European Sponsorship Market Valued At $31.5 Billion
We all know that the sponsorship market is getting more global, but it's always tough to quantify it with hard numbers. So when a new report placed the value of the 2010 European sponsorship market at $31.5 Billion (€23.33b) we went back and compared that to some previous estimates around both global spending and European spending. First off, the value in this study had been previously estimated at less than half that amount (€9.54bn) indicating what could be expected - strong growth in the region around several major upcoming events. More interestingly though, the $31.5 billion, which covers all forms of sponsorship for sports and non-sports across the 50 European Countries, is more than three times IEG's estimate for what European companies spend on sponsorship.
The ratio of sport to non-sport sponsorships is 70:30. In 2010, the total sport figure for European countries is valued at €15.6billon. Pan European and the Global Events sponsorship is €0.53 billion, making an overall total of €16.13 billon. In 2010, non-sport sponsorship was worth €7.2billon in European countries, according to the study conducted by the European Sponsorship Association. The ESA says that it expects to see a rise in non-sport activities and values expected as brands take a broader view of sponsorship.
ESA used its network of European sponsorship associations, key agencies and members across Europe to derive individual country data. Pan European events which cross boundaries (UEFA Champions League for example), were taken into consideration separately.
The ESA's European sponsorship estimate, as mentioned previously, is nearly three times the $12.9 billion that Chicago-based consultancy, IEG, says European companies spent on sponsorship for the same year. Since the ESA's study accounted for all spending in the region and IEG's looked at what European companies are spending on sponsorship, one might be able to reconcile the roughly $20 billion between the two numbers by assuming that more than 60% of the sponsorship spending in Europe is done by companies that are based on other continents. In fact, if you believe that a good portion of the $12.9 billion European companies reportedly spent was invested outside of Europe, then the share of overall sponsorship that the global economy pumps into Europe-based events is likely well north of that.
