Due to the econmy, Sponsorship.com has issued a first-ever, mid-year spending forecast. Sit down for this. The horrible news; corporate sponsorships have increased by only 1.1 percent this year. Gasp!! That’s right, sponsorship spending by U.S. and Canadian organizations will be a mere 16.79 BILLION dollars for 2009.
I’m almost speechless. Folks over there need to get a grip. Yes, this is a huge change from the double-digit growth in the boom times. Bothered by an increase when almost six million people have lost their jobs? When the meeting and training industries are suffering major cuts? When advertising and sales promotion budgets were hit with 4.2 and 2.3 percent cuts? I can here the violins playing from here…
Biggest winner: Association spending, with a 3.3 percent increase for a total 2009 spent of $498 million. Another favorite – cause marketing – came in at a respectable third place with a 2.9 percent increase for a total 2009 projection of $1.5 billion. Sports deals took the biggest hit, increasing less than one percent.