If you’re a brand owner operating on a calendar fiscal year, you’ve just passed the midpoint of your year. As part of your annual marketing or procurement plan set in Q3 or Q4 of last year, you likely set objectives for your sponsorship activities. Whether these goals were self-initiated or assigned by leadership, they play a crucial role in your overall marketing strategy.
We hope you have a solid plan in place. On average, brand owners allocate between 11% and 16% of their marketing budget to sponsorship. Yet many organizations leave sponsorship relatively unmanaged. While the beginning of the year often brings ambitious strategies and fresh initiatives, it’s easy to get caught up in daily operations, putting key projects on the back burner. Postponing essential marketing efforts until later in the year can lead to a frantic rush, potentially compromising the quality and impact of your work.
Common one-year plan (1YP) tasks for brand-side sponsorship marketers include:
- Measuring Sponsorship Impact: Starting or improving a measurement approach to demonstrate impact on business and brand outcomes (consideration, intent, and sales). Surprisingly, 33% of brand owners don’t measure the impact of their sponsorship spend.
- Managing Sponsorship Portfolios: Gaining control over a diverse sponsorship portfolio. A significant 53% of brand owners lack confidence that their sponsorship portfolio targets the right audience with the right assets at the right spend.
- Developing Sponsorship Governance: Establishing a clear approach to sponsorship operations and governance, supporting internal stakeholder alignment, and setting criteria for sponsorship decisions. Remarkably, 42% of brands have no formal operations or governance strategy and rely on ad-hoc decisions.
The latter part of the year is notorious for being a mad dash. As the fiscal year closes in, everyone scrambles to meet targets, finalize budgets, and wrap up projects. By starting now on your 1YP strategic initiatives, you can allocate resources more effectively, avoid the stress of last-minute rushes, and ensure your projects are executed with quality and precision.
Budgets often come under scrutiny in the final quarter, with unspent funds at risk of being reallocated. Initiating projects mid-year ensures your marketing budget is used strategically, maximizing your investment. This proactive approach not only helps in achieving your goals but also demonstrates fiscal responsibility and effective planning to your leadership.
Take advantage of this mid-year moment to refocus on your 1YP sponsorship marketing objectives. By acting now, you position your brand to finish the year strong and achieve impactful results. We help brand owners like you see between 11% and 22% incremental value from your sponsorship spend when partnering with us. We’re a cost-out, not a cost-in value proposition against our fees, ensuring you get maximum return on investment in what you spend with us. Let us help you navigate the complexities of sponsorship marketing.
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