The Sponsorship Effectiveness Forum (SEF) has today released The Sponsorship Effect, a new cross-industry analysis of 92 sponsorship case studies coded to Institute of Practitioners in Advertising-style standards.

The publication follows SEF:01, hosted yesterday at Wembley, where more than 50 rights holders, agencies and sponsors met to examine the current state of sponsorship effectiveness and establish shared priorities for future research.

Authored by SEF Chair Rory Natkiel, with contributions from SEF co-founders Charlie Dundas (GSIQ), Sarah Kendall (The FA), and Rebecca Martin (Sport by Global), the report identifies a range of findings that challenge assumptions about sponsorship’s role in driving growth.

The study uses a multi-criteria effectiveness index (including breadth of effects, presence of commercial outcomes, rigour of measurement and creative/activation integration) to identify a cohort of the top-performing cases (c. 30%) labelled Tier 1. Tier 1 cases are not “big budget” by default, they are simply the most credibly effective in the dataset.

Key Findings

1. Sponsorship’s commercial potential is real, but under-realised

• 73% of Tier 1 cases delivered sales effects, compared with 27% of all other cases.
• 66% of Tier 1 cases achieved business effects (profit gain, market share, penetration, loyalty, price elasticity), versus 25% of other cases.

This is one of the clearest indicators that sponsorship can drive commercial outcomes when the right conditions are in place. The sharp difference between Tier 1 and the rest suggests the issue is not capability but consistency. Many sponsorships are still set up without clear commercial objectives or credible evaluation plans, making it difficult to capture or attribute impact. The commercial upside is visible in the strongest work, but it remains an exception, not the norm.

2. When sponsorship works, it works across the board

• On average Tier 1 cases delivered 57% more effects versus other cases (5.7 effects per case vs 3.4).
• 44% of Tier 1 campaigns produced at least one very large effect, compared with just 6% elsewhere.

The breadth of outcomes in Tier 1 cases shows that sponsorship is most effective when treated as a system rather than a channel. The strongest examples combine distinctive creative work, multi-channel activation and long-term planning — resulting in simultaneous movement across brand perceptions, behaviours and financial performance. This suggests that sponsorship’s ceiling is much higher than its current reputation suggests, but unlocking that potential requires integrated objectives and more deliberate design.

3. The industry is measuring the wrong things

• Only 3% of Tier 1 cases used ‘intermediate metrics’, such as engagement or reach, as primary metrics.
• “ROI” was applied inconsistently, often to mean impressions or media value rather than financial return.

This misalignment between what is measured and what matters is one of the biggest structural issues holding sponsorship back. Engagement and exposure metrics may be easy to report, but they have limited correlation with meaningful outcomes. Over-reliance on these indicators makes it harder for sponsorship to earn credibility at senior levels and prevents organisations from understanding what actually drives impact. Shifting towards clearer, outcome-focused objectives is essential if the industry wants to demonstrate sponsorship’s real value.

Rory Natkiel, Chair of SEF and author of The Sponsorship Effect, said:

“When we launched the Sponsorship Effectiveness Forum, we wanted to start a conversation. This report is our first contribution to that conversation. The Sponsorship Effect shows that sponsorship is capable of driving significant commercial outcomes, but most organisations aren’t set up to plan or measure it that way. The contrast between Tier 1 cases and the rest highlights a huge amount of untapped potential. If the industry wants sponsorship to be seen as a genuine driver of growth, it needs clearer objectives, better data and a move away from engagement and exposure as stand-ins for effectiveness.”

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