The mainland’s adspend is expected to grow 25 per cent to $3.7 billion next year, second only to the US, with 20 per cent of spend expected to be Olympics-related.
Total Sports Asia, meanwhile, forecasts that sports marketing will hit $18 million — growth of 20 per cent — in 2008. TSA’s chief executive Marcus Luer said: “There is growing demand for the already-established sports marketing properties in Asia and many new opportunities are on the horizon.”
Asia, however, is lagging behind the rest of the world, explained Alex Iskandar Liew, TSA’s director for group marketing, partly because of prohibitive costs. “Not everyone can get involved with Formula One or the English Premier League. But there are ways around it,” said Liew, pointing to Chang Beer’s three-year US$3 million sponsorship of Everton Football Club shirts as a more cost- effective alternative to sponsoring the EPL itself. The rise in use of content delivery platforms such as IPTV and mobile should further growth.
