A global marketing leader told us recently that his brand was investing millions in a new sponsorship. When we asked how he planned to measure it, he paused and said, “I haven’t really thought about it.”
That moment captures a truth our industry still wrestles with. Nearly every brand owner says sponsorship measurement is a top priority. Yet, when it comes time to apply rigor, many still don’t measure effectively or consistently.
When Lumency first surveyed brand owners in 2008, the majority said sponsorship measurement was their highest priority, and the majority also said they weren’t doing it. The gap between aspiration and action has narrowed since then, but it hasn’t closed. In the upcoming second edition Lumency/WFA Evolution of Sponsorship report, due out this December, brand owners again cite measurement as the industry’s biggest challenge. The data has been consistent for 27 years.
In the 2023 Lumency/WFA report, for the one-third of brands without a clear sponsorship
measurement framework in place, the top barriers were clear:
• Cost of measurement (42%)
• Lack of a global view on total investment (42%)
• No methodology for measurement (37%)
• Followed by lower-ranked factors like “not a priority,” “no clear internal owner,” and “don’t know what to measure.”
Among the two-thirds of brands that do measure, most focus on upper-funnel metrics such as awareness, consideration, and intent. Those are important measures of effectiveness, but they are only part of the picture. True sponsorship accountability connects those brand health indicators to mid- and lower-funnel outcomes that show business impact. It’s no surprise that only 5% of brand owners say they’re very confident their sponsorship investments are reaching the right audience, with the right assets, at the right spend. Measurement is what proves that out and builds confidence in future investment.
Each of these challenges is understandable but none are unfixable.
At Lumency, we’ve spent nearly three decades helping global brands move from intention to precision, building models that link sponsorship performance directly to commercial and brand outcomes.
1. Cost of measurement.
Measurement is an essential investment to validate the much larger spend on rights fees and activation. We typically guide brand owners to allocate between one and three percent of total sponsorship budgets to measurement, enough to bring confidence, accountability, and future-proofing to the other 97 percent.
2. Lack of a global view on total investment.
Fragmented oversight often reflects how organisations are structured, not what’s possible. A disciplined measurement framework can begin at the market level and roll up globally over time. Perfect data visibility isn’t a prerequisite for accountability. Consistency and governance are.
3. No methodology for measurement.
Every brand’s category, objectives, and data maturity differ, but sponsorship measurement requires a clear, disciplined methodology. At Lumency, our model is proven and adaptable, built from a consistent framework that’s customized to the realities of each brand’s category and business.
4. No internal ownership or priority.
Without defined accountability, measurement becomes everyone’s job and no one’s. The most effective sponsors assign responsibility within marketing or procurement to drive discipline and ensure measurement informs renewal, investment, and activation decisions.
Across all these barriers, the common thread is mindset. Measurement isn’t about proving ROI. It’s about understanding contribution. It’s not about finding the perfect metric. It’s about building organisational confidence that sponsorship spend is accountable, strategic, and valuable.
The good news is that more brand owners are moving in that direction. We see it in the growing sophistication of sponsorship governance frameworks, in clearer KPIs tied to business outcomes, and in senior leaders who expect sponsorship to perform on the same terms as any other marketing investment.
The gap between what brand owners say and what they do is starting to close, but only for those who’ve stopped waiting for perfect data and started measuring with purpose.
