Fortunately this argument is becoming rarer as the Sports Industry in the UK grows up and begins to fully understand the breadth and impact sponsorship can have when fully integrated into the marketing mix. The thing that worries me though is that I seem to read every month in Sport Business International or Marketing that another company has just reaped the rewards of implementing a thorough measurement and evaluation service. Why is this still news, and why isn't everyone investing in research?

Even coaches and administrators at sports clubs have intricate measurement details with Michael Lewis's book ‘Moneyball' opening the floodgates, to the point it is rumoured some coaches use it as a guide to picking their teams.

So if the team you sponsor is using research from Prozone to figure out how best to tackle an opponent and analyse their own players, why aren't all sponsors using research to pick out the best sponsorship - and it needn't be in sports. But that is just half the battle. Once involved in a sponsorship there should be a quarterly analysis and tracking of its progress and impact - how else can you justify your spend or tweak your activities to truly influence your audiences.

Of course, you may be lucky enough to still work for a Chairman who simply loves to go to rugby matches and therefore don't need to justify where that investment went - but you will soon be with the dinosaurs...dead and buried in the new world order.