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European Sponsorship Association chairman, Andy Westlake is confident the sponsorship industry will survive the inevitable downturn resulting from the Coronavirus crisis and will emerge strongly in 2021.

Westlake said there would be huge pent up demand for sport and events once the lockdowns were eased and predicted sponsorship would bounce back quickly.

"2021 is going to be a huge year for our industry – sport will provide a big catalyst for the world’s bounce back to normality,” Westlake said.

He was discussing a new pan-European sponsorship analysis that showed the sector posted its seventh consecutive year of growth last year.

Sponsorship volume increased by 1.9% to a record EUR30.69 billion for the 2019 calendar year, according to research by the ESA and Nielsen Sports.

The absence of major events like the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia and Winter Olympic Games saw the growth rate slow from 2018 when sponsorship volume increased by 8.7%.

Germany (EUR6.26 billion, up 4%), the UK (EUR4.56 billion up 6%) and Italy (EUR1.94 billion up 15%) were the largest sponsorship markets in Europe with football continuing to generate the lion’s share of sponsorship. 

Westlake said the European sponsorship sector was becoming more diverse, with non-sport sponsorships growing at twice the rate of sport sponsorships in 2019.

He said that the unfolding Coronavirus pandemic would have a short to mid-term impact on the sponsorship sector as major events are postponed and rescheduled.

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