Scout Pro Bulletin: 16th May 2025

Good morning,

This week, Essendon Football Club welcomed Australian Unity as their Official Health Insurance Partner and Official AFL & AFLW Member Partner.

The need-to-know:

• Sponsorship spend from private health insurers (PHI) has grown over 20% in the last 12 months

• Spend skews towards Women’s properties, Venues and Clubland, given the synergy in being member-focused organisations and opportunity to reach fans with messaging to switch.

• New deals include market leaders BUPA x NZ Rugby and Medibank x AFLW. The deal was Medibank’s first entry into a major sport sponsorship in several years.

• Before the Essendon deal, Australian Unity was the largest private health insurer without a major partnership.

• The insurer has lost share of market in the last 12 months, especially in Victoria, home to the majority of its customers.

• With Essendon, Australia Unity replaces AIA, whose share of sponsorship exceeds their share of the market. This investment in sponsorship has helped AIA in being one of the fastest growing health insurance funds in the last 12 months.

For more sponsorship insights from Scout, check out our services.

Enjoy!

Essendon x Australian Unity

Brand: Australian Unity

HQ: Melbourne

Deal type: New partnership

Scout Intel:

Sponsorship spend from private health insurers (PHI) has grown over 20% in the last 12 months, one of the fastest growing categories across the landscape.

Spend skews towards Women’s properties, Venues and Clubland, given the synergy in being member-focused organisations and opportunity to reach fans with messaging to switch.

New deals include market leaders BUPA x NZ Rugby and Medibank x AFLW. The deal was Medibank’s first entry into a major sport sponsorship in several years.

Before the Essendon deal, Australian Unity was the largest private health insurer without a major partnership. The Essendon partnership brings its share of sponsorship closer in line with its share of market. Medibank remains significantly under-represented in sponsorship relative to its market share.

The insurer has lost share of market in the last 12 months, especially in Victoria, home to the majority of its customers (APRA data).

With Essendon, Australia Unity replaces AIA, whose share of sponsorship exceeds their share of the market. This investment in sponsorship has helped AIA in being one of the fastest growing health insurance funds in the last 12 months.

For more on market share vs sponsorship share, reach out to to Mark or Alex.

Scout Services

Rights holders:

💻 Scout Platform provides full access to over 6,200 sponsorship deals across 80 categories. Explore interactive versions of the above charts and more. Reach out to Mark or Alex for a demo.

📊 Scout Category Reports are bespoke deep-dives starting with all the brands in a category and their market share, compared to their sponsorship share. Reporting unpacks key market challenges for each brand, and where new partnerships provide solutions.

Brands:

💻 Scout helps brands understand their share of the sponsorship market, by sport, State and month, to prioritise partnerships that best meet objectives. Reach out to see your share of sponsorship vs competitors.

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