Wiesbaden, 01/31/2024

Today, the sports marketing agency ONE8Y presented new market research results from its global sports business database “ONE8Y DB” on the occasion of the recently concluded European Handball Championship. As part of two representative market research studies in Germany (shortly after the start and directly after the end of the European Championship), a total of more than 2,600 handball fans aged between 16 and 69 were asked specific questions about the perception of sponsors and media consumption of the handball event - with some surprising findings.

One of the “toughest currencies” in sponsorship impact research is unaided brand recall - and this is where a very clear picture emerges: Lidl wins in both survey waves and is virtually dominant in terms of perception among handball fans in the post-wave with a gap of over 35% points to Deutsche Bahn (2nd place) and DKB (3rd place). Surprisingly, Deutsche Bahn dropped in the memorability ratings over the course of the tournament - which could have been due to the strikes during the tournament. DKB, as sponsor of the German Handball Federation, gained in memorability over the course of the tournament, as did its European Championship partner Strauss. DHB partner and jersey sponsor Autohero, on the other hand, did not make it into the top 10 in terms of memorability among handball fans.

ONE8Y Managing Partner Dr. Michael Zengel comments: “The clarity of the results shows once again the power of activation in sports sponsorship - pure, context-free branding attracts little to no attention from fans. The discounter Lidl, which was prominently represented as a fresh food partner during the tournament via various channels and live on site, demonstrates this in an impressive way.”

When asked which types of sponsor advertising generated the greatest recall, the jersey was unsurprisingly in first place (51%), followed by board advertising (43%) and advertising on the arena floor (39%) in second and third place. When looking at media consumption, the picture is just as clear as it is for sponsor values. Live coverage of matches on TV & streaming dominated with a gap of almost 70% points to the print medium of newspapers.

“The handball matches were exciting and highly attractive, so that the German handball community wanted to be able to follow the matches taking place live in their own country,” says handball and research expert Dr. Michael Zengel. Also striking: 5% of those surveyed who watched at least one match of the European Handball Championship live stated that they had used the new streaming provider Dyn to do so. In view of the free TV broadcasts on public television, these are convincing figures for the newcomer.

The surveys also show that a positive major sporting event such as the European Handball Championship can have concrete spillover effects on other sports. More than 2/3 of those questioned stated that they are now looking forward to the upcoming European Football Championship in June as a result of the European Handball Championship.

The study results are extracts from the world's first license-based market research database in the sports business called “ONE8Y DB”. This database contains valid market research data from over 50 countries on a wide range of sports marketing and business information. All further information on the database can be found atwww.one8y-db.com.