The Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS Formula One Team is one of the most prestigious rightsholders in the sports industry. Brands sponsoring a rightsholder at this level have their own sponsorship goals and objectives. To best serve these brands, it is essential for the team to understand the impact sponsorship has on its partner brands and to continuously monitor a wide range of sponsorship KPIs.
Blauw Sponsorship Impact developed a research tracker to measure the real impact of sponsorship on consumer sentiment and behaviour. This enabled the team to continuously pinpoint the extent to which targets were being met, why KPIs were performing the way they were and how performance could be further improved.
Competing in a championship with year-round exposure, it was essential to develop an ‘always on’ tracker. By collecting data every day of the year, peaks and troughs in KPI performance could be linked to events during the season and tracked over time.
In 2023, 27,000 respondents from 9 markets were surveyed. Insights were visualised in an online dashboard which showed the latest impact of sponsorship on each partner brand.
As a result, the team was able to create stronger engagement with its partners and encourage a collaborative approach to implementing changes in the activation planning throughout the season. Increased rightsholder accountability helped meet and exceed mutual objectives and build closer rightsholder-sponsor relationships. In turn, the new more collaborative approach allows the team to provide partners with more tailored and focused propositions when it comes to sponsorship renewals.
