Unfortunately, many of those benefits often go unrealized because sponsors fail to spend the extra few dollars to build on whatever basic benefits might be conferred by rights fees. Conventional wisdom, according to IEG, holds that sponsors ought to spend at least three dollars leveraging a sponsorship for every dollar spent on rights fees. Too many companies seem to be content with taking whatever comes with the rights fees, without spending a little extra to maximize the sponsorship s value. It s very simple to get all the benefits of exposure and signage and let it go at that. You have to let people know what you re doing.
Many sponsorships are worth little absent the effort to leverage the rights.
A lot of times what you get is just the right to brag. Sometimes you get signage and stuff that is of some value. Another point that IEG s study brings into focus is how reliant sponsors are on the properties themselves for information about reach, demographics and performance. A full third spend nothing at all. Perhaps more troubling is how little research sponsors do after a sponsorship to measure its effectiveness.