLD, providing national balance
What about its share of sponsorship (SoS)?
When looking at SoS within the category, the picture changes:
AIA sponsorship footprint - SoS (%)
Overall Health insurance spend is low in football, with only AIA and NIB, providing a clutter-free environment for AIA to enjoy 46% share of sponsorship.
By contrast, it is one of 8 AFL sponsorships, and so its share of sponsorship is diluted vs in other codes. This also occurs in January, when BUPA’s AO sponsorship dominates share of investment that month.
Where next?
Ultimately this depends on your sponsorship objectives; but needs to start with understanding your category:
If competitor investment is high, you are entering a proven battleground, and so reaching relevant audiences. You fight back against competitors and dilute their share of sponsorship – often relevant to challenger brands wanting to be seen amongst the top players.
If competitor investment is low, you’re entering clean air, allowing you to own a vertical, free from competitive tension. This might suit more established players looking to defend key markets, by expressing their dominance in sponsorship.
Overall, does your share of sponsorship in each market align with your objectives? Do you have a national footprint? Do you need to reach fans year-round?
For example, AIA would improve its national footprint through audiences in NSW/SA/WA; and in summer. See below footprint if AIA entered a mid-Tier partnership with Sydney Thunder:
Impact of Sydney Thunder Partnership on AIA SoS (%)
We test the impact of prospective new partnerships to optimise your share of sponsorship according to your objectives.
Category Diagnostic Report tailored to you
All of the above, and more, is covered in Scout’s Category Diagnostic Reports.
You receive insights on investment trends & opportunities before you next invest:
Who sponsors what? # Deals, # Brands, Entrants, Exits, Change (to 2023)
How much? $ Spend, Change, Your Share, Competitor Shares
Where? Spend breakdowns by sport, market, month and type of deals
Where next? Which partnership opportunities would optimise spend?
Share of Sponsorship data for your Analysis & Insights teams
Option for Quarterly updates
Optional Phase 2: Objective-Setting, Partnership Assessment & Valuation
For a limited time, we’re offering a free insight specific to your category - just answer the poll below and we’ll be in touch:
Any other questions, reach out here.