ASN partners SportzPower for South Asian region

The strategic business partnership will let ASN expand its presence in markets including India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.

ASN (formerly Asia Sponsorship News), an independent intelligence service for non-traditional media, has entered into a strategic business partnership with SportzPower for the South Asian market, which includes India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.

ASN has been tracking and analysing over 10,000 sponsorship deals each year for almost a decade - including sports, branded content, native advertising, movie partnerships, celebrity endorsement - and has begun to expand its business into local markets, including Thailand, Philippines and now South Asia.

SportzPower, a sports business media offering, is part of Sportz Network Pvt Ltd (SNPL), an independently-owned sports business content and research company.

Ben Heyhoe Flint, CEO and founder of ASN, says, "Our data shows India as the second biggest market for Sponsorship and Branded Content in Asia, next to China; so our partnership with Sportz Network is pivotal in enabling us to get under the skin of this enormous marketplace. With them, we look forward to unlocking even more insights into this seemingly complex trading environment."

Thomas Abraham, co-founder, SNPL, adds, "South Asia, especially India, is a fast-growth sponsorship market and has shown continuous growth over the last few years. We see a lot of potential for ASN in the local markets where brands and rights holders need the right information and analysis to buy, sell or plan their sponsorship activity more effectively."

According to the press statement, aside from the value of the other South Asian markets, ASN's India Index - their tracker of all non-traditional investment in India - reached $740m in 2014, representing a 9.2 per cent Y-o-Y gain and a 15 per cent share of the entire ASN Index.

Away from South Asia, the ASN Index grew strongly in 2014 to reach a total of $4.68b, the highest the Index has ever reached. The 28 per cent Y-o-Y gains are the highest of any communications genre in 2014, proving that the popularity of sponsorship as an engagement medium to B2C and B2B audiences is not slowing down, the communiqué read.