Value of opening match sponsorship

Visa (R 1.75 milllion), Kia Motors (R 1.5 million), Sony (R 1.4 million), Fly Emirates (R 1.1 million), Castrol (R 1.075 million), Continental (R 1.05 million), Mahindra Satyam (R 1.05 million) and McDonald's (R 1.01 million) followed them.

These results are from a detailed analysis of sponsorship exposure, utilising Afstereo's AirCheck solution, which revealed some interesting insights into the value of sponsorship.

Logo exposure measured

The analysis was conducted based on the number of times a 'logo' is seen on screen. This includes logo exposure on the kit as well as exposure of logos on perimeter boards. Logos were measured by an exposure rate of 2 seconds per visual noted and exposure was further stratified by determining whether it was full or partial logo exposure. Afstereo was further able to determine the exposure value on SABC1 utilising the rate card rates as quoted in SABC Package 1: The Legend Package.

Sponsors noted and analysed included: Adidas; Aggreko; Budweiser; Arrive Alive; Castrol; Coca Cola; Continental; FIFA; Fly Emirates; FNB; City of Johannesburg; Kia Motors; Mahindra Satyam; McDonald's; MTN; Powerade; Seara; Sony; Telkom; Visa; Yingli Solar; and Neo Africa.

Colour impacts visual results

Adidas and The City of Johannesburg enjoyed the highest percentage of coverage, jointly raking in some 22% of the coverage. Adidas, Visa and Sony enjoyed over 80% full exposure due to their strong contrasting colours. Arrive Alive and Aggreko had mostly partial visibility, as they had plenty of writing on their perimeter boards and dark colour text on a dark colour background respectively, which made it rather difficult to view it clearly. Seara used their own brand logo on the perimeter boards making it extremely difficult to see what was written on the board.

In terms of the amount of time that logos appeared on screen (number of seconds), The City of Johannesburg appeared on screen for the longest at about 640 seconds, followed by Adidas at just under 500 seconds. It is interesting to note that Nike (who is not an official sponsor of either the SA or Mexico teams) managed to achieve some exposure through players wearing Nike boots.

Location, location, location

"Positioning is crucial when it comes to perimeter boards," says Tonya Khoury, MD of Afstereo. "The City of Johannesburg's perimeter board received plenty of air time as it was in the centre of the field where most of the play was during the Mexico and Bafana Bafana (South Africa) game."

"We also noted that the most effective perimeter boards were white on a dark colour background from an exposure point of view. This could be seen on the brands Adidas (black with white text); Sony (black with white text); and Visa (blue with white text). All these sponsors only used their brand name with minimal or no accompanying slogans or messages and this works really well on perimeter boards."

"Companies such as McDonald's, Coca Cola and Visa relied heavily on the success of their brand as their branding is extremely well known, irrespective of how much exposure they got on screen, one could still identify them," concludes Khoury.

Only one channel exposure measured

The analysis in this instance is purely based on the SABC1 transmission of the match and that the sponsorship ROI analysis does not include coverage on other channels (e.g Supersport, news broadcasts, international channels) nor does it take into account any news coverage, interest programmes, promotional spot usage, repeat broadcasts, etc.

A detailed report is available on request, email Lance Rothschild az.oc.etanutroppo@ecnal for a copy.