lot has happened in sports sponsorship since Jägermeister first sponsored the jersey of Eintracht Braunschweig in 1973. Revenues from jersey sponsorship alone rose in the Bundesliga from around EUR 70 million in the 2000/2001 season to over EUR 274 million in the 2020/2021 season. But it was not only the value of the advertising space on the chest of the clubs that underwent a remarkable development.

While sponsorship in the early days generally consisted of pure logo placements in the club's environment, clubs are now increasingly entering into strategic partnerships with their sponsors or developing other new marketing concepts for companies based on partnerships with sports clubs and organizations. Overall, it can be said that the entire sponsorship industry has gained massively in creativity and complexity since the introduction of the aforementioned advertising boards.

From the very beginning of sponsorship, however, the motivation for companies choosing this type of marketing has been constant: revenue. Be it by increasing brand awareness, directly addressing the target group or a positive image transfer: all these instruments should ultimately contribute positively to the economic success of the company acting as a sponsor.

On the way to said goal, however, there are different approaches and strategies, which are also accepted differently by the fans. Since fans are usually the main target group of sponsors, the view and acceptance of fans is of high importance for the success of a sponsorship commitment. Therefore, SLC surveyed the fans of the German Football League "Bundesliga" on this topic. (n=5,218)

What you will read in our study:

Part I:

• Explanation and comparison of three different sponsorship models (model 1: pure logo placement, model 2: project-related cooperation, model 3: direct involvement of fans in sponsorship activity)
• Evaluation of the results, contextualization and best practice cases
• Individual recommendations for action tailored to different business models

Part II:

• Comparison of acceptance towards different industries as sponsors in football
• Evaluation of the industries from the perspective of the fans according to the suitability parameters "suitable & sympathetic", "suitable" and "I expressly do not wish"
• Interpretation of the results with recommendations for action for clubs and sponsors derived from the results

You want to optimize your sponsorship commitment? Or are you interested in getting into sports sponsorship?

Then get SLC's #INSTANTINSIGHTS in our Insight Store now! Also available in English!

The free one pager for the study can be found at:

#INSTANTINSIGHTS - Sponsorship Check [One Pager] (slc-management.com)


The complete study can be found at:

Sponsorship Check from the Fan Perspective (slc-management.com)

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For more information, please feel free to contact us anytime.

Adrian Lind

Research Consultant

Email: a.lind@slc-ag.com

phone: +49 (0) 911 - 54 81 830

Tags: #INSTANTINSIGHTS, Bundesliga, Data, Industry Check, Madeja, Market research, Model Check, SLC Management, Sponsorship, Study