For many brands, sponsorship is the second-largest marketing investment after media. On average, 16% of brand marketing budgets go toward sponsorship rights and activation spend—yet this spend is often unmanaged and unmeasured.
Sponsorship is both emotional and messy.
Messy, because it touches multiple internal stakeholders—marketing, legal, procurement, HR, sales, corporate affairs—and often spans geographies, contract types, and brand portfolios. It’s a complex ecosystem of assets across verticals like sports, music, arts, and community.
Emotional, because internal champions may have personal passion points tied to specific properties—football, festivals, galleries—making it difficult to apply a purely business lens.
Despite this complexity, sponsorship must be held to the same performance standards as other marcom spend. According to the WFA and Lumency’s 2023 global study, only 44% of brand marketers say they evaluate sponsorship consistently across all markets. Just 28% feel sponsorships are “well integrated” into their brand or commercial strategy.
That disconnect is costing brands impact—and money.
With ongoing economic pressure, shifting consumer behaviours, and internal expectations for greater ROI transparency, now is the time to treat sponsorship as a strategic discipline.
1. Start with a Portfolio Audit
An effective optimization strategy begins with a clear-eyed assessment of your current portfolio. Over time, sponsorship portfolios can become a mix of legacy deals, outdated strategies, and passion projects.
Use a tiered approach:
- Level One: Quickly score properties for brand and business alignment and target audience relevance. Divest those that clearly don’t fit.
- Level Two: Deep dive into the rest—assess brand fit, commercial performance, value proposition, and contract optimization potential. Don’t assume mid-term deals can’t be improved; asset swaps and re-scoping can often unlock value.
Importantly, assess the portfolio as a whole—not just property by property. Consider coverage across geography, marketing calendar, and support for both brand and commercial objectives.
2. Smarter Evaluation, Better Decisions
Start with valuation. Understand the category-specific market value of rights and entitlements before negotiating. Then layer in a full evaluation: brand fit, reputational risk, asset mix, property momentum, fee structure, and alignment with marketing and business objectives.
The WFA-Lumency study shows that only 33% of marketers feel their sponsorship investment is optimized. A smarter evaluation framework helps correct this by arming your team with data to drive efficiency and effectiveness.
3. Build a Governance Model That Works
Governance is how sponsorship becomes less messy—and more accountable.
A sound model:
- Gives visibility into spend and performance
- Manages renewals, activations, and measurement routines
- Creates stakeholder accountability—especially for activation
- Aligns internal teams on objectives and investment levels
- Ensures ongoing optimization, not just periodic reviews
Governance doesn’t mean rigidity—it means clarity, process, and a framework that supports agility and decision-making.
Take the First Step
Don’t try to solve everything at once. Start with a portfolio audit, quickly followed by a refined evaluation model to generate early wins and build internal momentum.
At Lumency, we help brands extract more value and efficiency from their sponsorship investments. Our Sponsorship Portfolio Health Check™ and customized Playbook™ governance model deliver proven impact. On average, we unlock 10–15% incremental value from optimized portfolios, underpinned by our proprietary True Value™ methodology.
Let’s make sponsorship work harder for your business.
