In 2015, $57.5bn was spent globally on sponsorship – an amount projected to increase to over $60bn in 2016. With approximately 70% of this spend being directed to sport, how can organisations operating in this space ensure they are attracting their fair share of sponsorship investment?
As a sporting establishment or event manager it is becoming increasingly crucial to demonstrate to your sponsors how you add value beyond the traditional advertising exposure metrics. Measuring, understanding and sharing the wider impacts you have on society is a real opportunity. Sponsors will have more clarity on the true value of their investment, and as a business you will be able to foster more meaningful relationships with your employees, fans and the community.
Where does sport have an impact?
In today’s world it is expected that an organisation understands the value they create and can articulate what that value means for sponsors, individuals, communities and wider society. Positive impacts create value for people and the environment, while negative impacts are harmful in various ways and should be avoided or mitigated. Because sport is so ingrained into the heart of communities, the impacts generated by the organisations involved transcend the field of play and influence the fabric of society in a way that other sectors don’t. When we hear about our heroes being caught up in doping scandals, the organisations we rely on being accused of corruption, or that events we watch are failing to support the everyday lives of people in their own communities, this has a negative impact at both a personal and community level.
However, sports organisations and events are using their position to create beneficial outcomes for society. This includes everything from giving children the opportunity to continue their education, raising an impressive amount of funds to help local community development or reaching further afield and contributing to solving global challenges. While we all love it when our team wins the championship, it is these wider and ongoing contributions where sport can really make a lasting difference and it’s those types of stories that your organisation needs to be telling more of.
Many sports organisations talk about how they are “transforming communities”, “raising hopes and dreams” or “improving lives”. But how often do they provide credible data to back up their claims? Demonstrating to sponsors (or more widely, to customers, suppliers…) how your programmes provide opportunities for children, improve people’s attitudes, or create jobs can illustrate how their investment is generating significant societal benefits. Discovering, measuring, and analysing the impacts beyond monetary contributions and the beneficiaries reached is the next step in demonstrating the value you add. It can help validate stories that your team, sponsors and fans can be proud of, and harnessing the data to build a deeper, more loyal connection with your most important stakeholders.
What is the business case for measuring your impact?
It’s about understanding your impact, gathering the right data, performing rigorous analysis and then harnessing these insights to drive action. As a sports organisation, sports executive, or tournament director you can use impact information to demonstrate to your sponsors, fans and communities the value created for society. Leading sporting organisations use this approach for three primary reasons:
- Winning over the fans – Fans want to feel that their teams, whose colours they proudly wear, are making their community a better place to live. Organisations can benefit from sharing their story about how they are creating value for society, building a long-term brand identity and a sustainable business.
- Managing reputation and mitigating risk – Sport isn’t always immediately welcomed by local stakeholders. Through measuring and understanding social impacts organisations and their sponsors can build strong foundations from which they can respond to criticism, stand up to scrutiny, or build goodwill. This can especially benefit teams and events with ensuring they obtain and maintain their license to operate.
- Scaling impact and delivering value – Sport is about pushing to do better every time – so why would your community investment programme be any different?! By measuring impact, team executives, event directors and sponsors can understand where their programme’s strengths are, and opportunities for improvement lie. Additionally, they can use that data and insight to inform strategic decision making.
Using LBG to deliver maximum impact
Measurement frameworks such as LBG support the journey towards understanding the true value you are creating. The model ensures a robust and credible approach to measuring the impact of your community investment. It enables insight into where the value is being added, be it to the teams and events themselves, their sponsors, along with fans and wider society. Not only can you better manage your programme through assessment, but by capturing information that sponsors, fans and communities can be confident in, you drive a more powerful, meaningful story.
Corporate Citizenship manages LBG – the global standard for measuring corporate community investment. To find out more about how you can use the LBG framework to effectively measure corporate community investment and its impact, as done by 220 companies around the globe, visit the LBG website.