SPORTZ
The WPP sports brand equity study

Conducted among more than 21,000 sports fans over the age of 15, SPORTZ is the only international study of consumer attitudes and behaviour towards sport and how it impacts on brands - both sponsors' brands and brands within sport.

The research was carried out in eight countries across the world - France, Germany, UK, China and USA.

Background
Sport continues to dominate the world of sponsorship, representing 80% of the $20 billion+ sponsorship market in 2002. The average duration of the top 50 deals is just over four years, which means that sports sponsorship is now being used as a long-term branding tool.

Yet many multi-million dollar deals are still being made on the basis of gut instinct about brand fit, and accountability has been largely based on inflated estimates of audience size.

How SPORTZ works
SPORTZ measures the personality and image of key sports, events, leading football clubs and Formula 1 teams, allowing sports brands to be compared and connected to 18,000 consumer brands across the world, through links to WPP's BRANDZ study.

In addition, it is also linked with data on the Target Group Index (TGI) - an international network of single source market research studies showing extensive product, brand, media and attitudinal data in over 40 countries worldwide.

What SPORTZ shows
SPORTZ can tell you that:

• British sports fans prefer to watch tennis than the World Cup
• There are twice as many golf fans in Japan as in the UK
• In Germany, 34% of those who say they have an interest in skiing use Kodak film most often
• Ferrari dominates all other teams when it comes to fan loyalty

How SPORTZ can help you
SPORTZ is relevant to all constituents of the sports marketing community:

• Current sponsors - does our current sponsorship activity fit with our brand?
• Potential sponsors - what sponsorship platforms should we consider?
• Brand managers - what sponsorship platforms would help change consumer perceptions of our brand?
• Sports federations - which sponsors should we be targeting that best fit with our sport?
• Strategic marketers - should we adopt a 'single sport', 'portfolio' or 'multi-market' approach?
• Television planners - which sports would best fit and grow my audience?

Who to contact

David Muir
WPP
Tel: +44 20 7408 4404