Domestic Companies Do Not Know How to Utilize Sponsorships

Recently, a large survey was completed by the leading domestic agency for strategic consulting in the field of sponsorships, CiV Vetturelli.

The general conclusion that emerges from the presented results is that domestic companies, whether in the private or public sector, do not achieve the maximum potential through sponsorships, on which they often spend large amounts.

According to the research conducted on a sample of 34 domestic companies, nearly 88% of companies invest significant funds in sponsorships. The average amount spent on sponsorships in 2012 was nearly 3.7 million kuna. As much as 44% of sponsorships relate to sports, 22.3% to arts and culture, 9.2% to science and education, 9% to ecology, etc. In absolute numbers, 50% of investments in Croatia go to sports, but Croatia still lags behind the world where 68% is invested in sports sponsorships.

The largest investments in sponsorships are made within the financial and telecommunications sectors, followed by the food industry, pharmaceutical industry, trade, and finally the automotive industry.

According to certain project studies presented within the research, it is evident that compared to international practices, the utilization of sponsorship potential in Croatia is on average 27.5% lower. It is significant that the problem of insufficient quality of implementation arises from the fact that many companies here use sponsorships to increase visibility and that it is not clear which professional departments decide on and implement sponsorships. Unfortunately, one of the reasons for this problem also lies in insufficient knowledge of this marketing segment.

The project leader of the research, Viktor Vetturelli, emphasized that domestic companies still lag behind companies in the developed West.
-This is a fact that arises from insufficient education and lack of knowledge of this segment, as sponsorship is not just a communication channel but a clear statement of what the company stands for and what its values are. The strength of sponsorship lies in the breadth of goals that a company can achieve and the differentiation that individualized goals offer, but the survey showed that 90% of Croatian companies use only media evaluation to measure success, from which we can conclude that they all pursue the same goal – increasing visibility. Generally speaking, sponsorships are a form of marketing that is increasingly growing on an international level, and we expect such a trend here as well. This should especially come to the fore in the coming years if the announced recovery of the domestic economy and increased competition occurs,” he said.