No matter how you look at it, sport sponsorships and sports marketing continue to dominate the sponsorship revenue model. The overall pie continues to grow, so all sectors such as the arts, municipalities, entertainment, education, member associations, and so on are also growing, but sport is not losing its share. It still accounts for about 50% of all sponsorship revenue in Canada.

To make things even more interesting, in a recent report, PriceWaterhouseCoopers (PWC) predicted that sponsorship will grow faster than any other segment within the sport world during the next few years. So, not only will sport continue to dominate the overall sponsorship revenue charts, but internally in the sport world, sponsorship will overtake gate revenues by 2015. This will make sponsorship the largest revenue channel for sport halfway through this decade. Neither gate revenues, nor media and broadcast rights, nor concessions, nor merchandising, nor anything else will generate more revenue than sponsorship.

For decades, we have all known that sports do sponsorship right. They know their audience. They target their audience. They deliver results for sponsors. They create affinity for their products and the products of their sponsors. They drive traffic, sales, and profits for their sponsors. Well, when you do it right, you make money-and sport is doing that.

Though people in the arts, non-profits, municipalities, member associations, and others often criticize sport for its domination of the revenue pie, they need to take note. They need to put aside their resentments and petty “woe is me” attitudes and learn to do it right. They need to see how sport does it and emulate it. They need help and professional development to be successful instead of saying, “We can’t do it.” As the Canadian Sponsorship Landscape Study 2011 noted, there is over $1.5 billion in sponsorship sales and revenues in Canada annually. That means there is over $750 million for the other sectors to share. At the Partnership Group – Sponsorship Specialists, we work with the smallest and some of the largest sponsorship selling properties in Canada and help them to be successful. No matter how big or small you are, sport or not, if you do it right, you will succeed.

As the brands that invest in sport know, it is getting way more expensive. They need to be more selective and strategic. As professional sports fees rise, amateur sport sponsorships are becoming more efficient and effective for smaller brands. We often direct our smaller budget corporate clients to amateur sport opportunities that can deliver results. But again, if the amateur sport organization cannot deliver, it too can say goodbye to future revenue.

It is a new year. As sport sponsorship revenues continue to climb, especially on the professional sport side, brands need to be more strategic. But selling properties in the other sectors, such as the arts, charities, non-profits, and such, need to get way better at what they do. They need to understand that sponsorship is not begging for money and twisting the arms of benefactors to underwrite organizational costs. Sponsorship marketing is a business. It is one that can yield great returns for both buyers and sellers, but only when it is done right.

These are just one person’s thoughts. Yours are welcomed as well, please comment below. And thank you for reading.

Brent Barootes