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Welcome to the Scout Newsletter, an exploration into the data behind the Australian Sport and Sponsorship Landscape.

The Scouting Report is a monthly long-form deep-dive covering topics of interest to the sponsorship industry.

This month we deep-dive on the Telco category, where smaller players are growing in both share of sponsorship and share of market. This article explores the links between both…

Scroll to the bottom for This Week In Sponsorship, a weekly summary of key market movements in the industry.

Enjoy!

The Scouting Report

Need to know

• The Telco market is fragmenting – smaller brands are stealing market share from key players Telstra, Optus and TPG. Challenger brands outside the top three now represent 28% NBN market share, vs. 20% in 2022.

• Telstra has 72% sponsorship share of voice, through major partnerships in NRL (naming rights) and AFL, blocking other Telco brands to help protect their market leadership.

• However, recent deals have helped other brands to bring their sponsorship share of voice in line with their share of market, with Dodo and Belong taking major partnerships with the Stars and Sixers respectively.

• These partnerships are prominent at a key time for the Telco industry, with customer search for Telco brands peaking in summer. The deals are paying off – both Dodo and Belong recorded peak share of search during BBL12, especially in home markets.

• Other challenger brands are looking for similar success, with fast-growing Tangerine signing new deals with the Renegades and NBL. Will more Telco brands follow suit, using sponsorship to keep growing market share?

Market Trends

For both NBN Broadband and Mobile Services, Telstra, TPG and Optus make up over 70% of the market. Note these three brands also operate various sub-brands, e.g. Belong sits under Telstra, while iinet and Vodafone sit under TPG.

More recently, smaller Telco brands have been taking market share from the big three - especially Aussie Broadband and Vocus (which includes Dodo).

This fragmentation is happening across both NBN and Mobile services.

Share of search

Share of search provides an even more useful data source for market trends. This is the number of Google searches for each brand, reported as a share of all brands in the category. At a high-level, share of search can be used for understanding:

Market Share: big brands get searched more, and so share of search can be an extremely effective proxy for the market share of each brand. Furthermore, this data is available for brands of all sizes (including those that don’t report financial metrics) and is presented for all timescales (e.g. monthly/weekly/daily), and across all States.

Awareness / consideration: Share of search reflects actual behaviours at the top of the funnel, i.e. awareness / consideration, as a brand piques people’s interest. Effectiveness expert Les Binet describes it as “somewhere between… brand salience and brand consideration”.

Directional trends: Share of search is a leading indicator for share of market. Challenges/growth in share of search tend to indicate challenges/growth at the top of the funnel, and so challenges/growth in future sales.

With a more complete view of the Telco market, we can now compare Market Trends with Sponsorship Trends.

*For more in-depth explanations on the above and share of search as a measure for marketing effectiveness, hear from the experts. Check out Mark Ritson’s :“It’s time for ‘share of search’ to replace ‘share of voice’ or Les Binet’s: “Share of Search as a Predictive Measure”.

Sponsorship Trends

A snapshot of the category:

• Telcos make up c. 4% of all sponsorship spend in Australia, growing 10% in the last 12 months.

• Investment mainly comes from top-tier partnerships between Telstra x NRL, Telstra x AFL and Optus x Perth Stadium. Spend in the category is therefore skewed towards major deals, winter, and WA.

• Telstra has 72% share of the Telco sponsorship market in Australia. However, this has fallen from 77% 12 months ago.

• Challenger brands have grown their presence in sponsorship in the last 12 months, including Belong (Sixers), Dodo (Stars), Tangerine (NBL, Renegades), Mate (Wildcats), and Drimtel (Glory).

Market Trends x Sponsorship Trends

Telstra dominates share of sponsorship even more than its share of search/market. This blocks rival brands, limiting their ability to take sponsorship share of voice away from Telstra. It means almost all other Telco brands are under-invested in sponsorship, compared to their position in the market.

However, this has been challenged in the last 12 months. New Telco sponsors Belong (Sixers) and Dodo (Stars) both had peaks in share of search during the last Big Bash season. Furthermore, these peaks were especially high in their respective home States.

With tailwinds of a fragmenting market, both challenger brands have grown their share of consideration through sponsorship.

Why Tangerine has the chance for similar success

New sponsorship activity has continued in recent months, with Tangerine upgrading its NBL partnership and signing with Melbourne Renegades. Here’s why the deals are set up for success:

• The Telco category continues to fragment - especially in VIC - home of the Renegades. Tangerine is active where the tailwinds are strongest.

• While Telstra dominates sponsorship, this is mainly through winter codes. Tangerine is therefore able to generate meaningful share of voice and cut-through during summer, through BBL and NBL.

• Tangerine’s share of search grew faster than any other Telco in 2023. Growing its sponsorship share of voice creates a platform for even further growth.

A problem-solving approach to prospecting

Analysing market and sponsorship trends identifies challenges for each brand, that sponsorship can solve. For example:

• Brands with a market challenge: TPG is losing services fast in SA, Telstra is falling fast in VIC, Aussie Broadband is growing slowest in VIC. All these brands have lower sponsorship share in those markets.

• Brands with a sponsorship challenge: Mate has low sponsorship share in Winter (Wildcats, Mariners, Victory), Telstra has low share in summer, iinet (Hawks) has low share in NSW.

• Brands with no sponsorships: The largest brands with no major sponsorships include Vodafone, TPG and Aussie Broadband.

• Unique opportunities: There are no Telco partnerships amongst SA and TAS based teams, offering a unique opportunity to gain share of sponsorship in those States.

Reach out for the full report, or to understand how a category deep-dive can help you.

This week in sponsorship

NEW

🎾 EZZ has announced a three-year sponsorship with the Australian Open (AO), commencing in 2025. The deal will help the life sciences company reach Chinese & South East Asian Tennis Fans.

🏉 Rugby Australia has announced CyberCX as the new cybersecurity partner of both the Wallabies and Wallaroos under a two-year agreement.

🏑 The Hockey One League has announced a groundbreaking partnership with Liberty Financial, officially renaming the league to the Liberty Hockey One League for season four.

🏁 Supercars announced a new partnership with Ingenia Holiday Parks for the 2024 Repco Bathurst 1000.

🏀 AAMI has become the insurance partner of the Sydney Kings and Sydney Flames, launching the ‘AAMI Lucky Seat Giveaway’ activation at Kings’ home fixtures.

🏀 Melbourne United have partnered with the iconic toy company Mattel ahead of NBL25. Across the course of the season, fans can expect to see iconic brands like UNO and Hot Wheels on display.

⚽️ Brisbane Roar will welcome financial services group Monochrome Corporation as Platinum Partner and A-League Men’s match day playing kit sleeve sponsor for the upcoming 2024/25 season.

🏀 Adelaide 36ers are excited to announce a two-year partnership with commercial cleaning, security and maintenance company SKG Services, who will be the club's official coaches apparel partner.

🏁 The VAILO Adelaide 500 has partnered with South Australia’s first Marriott Hotel to be the official hotel partner of the major event.

🏏 Ward, a leading, multi-faceted civil and environmental engineering contractor, has signed a two-year sponsorship agreement with the WBBL Brisbane Heat.

🎾 Guided travel company Collette Tours have announced a new partnership with Pickleball Australia, becoming the Official Holiday Partner.

⚽️ Adelaide United has announced a new partnership with renewable energy group 1KOMMA5° Australia, who will become the official back-of-shorts sponsor for the A-League Men’s upcoming 2024/25 season.

RENEWALS

🏉 Buildcorp has extended as a Major Partner of the Queensland Rugby Union for the next two years.

⚽️ Adelaide United has announced auto parts store Koan Solutions will continue to partner with the Club for the 2024/25 A-League Men’s season.

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