Research and Ratings
What resonated with fans among NHL sponsors?
Glut of TV advertising pays off for official NHL sponsor Enterprise. Coors Light continues upward swing, while the soda war wages on.
More than one-third of NHL fans correctly identified Enterprise as the league’s official car rental partner in the league’s 12th annual Sponsor Breakthrough study, fielded recently for Sports Business Journal by Turnkey Sports & Entertainment. The St. Louis-based company was one of the league’s top advertisers over the past year, according to iSpot.tv, spending $8.2 million during NHL programming.
Other notable takeaways from the data (grades at right are from Turnkey):
Hits & Misses
+7% Points: Marriott
The highest awareness level the league has seen in that category.
+3% Points: Enterprise
34 percent rate is higher than its four closest competitors combined.
-10% Points: Honda
A return to normal levels after last year’s record high of 31 percent.
-14% Points: Pepsi
Down from a record high of 40 percent in 2017, despite a rise in ad spending.
■ Coors Light’s recognition level increased for the fifth straight year and has doubled since the survey was fielded after the 2010-11 season, the beer’s first as a sponsor.
■ For the fifth time in the history of the study, just a single percentage point separated Pepsi (the league’s sponsor since 2006) and Coca-Cola, with the former drawing the short straw this year.
■ A survey-high 41 percent of respondents selected the “I’m not sure” option when asked to name the league’s official hotel. That response was also the top choice in the health insurance (38%), streaming (40%) and automobile (28%) categories.
