Sponsoring sports in today’s digital age

Executive summary

Sport sponsorship has been increasing for the last 10 years: while $37.9 billion was spent on sport sponsorship in 2007, a further 50 percent was spent in 2018, at $65.8 billion.  
This increase in total spend per brand over the last 10 years reflects brands’ belief that the sports sector is an attractive market to sponsor. While sports continue to attract many people to stadiums, digital advancements and the social media expansion have brought new possibilities for brands to increase their visibility and improve their sponsorship message. In this context, brands have been forced to adapt to this evolution in sponsorship. In this report, we’ll cover some of the approaches brands can use to successfully sponsor sporting events today, taking into account the inevitable and ongoing changes in public participation at sports events—from physically attending a chariot race more than 2,000 years ago, to following an event via digital media today. This will be largely illustrated with a Use Case on the 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup held in France.