Measuring sponsorship success: How a KPI dashboard makes the difference
The Ideal Sponsorship Process: Structure and Transparency as Keys to Success
The ideal sponsorship process can be presented in four steps:
- Corporate strategy
Sponsorship goals are derived from the corporate strategy - Sponsorship commitments
Appropriate sponsorship commitments are selected to achieve the sponsorship goals - Sponsorship measurement
Sponsorship commitments are measured by corresponding KPIs - Portfolio evaluation
Based on the KPIs, it is evaluated how strongly sponsorship commitments contribute to the defined sponsorship goals.
Successful sponsorship management does not start with the selection of individual commitments, but with the corporate strategy. The specific sponsorship goals are derived from it. These define which overarching corporate goals should be supported through sponsorship measures. These goals can include, for example, increasing brand awareness, improving brand image, or promoting customer loyalty.
Based on these sponsorship goals, suitable sponsorship commitments are selected. This involves examining which partnerships, events or initiatives have the potential to effectively contribute to the goals set.
The third step is to measure sponsorship. Suitable KPIs are to be defined for each engagement, which enable an objective assessment of the achievement of goals. It is important to clearly assign the KPIs to the respective goals.
A rolling portfolio evaluation is then carried out. Two evaluation dimensions are central to this:
- Effectiveness: How strongly does sponsorship influence the desired objectives (e.g. image, awareness, behaviour)?
- efficiency: How good is the relationship between the effects achieved and the resources used (e.g. return on sponsorship investment)?
The commitments can be visualised along these two dimensions in a portfolio matrix, similar to a BCG matrix. On this basis, well-founded decisions can be made as to whether commitments should be expanded, maintained or reduced.
The KPI dashboard
The KPI dashboard is an indispensable companion. It creates an overview, enables targeted management of commitments and supports well-founded decisions based on current data. Depending on the focus and information requirements, the dashboard can be structured differently:
- By engagement: Breakdown by sponsorship activities (e.g. sports club, popular run, music festival)
- By goals: Breakdown by sponsorship goals (e.g. image, recognition)
- By channel: Classification by channel on which the content is displayed (e.g. TV, print, social media)
- By formats: Classification by content format (e.g. video campaign, branded content)
- By topic: Breakdown by sponsorship topic (e.g. sports sponsorship, cultural sponsorship)
The ideal structure of a KPI dashboard depends largely on the complexity of sponsorship activities and specific user needs. Not every type of structure is equally useful for every organisation. It is often a good idea to combine different structuring approaches. For example, KPIs can be divided into sponsorship goals within individual engagements in order to clearly represent both goal achievement and performance per engagement.
👉 Best Practice: In addition to the current status of KPIs, also visualise their development over time and the level of goal achievement!
Conclusion: Structure and transparency as the key to sponsorship success
At the heart of successful sponsorship is a clearly structured process, combined with a well-thought-out KPI dashboard. This creates transparency, enables data-based decisions and supports continuous optimisation.
Anyone who consistently manages and develops their sponsorship activities makes sponsorship a real growth driver for their brand.
Is your sponsorship already on track for success?
