IPA study: six in ten in sports sponsorship doubt deals pay off. Only 17% measure well

Only four in ten sports sponsorship practitioners are confident their deals deliver business results, according to a report presented on 7 October at the IPA Effectiveness Conference. The study, “All to play for”, comes from the Sponsorship Effectiveness Forum and the IPA and is based on 143 brands, agencies and rights holders.

Brands are more confident than agencies: 45% against 35%

Confidence differs by group. Among brands, 45% said sponsorship clearly drives results such as sales or profit. The figure was 41% for rights holders, such as leagues and clubs, and 35% for agencies. Another 29% of all respondents said they were “somewhat confident”.

Campaign noted that respondents came from the UK, Europe, the Middle East and North America. This is the first edition to include rights holders.

Only 17% follow all three habits that the IPA links to confidence

The report names three habits. Set clear commercial goals for the deal. Measure the commercial effect and use it when deciding on renewals. Connect the sponsorship with the rest of the brand’s advertising. Organisations that do all three are almost six times more likely to be confident, but only 17% do so.

The gaps show up in the numbers. 82% set commercial goals, but only 47% use tools that can check whether those goals were met. Confident teams are nearly three times as likely to use econometrics, or marketing mix modelling, a statistical method that splits sales by cause (37% against 13%). Asked what would help most, 43% chose shared industry standards for measuring sponsorship.

Rory Natkiel’s six-stage model puts the big jump at the creative stage

Rory Natkiel, founding chair of the forum, presented a six-stage model. It starts with simply buying rights and ends with the sponsorship becoming part of the brand’s story. The biggest change comes at stage three, when the deal gets its own creative idea. At that point confidence rises from 28% to 47%. Similar questions about proof came up at this year’s IPA Effectiveness Awards and in deals such as Tauron’s naming rights for Polish volleyball.

Rights holders with their own sales data stand to gain if brands start asking for proof before renewing. Agencies, the least confident group, risk losing sponsorship budgets to teams that can show sales effects, especially with 2026 World Cup sponsorship revenue forecast to rise 56% on 2022.