The State of Sports Marketing in 2021

Report: 2020 Sponsorship Year In Review

Hookit’s 2020 Sponsorship Year In Review is compiled to allow marketers to benchmark their brand against other brands in their segment who are also investing in sports sponsorship as well as across industry verticals. The data gathered for this report is from social and digital channels, including Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, Twitch, VK, Weibo, and YouTube. This report focused on nearly 8,000 brands sponsoring major professional sports leagues, teams, and athletes. Through computer vision and advanced machine learning, every post by those sports properties and individuals was analyzed to identify deliberate promotion of any brand by direct mention, hashtag, or keyword in the text of the post as well as brand logos within the images and videos. These branded posts were then analyzed to evaluate post quality and brand value for the associated brand(s) and summarized to come up with the data included in this report. The date range for this data was 1st January, 2020 – 31st December, 2020.

In this report, we have split the data into distinct sections covering the top brands in sport, then featuring the top properties promoting those brands. We also have special sections for 2020, including an analysis of sponsorship value during the COVID-19 shutdown and how brands and sports properties reacted to the social justice (Black Lives Matter) movement. Finally, we have identified several brands and sports properties as “ones to watch” in 2021.

CONTENTS:

• 2020 By The Numbers
• Executive Summary
• The Leading Brands & Categories In Sponsorship
• Top Sports Properties on Social Media
• COVID-19 Impact on Sport & Sponsorship
• On The Rise: Sports Properties & Brands To Watch
• Lessons Learned From 2020 & Trends For 2021