Clear positioning is a must

Study According to the ESB's Swiss Sponsoring Barometer 04/05, sports sponsorship in Switzerland will continue to stagnate. For the sixth time, the European Sponsoring Exchange (ESB) and the GfS, this time with the Cologne-based service agency Sport + Markt, conducted a manager survey for the new Swiss Sponsoring Barometer. Around ten percent of the most important companies in the Swiss sponsorship market were surveyed. The astonishing result is the discrepancy between investment and perception: although 80 percent of the companies surveyed see sports sponsorship as the most important form of sponsorship - over half of their budgets go to sport - consumers think that cultural sponsorship is stronger. The latter only accounts for around 25 percent of sponsorship investments. Marcel Cordes, CEO of Sport + Markt: "It is true that the visibility of sports sponsorships is greater than that of culture in Switzerland too. However, with corporate foundations and patrons, it has a longer tradition of cultural sponsorship than other countries." While traditional advertising was able to gain share in the communication budget of sponsoring companies, sponsorship expenditure remained at the same level as in 2002. Some sports are strugglingThis is also where Switzerland differs from the trend in Europe. In general, a shift can be observed: while sponsorship fees have remained stable, investments in accompanying communication measures have increased. There is a risk that individual sports will struggle to survive in the sponsorship market in future due to negative incidents.
Skiing is one of the losersCorde's recommendation: "A better positioning in order to avoid falling further down the communication value chain, but to increase the share in it again." Hospitality activities, PR and traditional advertising measures are the most important instruments for networking sponsorship commitments, in that order. In terms of sports, football, due to the successful Euro 2008 candidacy of Switzerland and Austria, and tennis, due to Roger Federer, are among the winners in the sports sponsorship market. One of the losers is skiing, according to the majority of respondents.
Formula 1 is less popular for sponsorship than expected.
Luca Aloisi