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With 2015 coming to a close, ACA is asking the experts to predict the trends they think will shape the industry in 2016. So far, Stephan Argent has written about Agency Search Management and Grant Le Riche looked at media. Next up is Brent Barootes, President and CEO, Partnership Group, with his forecast for sponsorships.

From a sponsorship-marketing perspective, 2015 was a year of highs and lows in Canada.

There was the huge success of the Pan Am Games in Toronto and the FIFA Women’s World Cup exposed Canadians to soccer in a way we hadn’t been exposed previously. But the local sponsorship program was a disappointment and a corruption scandal within FIFA subdued sponsor enthusiasm.

There was investment into Toronto’s arts and culture scene by American Express Canada, with more than $1 million to revitalize Massey Hall. BMO also invested in the arts in British Columbia but Scotiabank pulled back from Toronto’s “arts festival,” Nuit Blanche, the Caribbean Carnival , Buskerfest and the CHIN International Picnic.

The oil-producing provinces (Alberta, Saskatchewan and Newfoundland) have fallen into a truer recession, while the border provinces of Ontario, Manitoba, and British Columbia operate in a bubble, shielded from the downturns in Western and Eastern Canada.

But 2016 is ready to roll and I am excited about what it has to offer. As brands continue to get more sophisticated in their sponsorship investments, the properties are slowly following suit. The 2015 Consumer Sponsorship Rankings (CSR) continue to show the importance of consumer affinity. Consumers want to purchase products (and at an incremental price) from brands that support their favourite charities and they have more affinity to causes than to the arts and sports. But it is sports that best-leverage the affinity they have to truly generate dollars, while charities, for the most part, fail to influence purchasing in the same way.

The CSR also clearly indicated the public’s awareness of the roles that Canadian Tire and Tim Horton’s play in sponsorship, as they shot up the rankings and are now ranked 1st and 2nd as the most active sponsors in Canada in the eyes of consumers – dethroning Molson, VISA and RBC, who held the top few spots consistently over the previous five years. Another indicator of change is that, since 2013, Scotiabank continues to rise up the rankings at the expense of RBC.

What can we expect next year? And where should brands and properties be looking? We’ve identified four hot trends for the year ahead.

1. Municipalities are the most robust property sector we are seeing right now. Brands should be excited about this. Municipalities deliver every possible demographic (other than rural agriculture). It is like one-stop shopping. If you are targeting women 25-34 or males with household income between $60,000 and $90,000, or kids with a propensity for sport activities, municipalities can deliver the audience. Be it through their programs, their events or their venues and facilities, they deliver the audience. More municipalities are getting in the game. The city of Toronto alone generates more than $32M in annual sponsorship revenue. If a brand needs to reach an audience, they should look at this growing sector.
2. We expect to see an increase in dollars spent on activation and rights fees (despite the economic woes in geographic pockets of the country), exceeding $1.7B in 2016. The shift of dollars from traditional mediums, combined with the shift of corporate philanthropic dollars to corporate sponsorship, means this ongoing growth trend will flourish. This is further enhanced by the addition of ongoing assets and properties such as the growth of the municipalities and entertainment sectors. This area is not near being saturated, as long as you access the right properties.
3. We expect to see an investment (of incremental dollars) in Canada’s 150th birthday (on July 1, 2017). This will yield more brands determining how they can best position their “Canadiana” persona through experiential marketing. Strategy and initial investments will be made in 2016, with the bulk of the dollars coming in 2017, affecting both larger and small marketers.
4. And finally, the trend we saw slowly emerge over a decade ago is finally becoming recognized. Brands are (for the most part) no longer accepting standard “Gold, Sliver and Bronze” style packages from rights holders. They are demanding customized programs that fit their specific needs, goals and objectives, with activation concepts and programs included. They are demanding what they should have years ago, and the properties and rights holders (in some cases) are listening. In 2016, we will see more properties and rights holders lose their sponsorship deals (as demonstrated this fall in Toronto) because they cannot deliver what the brands are asking for. Those that do things right will succeed while those that don’t, will fall by the wayside.

May 2016 bring your brand a prosperous new year.