International sponsoring research Nissan and cricket

Since 2014, Blauw Sponsorship Impact has been mapping the global impact of sponsoring for Nissan. We measure the effect of Nissan’s different sponsorships. What does sponsoring do to the brand opinion and the brand funnel conversion?

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Nissan chooses a focus domain for their sponsoring strategy for each continent, in order to cover the entire globe. The sponsorships are being activated globally, but the Champions League is mainly popular in Europe, Africa and South-America. Formula E (F1 for electric cars) for Europe, Asia and North America, and US College Sports for North America only, of course.

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With cricket, the focus is on Europe, Asia, Africa and Australia. In 2016 the base measurement took place in 5 markets: UK (England and Wales), India, Australia, United Arab Emirates (KSA and UAE) and South-Africa. Additionally, Nissan chooses to sponsor and evaluate next to the sponsorship of the ICC, one or multiple tournaments yearly.

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• 2016: ICC World Twenty20 in India
• 2017: ICC Champions Trophy and Women's World Cup, both in England and Wales
• 2019: ICC Cricket World Cup in England and Wales

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Research approach sponsoring effect tracking

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The ICC Cricket World Cup starts on Thursday May 30th, 2019. This tournament is in third place of best viewed sport events in the world. The research consists of two measurements. Two weeks before the World Cup starts and a week after the event, which ends on July 14th.

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With this, we will provide Nissan with insights into:

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• The evaluation of the ICC sponsorship and the campaign regarding the World Cup.
• The effect of the sponsoring on Nissan’s brand KPI’s.
• The impact amongst different specific target audiences within the general public in different countries worldwide.

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With the results of this research, Nissan is able to determine targets and to optimize their sponsor activities. These insights contribute to a successful sponsoring policy.

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Difference between sponsoring partnership and event sponsorship

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The main difference is that a sponsoring partnership like UEFA Champions League, Formula E and ICC is continuous and the sponsoring of the Cricket World Cup provides a temporary effect.

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With the sponsoring of an event, there is a clear peak in terms of activation and (hopefully) brand effect. However, brand consideration and brand preference have to be rebuild from a lower level, when time has past (after an event) and there has been no activation in between events.

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A benefit of event sponsoring in a specific country is that you can target the local fans and win them over for your brand. There can be a lot of emotion in the host country, but also a country that is in the finals. Because of the high levels of engagement among local audiences, the activation peak increases.

Strategic advice regarding sport sponsoring

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Because of our broad experience we help our clients not only with setting up sponsorship research, but also on strategic level.

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We provide our clients with advice:

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• When they can activate in low moments: is it necessary to spread your budget more during the year. Working on activation, also in low moments, in order to prevent falling back.
• How to activate: make sure to be present in sports on more than one level, to remain relevant and top of mind, also in between events, for example with surprising video’s
• About the synergy of their sponsorship portfolio: two domains have more effect together than individually. Someone who is fan of two sports, such as cricket and formula E, will be even closer to your brand.

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