Slow Growth
Despite slower growth, U.S. event marketing and sponsorships was the largest branded entertainment category in 2009. It was forecast to grow 3.6% to $22.01 billion, up from $21.25 billion in 2008, when growth was 10.8%, according to VSS Communications Industry Forecast.
When broken out by category, sports led the way for event sponsorships by far with $8.70 billion in 2009, as brands sought audiences filled with young males. It was followed by entertainment, tours and attractions ($1.2 billion), causes ($1.2 billion), arts ($636 million), festivals, fairs and events ($519 million), and associations ($388 million).
The largest share of spending on event marketing, or events organized by the brand, goes to sports and entertainment events (38%), followed by road shows and mobile marketing (25%), grass roots (15%), college (13%) and other (11%), VSS said.
Last fall, Dr Pepper was one of a number of major brands to open permanent experiences at the new Dallas Cowboys Stadium.
The “Dr Pepper Starbar” is one of six party decks located on the upper concourse at the east end of the stadium. The design includes the logo, which has been abstracted into large, over-arching forms. Fifteen aluminum arches above the bar light up each time the Cowboys score, and the bar is backlit with vintage Dr Pepper bottles, says Shaun Nichols of Dr Pepper.
Across the globe, the growth of sponsorship spending is also slowing. IEG forecast a rise in spending of 3.1%, resulting in total global expenditures of $44.4 billion for 2009. In an unusual move, in June IEG released that revised forecast after first having predicting global sales would grow 3.9%.
“While the lower forecast will disappoint industry practitioners, the good news is that sponsorship is one of the few forms of marketing where spending figures remain in positive territory,” Jim Andrews, IEG senior vice president and editorial director, said at the time.
