Last Friday was Canada Day. As Canadians, we have a lot to be proud of-our great banking system, incredible way of life, vast country, multicultural society and great opportunities. In the world of sponsorship marketing, Canada is still in its “adolescence” or “teen years” in the life cycle. Unlike Europe and the USA which are really at the “young adult” or even “mature” stage, we are still developing. We are still in a time of influence, growth, thinking outside the box, and creativity.
A few weeks back at the Canadian Sponsorship Forum in Montreal, the 6th annual Canadian Sponsorship Landscape study was released. Thanks to the hard work of the Sponsorship Marketing Council of Canada (SMCC), Norm O’Reilly and Benoit Seguin at the University of Ottawa, the team at TrojanOne and the Canadian Sponsorship Forum six years ago, we now have our own Canadian data and information on sponsorship. This project was incubated, developed and nurtured for six years to yield the outstanding information we now receive annually.
No more do we have to look at USA or North American numbers and guess for Canada. We have Canadian research. Today, we have research data on the Canadian sponsorship marketing industry through information provided by sponsors, properties and industry consultants. Others have tried to put out some Canadian information based on what properties, sponsors and industry consultants think, feel and provide in surveys, but in my mind, there is just one standard for this base of information. That is the Canadian Landscape Study. It performs well, the background data is there and the team does well. It polls the industry. It has sponsors, properties and industry consultants complete the survey. We are very lucky to have this sort of research and data at our finger tips.
Our team at the Partnership Group – Sponsorship Specialists™ is pleased to announce that work is presently underway on the first Canadian National Consumer Sponsorship Ranking (CSR). In contrast to the Canadian Sponsorship Landscape Study that polls those in the industry, we feel that sponsors and properties can use research on what general everyday Canadians think about sponsorship. Therefore, we have commissioned the first ever Canadian National Consumer Sponsorship Ranking (CSR). Conducted by our partner Enigmas Research by telephone across Canada, the survey is designed to ensure anecdotal and interactive information can be acquired versus just internet quantitative data. We feel that properties, sponsors and consultants want to know what consumers think about brands that sponsor charities.
We want to know if such investments affect their buying habits. We want to know who consumers recognize as sponsors in Canada…and who they don’t. Which properties are well recognized by consumers, and which ones are not? The preliminary findings are amazing. Our goal is to have the final product available to interested parties by mid-October 2011. Findings will be released during the opening keynote at the Western Sponsorship Congress™ in Calgary on October 25, 2011.
Canada is an amazing country. Our industry is spreading like wildfire. The Canadian Sponsorship Landscape Study, a gold standard in our industry, will soon have companion research available on how consumers view our industry, properties and sponsors with the Consumer Sponsorship Rankings. We really are growing up!
These are just one person’s thoughts. Yours are welcomed as well. Please let us know your thoughts by commenting below. And thank you for reading.