South Africa, March 13 -- A value-based definition of sponsorship by David Ross states that "Sponsorship is a mutually advantageous business relationship between parties in which the sponsor provides benefits for the sponsored in exchange for a result that can be measured against pre-defined objectives."

If we look at North American spend by property type with data by IEG, sport has over the years maintained receiving the lion share of sponsorship spend (70%), followed by entertainment (10% of spending or $2,4bn), Causes (9%), Arts (9%), Festivals/Fairs and annual events (4%) then Associations and Membership Organisations (4%).

While these property types can indeed by consumed digitally, most of them involve engaging fans/attendees on t...