Report from IEG’s Unbound Conference (March 21-24, 2010).

Like the rest of the economy, 2009 was a challenging year for those involved with sponsorship. Spending decreased in the North American market by $100M. Fortunately, it looks like spending in 2010 is expected to rebound 3.4%. Currently, sponsorship spending in North America is a $17B industry.

It’s also important to note that sponsorship didn’t decline as much as the overall the sales promotion or advertising market, and should, in principle, rebound faster than either of those spending categories.

The most active sponsors are not as dominant as they once were. More and different players coming into the marketplace. With only about 80 companies spending more than $15M per year in sponsorship, this should lead to more diverse portfolios.

Here’s a breakdown of projected sponsorship spending by property type.

And here’s a projection of spending by all categories, led by Cause sponsorship, which historically has led in other down economy periods.

So who will be spending on sponsorship in 2010 (by category)?

•Telecommunications

•Property/Casualty Insurance

•Health Care-related: Insurance, Medical Devices

•Consumer Electronics

•Healthy Foods, and ironically,

•Quick-Service Restaurants (when did this change from ‘fast food’?)

Here’s what I see are the positives for meetings and events:

•The rise of non-traditional categories like Cause sponsorships, will help organizations to build community and passion among their constituents. This will act like a long-term insurance policy that’ll help weather good times and bad. Find a cause that resonates with your people, stake your claim, and own the heck out of it.

•Entertainment (in different content wrappers) will be with us for sometime to come. As demographics continue to shift and tastes along with them, there will be more opportunities for organizations to engage different audiences and build relationships over time with multiple properties. Again, at the end of the day, early adopters will win.

•More is better. New categories and new properties create new synergies to capitalize on. Keep an eye on emerging markets and how to play in them.

What do you think?

Postscript: There’s been much talk of ROI of sponsorship over the past few years as everyone is pressing for more accountability, defending budgets or justifying spending. Recent research by IEG shows that while 50% of survey respondents noted an increased ROI from their sponsorship dollars, almost 25% didn’t know whether they had an increase, decrease, or stayed the same! When asked which property-provided services they ranked as most valuable, ‘Assistance measuring ROI’ ranked above all others. And 36% of survey respondents say they spend $0 on measuring event success.

What’s wrong with this picture? With so much money at stake, why is this not more of a priority? What are the barriers to measurement? Soft metrics? Lack of standardized practices? More to the point, who’s doing this well and what can we learn from them? With a background in assessment and measurement, I know other industries have cracked this nut. I’m always surprised to find places where measurement hasn’t penetrated. Perhaps I shouldn’t be. What’ll it take to change?

NOTE: Special thanks to Emily Rogers (IEG Advisory Services) and Jim Andrews (SVP/Editorial Director).