The State of Events
Despite slower growth, event marketing and sponsorships was the largest branded entertainment category in 2009, growing $3.6% to $22.01 billion, up from $21.25 billion in 2008, when growth was 10.8%, according to the annual VSS Communications Industry Forecast
When broken out by category, sports ($8.70 billion) led the way for event sponsorships by far in 2009, as brands sought audiences filled with young males, followed by entertainment, tours and attractions ($1.2 billion), causes ($1.2 billion), arts ($636 million), festivals, fairs and events ($519 million), and associations ($388 million).
The largest share of spending on event marketing, or events organized by the brand, goes to sports and entertainment events (38%), followed by road shows and mobile marketing (25%), grass roots (15%), college (13%) and other (11%). — PO
