caytoo’s latest monthly analysis looks at how October sponsorship deals compared to those signed in the previous month

The number of sponsorship deals signed in October doubled on September – driven by deals in rugby, football (soccer), basketball, motorsport, hockey (primarily Ice ahead of the NHL season starting) and industry conferences.

However, the Entertainment, Lifestyle/Culture and Industry sectors all saw strong relative growth in deals done which means Sports’ share of all deals fell to its lowest level (82%) since caytoo started collating monthly data. Sport normally accounts for around 92% of deals.

Football (soccer) remains the most prevalent rights holder sector but is now at its lowest share (25.5%) since caytoo started measuring, dropping from 41.9% in September and a high of 57.1% in June. Although football deals did increase, the falling share is due to the collective rises across many other sectors.

Which sectors did the most deals?

Food & Beverage had by far the biggest increase in the total number of deals – driven by Alcohol and Soft Drinks – overtaking Financial Services (11.8%) as the most prevalent sector (14.6%). F&B particularly over-indexes on Athletics deals – accounting for 33% in that sport, compared to less than 15% across all deals.

However, Financial Services – along with Automotive – followed F&B in terms of the biggest jump in deal numbers. Professional Services and Consumer Goods followed next.

For the first time since caytoo started measuring, Gambling wasn’t the most prolific sub sector sponsor. In fact, it dropped to eighth spot at a 3% share, less than half that in September (6.6%).

In contrast, Alcohol had the biggest increase in number of deals and jumped from fifth to first place (5.5%). Alcohol’s deals tend to be spread across a much larger range of rights holders – led by music and athletics – than most other brand sectors.

Two soft drinks brands did the most deals: Indian bottled water company Bisleri and Coca-Cola, each with five. All Bisleri’s deals were with Indian football teams while Coca Cola’s involved sailing, football, a global entertainment/events deal and a ‘local’ American Football museum.

Why are they doing the deals?

Driving Brand Awareness remains the most common reason cited, accounting for 28.5% of all deals. The rationale is most strong among Motorsport deals (accounting for 44.1%) – meaning Motorsport deals are over 1.5x more likely to be done for this reason than the average.

Social Impact (or to be seen to be doing good) is the second most popular rationale. It is most strong among Industry Conference deals (28.6%).

Social Impact (+7%) saw the biggest increase in share of deals. This highlights the increasing need/demand for brands to showcase how they’re a positive force for good in society and how well-positioned sponsorship is to achieve this compared to other forms of marketing.

When looking at the main reason why brands do deals, certain sectors will be much more likely to have certain reasons (or objectives) than others (aka over-indexing). So, it makes sense for rights holders to focus on identifying sectors that over-index most on the key benefit you provide and then leading with this element when pitching. The full October sponsorship deals report reveals which sectors over-index for reach reason.