Marketers To Forget Sponsorship In 2004.

North American companies will spend more on sponsorship in 2004 than ever before, but the types of properties they will spend that money on and how they will use them will change fundamentally.

“The new year marks a threshold for sponsorship,” said IEG founder and president Lesa Ukman. “The industry will grow at a healthy pace, but the source of that growth will be much different than in the past.”

For many years, blockbuster new deals with high-priced properties, be they venue naming rights or major pro sports deals, have fueled sponsorship’s growth. That is no longer the case. The industry will not continue to see the constant creation of big-ticket opportunities.

Instead, expansion will come as the result of partnerships with a wider array of nontraditional partners, including deals with traditional broadcast properties that include a sponsorship element. In the age of TiVo, advertisers and TV programmers are developing alternatives to the 30-second spot that are less about buying media and more about interaction and experiential marketing.

In addition to a change in the types of partnerships, the nature of sponsorships and their relation to consumers, business-to-business audiences and other constituencies is shifting as well.

“People have changed and the way we use sponsorship to reach them must change also,” Ukman said. “The chasm that separates the values and expectations of the changed consumer from the signs, ad spots and short-term-volume goals of traditional sponsorship creates a huge opportunity for forward-thinking sponsors and properties to make a real impact by creating real value for themselves and their stakeholders.”

For more information at http://www.sponsorship.com