[b]Source: Sports Marketing Surveys[/b]
‘Exciting’ sports offer opportunities for sponsors to capitalise on the heightened focus and emotional engagement of viewers, according to respondents in a national survey conducted by Sports Marketing Surveys.
Football and Formula One are considered the best sports to achieve this. The drama of football action and the thrills of absorbing F1 races make them ideal sporting platforms from which sponsors can reap rich rewards.
Rugby union and tennis are also considered amongst the more exciting sports and therefore prime targets for sponsorships. Athletics, despite the many recent controversies surrounding Dwain Chambers, Marion Jones and Justin Gatlin, is also still exciting the public. There is an enduring belief that athletics is still ‘good for sponsors’.
Cricket and golf are amongst the sports considered less ‘exciting’, but still have different values for sponsors. Cricket is seen as a very ‘skillful’ and ‘family-orientated’ sport, strong attributes for sponsors wishing to elevate brand status and perceptions. Golf is seen as a ‘traditional’, ‘skillful’ sport, ‘best watched on TV’ - with obvious strong pay-offs for sponsors.
[b]Findings are from UK section of a pan-European Sports Player and Fan survey conducted by Sports Marketing Surveys. For more details contact Paul Jackson paulj@sportsmarketingsurveys.com [/b]
