Tuesday 2 February, 2021
Confidence about the overall health of the European sponsorship industry has taken a dip in the latest ESA Sponsorship Sentiment Tracker, as a third COVID-19 wave continues to take its toll across the continent.
According to the seventh edition of ESA’s regular survey, confidence has dropped across all parts of the industry to an average of 6.3 out of 10.
This represents a fall of 0.4 points from wave six of the Sentiment Tracker, released in November 2020, when confidence was at a record high of 6.7/10.
The Sponsorship Sentiment Tracker has gauged the health and confidence of leading sponsorship organisations since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, attracting more than 1,000 responses from senior industry leaders across Europe.
When asked on a ten-point scale how confident they were in the future of the industry, respondents from all parts of the sector – brands, rights holders and agencies – reported small dips in positivity. However, the overall confidence score is the same as in the third wave of the survey, released last summer.
While brands reported a decline in confidence, from 7.3 in wave six to 7/10 in wave seven, sponsors remain the most positive according to the Sentiment Tracker, a strong sign for the future health of the industry.
Rights holders, faced with further uncertainty about the future of events, saw the biggest drop in confidence, from 6.4/10 to 6.0. Agencies saw a slight fall, from 6.4 to 6.3/10.
When asked when live sporting and entertainment events would start to welcome audiences again, respondents were divided. More than a third of respondents (36%) said they were planning for the return of crowds in the third quarter of 2021, while a further 29% expected the return of crowds in the second quarter.
Only a small minority (4%) thought that crowds would be back in the first quarter of the year, while 9% were planning for quarter four. Only 5% think fans won’t return until 2022, though 15% of respondents were unsure when they would welcome audiences back.
ESA Chairman, Andy Westlake, said:
“The results of the latest wave of the ESA Sentiment Tracker don’t come as a big surprise as Europe tackles the latest surge in infections, and we’ve seen positivity dip across all respondents – although brands continue to be the most upbeat group in the survey. With 67% of respondents expecting to welcome the return of live audiences in Q2/Q3 this year, I remain hopeful, with the help of the vaccination programme, that the summer will see the return of live experiences underpinned by great sponsorship.”
–ENDS–
For media queries, please contact:
Max Weber
Marketing Communications and Events Manager – ESA
Email: maxweber@sponsorship.org / Phone: +44 (0)20 8390 3311