Measuring Sponsorship

For this blog, I will discuss how a particular company could measure their use of sponsorship for an event or TV show. The TV show that I selected from a previous blog (Effect of Sponsorship) was the Fox NFL Sunday game coverage, so I will continue with that choice. Although there are multiple sponsors for this programming, Ford F150 is the primary sponsor for the pre-game show and will be the subject of this discussion.

Ford’s sponsorship of Fox’s NFL coverage could serve multiple purposes. Two of the main purposes are increasing sales and improving customer relationships. To track the progress made, here are the tools that could be used for each objective.

Increase in Sales: Ford could monitor it sales over the course of the football season with the help of sales tracking tools. Tools like SalesForce or Outlook are can be adequately utilized to serve as a database. This would allow sales leads to be entered and tracked all the way through sale process. Ford could then compare the data to sales figures from previous months to see if there was an increase. Additionally, Ford may want to collect sales data from the months following the NFL season. This could provide a better understanding of the lasting impression of the sponsorship and highlight the overall effect for this form of advertising.

Improving Customer Relations: One way to measure the effect sponsorship has on customer relationships is by conducting content analysis. Ford could utilize sites like Twitter and Facebook to monitor how their products are perceived in social media. Another tool that would be useful is Google Alerts. This tool would allow Ford to track the “buzz” their sponsorship created. These tools could be applied before, during, and after the football season in order to gain enough information to determine the effectiveness of their sponsorships. Ford could also conduct surveys to gain a better understanding of their customers’ perceptions. An ad promoting a website or contest could be used to attract people to a designated webpage to take a survey. Ford could use this information to gauge how people were reached and what their brand positioning is in the marketplace.