Consumers’ Preferred Sponsorship Areas Aren’t Limited to Sports

September 17, 2021

IntegerGroup Preferred Brand Sponsorship Categories Sept2021After a tumultuous year, sponsorship of events like sports and festivals is ramping up again with advertisers foreseeing a return to sponsored in-person events in the coming months. A new report [download page] from The Integer Group reveals which sponsored events will be the most meaningful to consumers this year.

Sponsorships are a popular form of advertising among consumers. Indeed, consumers consider them the least intrusive and rank them as their second favorite form of advertising. Even though sponsorships do not rank among the top 5 favorite advertising methods for advertisers themselves, in 2019, The Integer Group found that 3 in 5 consumers find the practice influential to their purchasing decisions.

With that in mind, what types of sponsored events are consumers looking for in 2021? After the pandemic disrupted the sports industry, the largest percentage of consumers (30%) say sponsorship of football games will be meaningful to them, while others say basketball (23%), the Olympics (21%) and baseball (19%) will be.

Sports aren’t the only sponsored events people will be finding value in. Festivals are another top choice this year, with 26% saying food, beer and wine festivals and 24% saying music festivals are likely to be events where sponsorships are meaningful to them. Additionally, one-quarter of consumers feel that sponsorship of video game events could be meaningful to them – especially Gen Z and Millennials.

New to the list of events this year are nonprofit and charitable events. Popular with Millennials and Baby Boomers, 25% of consumers say sponsorship of these events will likely be meaningful to them. The Integer Group acknowledges that this addition to the list could have had some impact on the number of people who favor community and local events, which were the favorite of 2019 and were valued by 25% then. This year, fewer (21%) say these events will be among the most meaningful.

Consumers Want Easy Entry for Promotions

When it comes to promotional offers, The Integer Group found most are looking for modest prizes and easy entries. While previous research has found that consumers were willing to watch a video, enter an email address, upload a photo of their receipt or enroll in a loyalty program to enter sweepstakes, this latest report finds consumers prefer to enter promotions online above all other methods, with mail-in entry being the least preferred.

Overall, consumers want entries to be simple, fair and secure. Entries that require too much information (28% share) or have a low likelihood of winning (24%) are the top reasons preventing people from entering.

Modest prizes are preferred by every age group over smaller or larger prizes. As for secondary preferences, those under the age of 55 tend to prefer small than large prices, while those older than 55 have the opposite preference.

Read the full report here.

About the Data: Findings are based on a survey of 1,207 US adults.

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