Which MLB sponsorship deal is working the hardest?

With the MLB post-season at a close and over a billion dollars spent on sponsorships across leagues and teams, brands want to know the impact of their investment. 

In our 2022 MLB Sponsorship Impact Report, we talked to 1,000 consumers across the US to find out which sponsors are breaking through among baseball fans. 

Here are the brands that rose to the top: 

Nike leads in unaided awareness

Nike’s title as the official uniform and footwear provider for the league certainly seems to be paying off. When asked what brand first comes to mind when thinking of MLB 11% of engaged MLB fans stated Nike. 

Other brands mentioned included Rawlings at 4%, Budweiser at2%, and Mizuno at 2%. 

Budweiser sweeps aided awareness

Good news for the King of Beer and long-time MLB sponsor, Budweiser. 68% of MLB-engaged respondents answered that they were aware of Budweiser’s involvement with MLB.

With that callback, Budweiser sits 11 points above the action standard, and 43 points above Hankook, which was the last ranked brand of the ten brands studied. 

Gatorade drives purchase consideration & favorability

37% of MLB fans cited that Gatorade’s sponsorship of MLB impacted their consideration to purchase, learn more about, or consider using the brand. But, while Gatorade leads among the 10 brands measured, it does fall just a few points shy of SponsorPulse’s action standard, developed from the hundreds of sponsorships measured. 

Gatorade came out on top again when MLB fans were asked how the sponsorship of MLB made them feel toward the brand. With 1 in 2 fans feeling more favorably towards Gatorade, the sports drink company has a 22-point lead ahead of last-ranked and relatively new sponsor DraftKings. 

DraftKings clinches top activation

While still newer on the sponsor scene, DraftKings 30-second TV Spots were among the top sponsor activations recalled by MLB-engaged fans. With 41% of engaged consumers citing the TV spots as their source of awareness, DraftKings sits 16-points ahead of Capital One’s World Series Sweepstakes. 

Find out how other MLB brand sponsors performed in our 2022 MLB Sponsorship Impact Report

Our full report includes 10 in-depth sponsorship performance case studies for the MLB's most prominent sponsors, including Gatorade, T-Mobile, Mastercard, Geico, Capital One, Budweiser, Hankook, Corona, Adobe, and Draft Kings.