Sponsorship spending on Latin America-based football teams, events and sanctioning bodies totaled $1.1B in the '14-15 season, up 11% from the year-earlier period, according to IEG research. Illustrating football's growing popularity in the region, the increase is more than double the projected 4.8% increase in overall Central and South American sponsorship spending for '15 (to $4.3B). IEG Sponsorship Report Senior Editor William Chipps: "Soccer represents an unrivaled marketing platform for engaging consumers in Latin America." Sports apparel is the most active category sponsoring Latin American football. Companies in the category are 7.2 times more likely to sponsor LATAM football than the average of all sponsors. Non-alcoholic beverages (6.2), telecom service providers (3.7), banks (3.6) and beer (3.2) round out the top five most active categories. Coca-Cola Co. is the most active sponsor, with 33% of properties with a sponsor in the non-alcoholic beverage category reporting a partnership with the company. Anheuser-Busch is the second most active sponsor (26%), followed by PepsiCo in third (18%) (IEG).
