Growth of Sponsorship in Asia tops 50 percent for the 2nd year running
Singapore: OgilvyAction Sports & Entertainment’s General Manager, Ben Heyhoe Flint unveils the latest results from IVCast -the only database monitoring sponsorship throughout Asia- which shows an unprecedented rise in sponsorship activity in the region during 2007.
After the headline-grabbing 55% rise in 2006, the index shows an almost identical 54% rise year-on-year with net volumes of USD 643m (2006: USD 418m).
“This shows that last year’s growth wasn’t a flash in the pan. Asia is the continent that is driving the global average, quoted at 14%,” said Flint.
On what is driving the surge in sponsorship activity in Asia, Flint continued to say:-
“There’s no doubt that the Beijing Olympics is helping this as we’ve seen a lot of brands investing in 2007 to secure a long-term toehold for the Games this year, for e.g. USD 38.7m has been spent on Chinese national teams – allowing them to activate with long lead times and also block competitors. But it’s not just the Olympics that’s swelling the numbers; we’ve recorded a large rise in the sheer number of deals being done in other Asian countries, 2,233 in 2007 versus 1,624 in 2006, showing that the popularity and relevance of sponsorship is infectious.”
The biggest spending categories were again led by the Automobile sector (USD98.8m an increase of 26%), Apparel (USD 78.1m) and Finance (USD57,8m) which continued its downward trend to third, having been first and second in 2005 and 2006, due to softening of investment across both Sports and Arts & Entertainment for that sector.
The fast mover was the Apparel category which leapt almost threefold from last year – driven primarily by the category giants, Nike and Adidas. Their combined spend, at USD 52,7million, represents two-third of the Apparel sponsorship market. Notably, 2007 saw Nike’s reported new 5-year, USD10m per annum commitment to the Thailand Football Team, while Adidas renewed their sponsorship of the Japan Football Association with an 8-year, USD 17.5m per annum deal.
The forecast for 2008, as in previous years, is currently showing a small decline of 9.5% reflecting the unknown continuation of deals recorded in 2007. Commenting on this, Flint said: “2008 will still be a solid year for sponsorship, but I think we could see a slowdown after the Olympic year.”
About Ogilvy Singapore
For the second year running, Ogilvy Singapore tops the ST-R3 agency rankings solidifying the agency’s status as a preferred agency partner as well as a creative powerhouse. At the Creative Circles Awards, the agency clinched the top spot walking away with not only the inaugural Agency of the Year accolade, the Best of Show Gong but also emerged tops in both the advertising and interactive categories. Last year, OgilvyOne Singapore also became the first company to be awarded the prestigious Yahoo! Big Idea Chair for its ground-breaking digital mobile application for Diageo.
About Ogilvy & Mather Asia-Pacific
Ogilvy is considered to be the pre-eminent global Agency brand in Asia with 124 offices, operating across 29 cities with 6,800 employees. It is the largest and most creative agency network in the region, offering the full range of marketing communication disciplines including advertising, direct marketing, interactive media, media planning and buying, database management, telemarketing, directory services, public relations, sales promotion, graphic design, and related marketing disciplines.
