SponsorUnited Releases 2021 Sponsorship Year in Review Report

STAMFORD, Conn., Nov. 9, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, SponsorUnited, the leading data platform for sports and entertainment, released its annual Sponsorship Year in Review Report, which revealed the biggest changes in sponsorships around the world in 2021, as well as some of the emerging trends taking sponsorships by storm. So, what did sponsors want in 2021?

Most Searched Brands 
The most searched SponsorUnited brand of the year was GEICO, followed by Toyota, Coca-Cola, Dunkin' and DraftKings. The insurance giant stays relevant in conversations as it is also mentioned in more social posts than the following categories: Burgers, Pizza, Tourism, FinTech, On-Demand Delivery, Energy Drinks and even Alcoholic Seltzers.

The most searched Crypto Brand, Coinbase, cracked the overall Top 10 this year. Thanks to an explosion of interest in Crypto, Coinbase also saw a 1,400% increase in search volume year over year.

Most Searched Categories
The most searched category of the year was Technology, followed by Financial, Automotive, Food Products, and Healthcare. These categories also saw growing interest compared to last year, with the addition of Alcohol and Apparel brands. In fact, they have all doubled in search volume since 2020.

Most Engaging Brands
Nike was the year's highest engaging brand on social media. The sportswear company best known for its Just Do It mantra saw more than 12.5 million engagements on a single social post, the most of any brand. Fenty took the second spot, followed by adidas, another well-known sportswear brand. Sephora and Apple TV+ rounded out the Top 5 most engaging brand posts.

Artists with the Most Brand Partnerships
Steve Aoki, the well-known electronic DJ took the top spot with 35 brand partnerships. DJ Khaled, another world-famous DJ, was a close second with 31 brand partnerships. Jennifer Lopez followed with 27 brand deals. Singers Becky G and Thalia rounded out the top five with 24 and 20 brand sponsors respectively.

Trends in Spending
This year, the NFL led as the pro sports league with the greatest revenue from team sports sponsorships. In line with that, the Dallas Cowboys saw an estimated $146 million in team sponsorship revenue. Total team sponsorship revenue across five major prof sports in 2021 was nearly $4.8 billion, up 44% year over year.

2021 Sponsorship Trends
This year, along with the rise in meme stocks, we've seen growing interest in Finance, Crypto and FinTech brands. According to our data, Binance emerged with the highest search increase of any Crypto brand on our platform in 2021, with a 62,500% search volume growth. LoanDepot was also up 715% following a multiyear venue naming rights deal with the Miami Marlins. And, Credible.com was up 593% after its primetime MLB Field of Dreams backstop placement. The Finance category as a whole was the most searched among sports sponsorship sales executives, but within client activation, the Coca-Cola and Pepsi brands were #1 and #2 in most searched brands.

For a deeper look by vertical, and to access many other insights, download the free SponsorUnited 2021 Sponsorship Year in Review Report at SponsorUnited.com.

About SponsorUnited
Launched in 2018, SponsorUnited is the market leader in sponsorship technology. The platform finds, tracks, measures, reports and facilitates all sports and entertainment partnership deals. Its comprehensive database and on-demand research team keeps sponsorship buyers and sellers up to date with the latest news, real-time metrics, insights, estimated spending, contact information and brand intelligence to enable properties, brands, and advertisers to reach their partnership goals.

Methodology
This report was compiled using SponsorUnited's proprietary platform data from January 1, 2021 through October 21, 2021.

Contact:
Lisa Brown
[email protected] 

SOURCE SponsorUnited