News

London, 19 June 2008


Sponsorship Intelligence has been appointed by the IOC to act as a research consultancy, it was announced today.

The IOC's research needs have been broad in the past and continue to expand with each edition of the Olympic Games. However, making the research more coordinated and integrated was central to this year's project. SI's research programme is therefore one of the most cohesive and comprehensive studies conducted by the IOC on the Olympic brand, the Olympic Games and the Olympic Movement to date. SI is offering a truly holistic and progressive research solution to the IOC, comprising both consumer research and media research.

The consumer studies will cover 16 territories and comprise a variety of qualitative and quantitative methodologies, employing the latest online and spectator interviewing techniques.
SI are also analysing the media output (media research) in every market that is broadcasting Olympic content (via TV, online and mobile) and recognise the importance of correlating this with all elements of the consumer research so as to deliver a greater level of insight than ever before.

Andy Kowalczyk, MD of Sponsorship Intelligence comments:

"We are delighted to be working with the IOC to provide this key resource. The research will address the objectives of all IOC stakeholders but importantly it will also feed into the IOC's overall strategy beyond Beijing 2008.”

From ZenithOptimedia Insights, US

As expected, this year’s SUPER BOWL- XLII was a spectacular event and has been labeled by Nielsen Media as the most watched Super Bowl ever with 97.5 million viewers tuning in. Viewing levels peaked to 107.5 million during the last 30 minutes of the game. Last night’s game surpassed the previous record set in 1996 of 94.1 million viewers, which featured Dallas defeating Pittsburgh. Although there were past Super Bowls with higher ratings, because the population has increased over time, the actual number of people this year was higher.

Approximately 81% of all TV sets in the Boston area on Sunday were tuned to the game, with 67% tuning-in in New York.

The only event in history that beat’s Sunday’s game was the MASH finale (1983), which was seen by 106 million viewers.

The average cost of a 30 second ad was $2.7 million.

TiVo reports that when counting DVR usage, more people watched the commercials than the actual game.

House posted sizable gains with its post game episode vs. its traditional season-to-date delivery.

It was not just defending champions Germany that struck gold on Sunday. The TV broadcasters for the two finalists of the FIFA Women's World Cup China 2007, ZDF in Germany and Rede Bandeirantes in Brazil, set new records in spite of unfavourable time differences.

Rede Bandeirantes reached the extraordinary rating of around 15 points, three times above the average of an entire Sunday and way beyond the channel's expectations.

Germany's national channel ZDF achieved an audience of 9.05 million viewers representing a market share of 50.5 per cent. The broadcast rights holder, who shared the event broadcast over the three weeks with ARD, was delighted with these results which beat the highest UEFA Champions League audience from the 2005/06 season (8.1 million viewers for the live primetime coverage of the Milan - Bayern Munich tie).

Moreover, the live coverage of the Japanese Formula 1 Grand Prix, also held on Sunday, attracted 2.2 million viewers. To put this in context, the highest Formula 1 audience of the year so far in Germany was recorded at 7.95 million for the live showing of the European GP which was held at the same time on a Sunday as the coverage for the FIFA Women's World Cup final.

"These magnificent results, which reflect the outstanding attendances in the stadiums during the entire competition and the ever increasing number of women players around the world, bear witness to the brilliant improvement of women's football on a universal scale. It is an extra source of encouragement to everyone who is following FIFA's example and firmly believes in the future of women's football," commented FIFA President Joseph S. Blatter.

In 2003, the final of the fourth FIFA World Cup between Germany - Sweden reached in the German TV a live audience of 11.38 million, however this match was shown during prime evening viewing hours and therefore achieved a lower market share than the broadcast on Sunday 30 September on a Sunday morning (33.8 per cent v 50.5 per cent). This first very promising results just confirms the high expectations with a record number of 200 territories who have covered the 2007 edition of the FIFA Women's World Cup.

Sports fans are being treated to a feast of major events this month with key EURO 2008™ qualifiers, US Open tennis, World Cups in rugby union and in cricket’s exciting Twenty20 format, not to mention a fascinating if controversial F1 season. With such strong competition for viewer attention - and considering the general dominance of football - will the Rugby World Cup be able to generate its share of viewer interest?

Saturday 8 September saw direct competition between rugby and football in England with the defending Rugby World Cup champions’ opening match and the football team’s qualifier against Israel and both kicking-off at 5pm. With both events being broadcast by free-to-air terrestrial carriers, football was the winner delivering a television audience three times greater than England’s Rugby World Cup victory over USA (6.9m viewers vs. 2.2m).

In France, an impressive 14 million viewers (54% share) tuned-in to the opening match of the tournament between the hosts and Argentina - more than either of France’s EURO 2008™ qualifiers which generated audiences between 9 and 10 million. In the UK, the France-Argentina battle pulled in an audience of 3.8 million - far greater than the England-USA match which had the football to compete with.

Bearing in mind the significant investment made by Rugby World Cup’s commercial partners, is the tournament providing them with a return on investment?

Sponsorship Intelligence employs brand measurement specialists Margaux Matrix to track all of our clients’ brand exposure within international televised broadcasts. So, for the opening match of the tournament, Margaux Matrix were tasked with analysing all on-screen exposure generated by the sponsor partners. As well as being a fantastic rugby match - for the neutral at least - the competition opener seems to have been a winner for the partners too.

The major partners appeared on screen an average of 650 times, generating more than 10 minutes of exposure each. Branding from the halfway line up to each 22 metre line delivered the highest levels of exposure. In some cases, up to one-quarter of the TV screen was filled by a partner’s brand name. Using audited ratings, specific channel spot prices, combined with the above exposure analysis, Sponsorship Intelligence have calculated an advertising equivalent value for each of the sponsor partners’ exposure. In UK and France alone, this single match generated a combined sponsorship value for the partners of around €2m^; the highest value generated by EDF, €334,900 and the lowest Capgemini, €15,800. To put into context, a typical spot for the opening match would be around €85k for TF1 in France and €53k for ITV1*.

With the competition comprising 48 matches, being broadcast internationally and, according to reported figures, expected to generate a global cumulative viewership of 3-4 billion, Sponsorship Intelligence believe the sponsors can expect a high return on investment.

^ analysis excludes Heineken due to broadcast restrictions
* based on average September prices for all individuals. Costs do vary by advertiser brand.


For more information, please contact either:

Andy Kowalczyk
Managing Director
e: andy.kowalczyk@sponsorshipintelligence.com

Chris Jones
Deputy MD
e: chris.jones@sponsorshipintelligence.com

Athletics - The President of European Athletics, Hansjörg Wirz, has declared the organisation of the weekend's 29th European Athletics Indoor Championships in Birmingham as the best ever!

The 5,000 seated National Indoor Arena in Birmingham was a sell-out on both Saturday and Sunday as well as providing impressive crowds for the mainly qualifying rounds on Friday, but importantly from the European Athletics point of view, the championships extended into the entire city.

"From the moment we arrived in Birmingham airport, one was very aware that the championships were taking place in the city and the city centre was dressed with huge billboards promoting the event and the stars" said Wirz.

"The organisers succeeded in integrating the event into the city with initiatives such as the SPARk, where kids could come and try athletics, the schools programme and numerous other initiatives. It is crucial that the championship doesn't stop at the doors of the arena and in this, Birmingham achieved great success"

Championship Director Terry Colton said "We are ecstatic with this news from European Athletics and it is a great boost not only to Birmingham but also to the whole country, five years before the London Olympics."

2006 FIBA Events - A Brief Overview

As we begin 2007, we can reflect on our two major events of 2006; namely the FIBA World Championships for Men in Japan and for Women in Brazil.

As you are all well aware the events were great successes both on and off the court.

The 2006 FIBA World Championship in Japan was simply the "Best Ever"

• It was the "Best-Ever" in terms of the playing standard of the teams on the court. The emergence of the African teams created a new dimension and who will forget the Greece v USA semi-final or the emotional Spain v Greece Final? The scene is certainly set for this year's Continental Championships.
• It was the "Best-Ever" for the quantity of news articles generated by the record breaking 3,000 accredited media. More pages of text both in written publications and on the internet were produced then ever before.
• It was the "Best-Ever" for both the quality of the coverage by the 99 broadcasters and the 156 territories where the rights were acquired. In Spain the 45.9% audience share for the Final was the highest ever rated sports programme on La Sexta which was also the broadcaster for the 2006 FIFA World Cup in Spain! In Greece the audience share was 75% with 1 in 4 persons in Greece watching the Final. In the USA the matches were live at night or early in the morning, but still produced figures close to the 2002 FIFA World Cup audiences. Good audiences were recorded in Italy, Serbia and across Africa and in China a staggering 380 million watched the matches with a further 4 billion fullowing the Championship via TV news and sports round-ups.
• The World Championship web-site was produced in four languages, English, Japanese, Chinese and Spanish and the traffic smashed all records with 375 million page views and 9.5 million unique visitors. In comparison, these figures are approximately 150 times greater than the traffic that FIBA had for the 2004 Athens ulympic Basketball tournament and is similar to the traffic from the 2004 European Football Championship 'Euro 2004' and nearly double the traffic from the 2006 Wimbledon and 2006 Ruland Garros sites.
For Brazil the 2006 FIBA Women's World Championship saw:
• A more competitive championship that many had predicted with one or two surprise results and scares in the Group stages. The biggest upset came in the semi-final where Russia started strongly against the USA and held on for a memorable win. The USA loss was their first loss in international competition since 1994. In the Final, Russia could not repeat their semi-final play and the overall power, strength and determination of the Australian team gave them their first ever World Championship.
• The most extensive domestic television coverage for a FIBA Women's World Championships with daily games on TV Globo (the biggest terrestrial TV channel in Brazil) plus daily multi-game coverage and interviews on SportV and ESPN Brasil (both cable channels). Over 15 hours of basketball were broadcast in Brazil on every day of the championship.

The Football World Cup, which begins in Germany on 9 June, will generate $1bn in advertising revenue, according to leading industry observers, making it one of the most lucrative sporting events of all time.

Media agency ZenithOptimedia says the amount spent by the world's leading companies on TV commercials, press advertisements and outdoor advertising will break the $1bn barrier for the first time. Zenith's head of publications, Johnathan Barnard, said: 'The fact the tournament's taking place in Europe, where four of the world's five large advertising markets are located, means total revenue will probably be about $1bn.'

German time zones mean most games will be screened at good times for markets further afield, he added.

The tournament will help the global advertising market grow significantly this year, Zenith is forecasting. In December 2005, it said its value would increase by 6.2 per cent to $431bn this year, up from a 5.2 per cent increase in 2005.

Some of the world's leading brands capitalise on the huge interest generated by the World Cup to launch new products and grow sales in some of the world's largest consumer economies.

However, the last World Cup, held in Japan and South Korea in 2002, took place immediately after a global advertising slump and failed to provide the industry with the fillip many had predicted. The previous year, the market had shrunk by 4.1 per cent as the US experienced an economic downturn that was exacerbated by the 11 September terrorist attacks.

This time, British media groups are likely to benefit from increased spending. ITV, which was the subject of an abortive takeover attempt by former BBC director-general Greg Dyke last month, is sharing coverage with the BBC and is likely to receive a timely boost.

Its revenues will rise in June as a result of the tournament, according to sources at leading media agencies, reversing a trend that has seen its share of revenues fall along with its overall audience share. It took about £110m in advertising in June last year, but is expected to take £115m in June 2006.

The increase is a dramatic one because revenues would almost certainly have fallen were it not for the World Cup. The company's total advertising take is still expected to fall in this year as a whole.

The entire TV advertising market will increase by 10 per cent compared with the same period last year. Other beneficiaries will include Channel 4 and pay-TV channels.

The Olympics remains the world's biggest sporting event in terms of advertising spend, mainly because it attracts large television audiences in America. Despite global popularity, football is still a minority sport in the world's largest advertising market.