MONTRÉAL – June 5, 2024 – Elevent, North America’s leading provider of sponsorship lifecycle management software, consulting services, and research, today unveiled the results of its second Sponsorship Performance survey of adults in the U.S. examining the impact of sports sponsorship on consumer perspectives. Key findings include an increasingly positive correlation between brand sponsorship and consumer purchase intent, improving from 59% in 2022 to 66% in 2024. The in-depth 2024 Sponsorship Performance survey was completed by more than 5,000 adult (+18) Americans, making it one of the most expansive in the industry (more information about the survey methodology can be found at the end of this announcement).

The 2024 Elevent Sponsorship Performance survey also reveals new insights into consumers' willingness to engage with brand sponsors; the sports with fans that are most (and least) likely to make purchases and engage with brand sponsors; and how consumers perceive their relationship to sponsors of sports organizations and events. The 2024 survey also targeted National Football League (NFL) and National Basketball Association (NBA) fans for detailed insights into their perspectives of teams and sponsors, including the influence of stadium naming rights and jersey patch sponsorship on engagement behaviors.

“Our detailed 2024 Sponsorship Performance survey shows a direct link between sports sponsorship and consumer purchase intent, which is a big positive for brands,” said Francis Dumais, Managing Partner of Elevent. “With the 2024 Sponsorship Performance survey, we’ve uncovered a host of consumer perspectives and connected them with behaviors such as purchase intent and willingness to engage that demonstrate actual sponsor performance. What we are ultimately after at Elevent is providing brands with data-based insights to guide and measure their strategic sponsorship investments, and this survey embodies our approach.” 

Sponsorship and Purchase Intent

The Elevent Sponsorship Performance survey reveals a positive and growing correlation between consumer purchase intent and brand sponsorship of sporting events in 2024. When asked how often consumers will buy from companies sponsoring a sport or sports organization they like, 66% responded that they are more likely to purchase from sponsors they like, up from 59% in 2022. Moreover, 20% of respondents have chosen to do business with a brand only because it sponsors a sport or sporting organization that they like, and 28% have recommended a sponsoring company of a sport/organization they like to a friend.

Sponsorship can also have a negative impact on consumer purchase intent when consumers prefer to avoid the sponsoring sport/organization. Both the 2022 and 2024 surveys revealed that 15% of respondents have stopped doing business with a brand that sponsors a sport or sports organization they don’t like. An additional 16% reported that while they have not stopped doing business with a brand based on sponsorship, they have thought about it.

Willingness to Engage with Brand Sponsors

Consumer willingness to engage with brand sponsors at sporting events is also a strong indicator of sponsorship performance. The 2024 Sponsorship Performance survey reveals that the most popular sports have a less engaged fanbase, whereas the least popular sports typically have a more engaged fanbase. 

For example, less than 7% of survey respondents identified as fans of Women’s Professional Hockey, but, of those fans, 53% identified as strongly open to engaging with sponsoring companies. In contrast, the most popular sport – the NFL with 69% of survey respondents identifying as fans – reveals that only 27% are strongly open to engaging with sponsors (-26).  

This trend is also consistent when it comes to purchase intent, boycotting, and recommending sponsors. 88% of fans of Women’s Professional Hockey often or sometimes choose to buy from companies that are sponsors compared to 75% of NFL fans (-13). 36% of fans of Women’s Professional Hockey have stopped doing business with a sponsor compared to just 17% of NFL fans (-19). And 59% of Women’s Professional Hockey fans have recommended a sponsoring company whereas only 34% of NFL fans have done the same (-25).

Additional Findings

Elevent’s comprehensive Sponsorship Performance survey uncovered a host of additional, useful consumer insights, including:

1. The 2024 survey revealed that consumers are more willing to engage with brand sponsors at sporting events than in 2022. 68% responded that they like the samples that sponsors hand out at events, up from 58% in 2022. 53% like trying sponsor products (+9), 45% like getting information about sponsor products and services (+5), and 37% like participating in contests to meet celebrities (+3). 31% tend to avoid sponsors at sporting events, down from 34% in 2022 (-3).
2. NBA fans are more receptive to sponsors than NFL fans and the average public – 79% are more likely to purchase from sponsors they like compared to 75% of NFL fans and 66% of all respondents. 33% reported being strongly open to engaging with sponsors at sporting events compared to 27% of NFL fans and 21% of all respondents. In addition, NBA fans are younger and more likely to get information from social media than NFL fans.
3. Self-identified diehard NFL fans are far more likely (+17) to know the stadium naming sponsor (76%) than diehard (self-reported) NBA fans (59%).

Dumais concluded, “I think brands will find Elevent’s 2024 Sponsorship Performance survey incredibly illuminating and useful as they evaluate brand partner opportunities. Maximizing the ROI of strategic sports partnerships is job number one at Elevent. Our survey, and the results it generated, demonstrate our facility with data and the creativity behind our approach for guiding sponsorship decisions and measuring their impact. This survey yields the extensive sponsorship intelligence that brands crave and only Elevent delivers.”

Methodology

Elevent conducted an online survey of adult Americans (18 years of age and over) with 5,010 surveys completed in Q1 2024. The purpose of the Sponsorship Performance survey was to understand how sports sponsorships impact American consumers and to identify any changes or trends in consumer perspectives since the 2022 survey. The comprehensive survey included questions on a broad range of topics including sports sponsorship impact, consumer willingness to engage with sports sponsors, a sport-by-sport comparison of consumer perspectives, and more. The results were weighted using Census Bureau data based on age, gender, race, and region of residence of respondents with a margin of error of ±2% (if the sample were based on probability, with a confidence level of 95%). 

To learn more about Elevent, the Sponsorship Performance survey, or to arrange a demo of its Sponsorship Lifecycle Management platform, contact [email protected].