A total of 112 Swiss companies of all sectors and sizes were surveyed. Sports (named by 77 percent of respondents) and cultural platforms (51 percent) are particularly popular for sponsorship activities. They are followed by corporate responsibility (CR) with 44 percent and media with 25 percent. 40 percent of sponsorship spending went to sports, 22 percent to culture. The average share of sponsorship in total marketing and communications budgets is 21.5 percent. Around 15 percent of companies invested less than 50,000 Swiss francs a year in sponsorship, 30 percent more than one million and 16.4 percent even more than three million Swiss francs. This is shown by the study "Sponsor Visions Switzerland 2014/2015", which was conducted for the second time by the ZHAW School of Management and Law in collaboration with the Sponsoring Association (FASPO) and the Swiss Advertising Contractors Association (SWA).

The most frequently sponsored sports in 2014 were soccer (50 percent), ice hockey (39 percent), running (33 percent) and alpine skiing (24 percent). According to FASPO Vice President Jean-Baptiste Felten, these sports will maintain their top position for the time being. "The Swiss national sport of wrestling continues to experience a real boom. In addition, satisfaction with sports sponsorships is currently at its highest."

Music and film at the top

Compared to Germany, Swiss companies place significantly more emphasis on culture. Music, especially rock and pop (53.5 percent), is supported most frequently, followed by classical music (33.3 percent) and jazz (24.4 percent). Films and film festivals (42.2 percent) are the second most frequently supported. Performing arts, especially drama/theater (26.7 percent) and opera/operetta (22.2 percent), rank third. Much of the cultural sponsorship comes from the insurance and banking industries, followed by the energy sector. "The forecast for the coming years shows that architecture, design and film will continue to gain in importance," says ZHAW project manager Leticia Labaronne. Within music, a shift is manifesting itself: the promotion of rock, pop as well as folk music will increase, while that of classical music will tend to decline. Libraries and media libraries, museums and the preservation of historical monuments, and dance will also lose relevance.

Socio-sponsoring as a growing market

In the CR area, many commitments (44 percent) tend to be implemented with smaller budgets. The biggest increase is expected in socio-sponsoring, especially in the areas of health, nutrition, fitness and prevention, as well as climate and environmental protection. In the case of education and science, support continues to be given primarily to educational institutions and research projects. The willingness on the part of sponsors to recommend CR commitments is highest.

Professionalization increases

Public relations is an important reason for activating sponsorship commitments. This correlates with the central sponsoring objectives: To improve image and awareness. 85 percent of companies also communicate sponsorships on social media platforms, with Facebook (75 percent) and video portals (61 percent) being preferred. For planning purposes, more and more companies are using empirical analyses such as image (55 percent) or target group analyses (47 percent). For monitoring, media analyses (54 percent) and event checks (51 percent) are used in particular. Only 27 percent of respondents have carried out social media monitoring to date. According to Jean-Baptiste Felten, it is to be expected that companies will increasingly carry out such monitoring in the future.

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