According to the duo, survey data continues to play an increasingly important role in how agencies strategise for current clients and pitch for new business. 

It allows them to back ideas with data and helps them to stay at the forefront of their industry. 

"At Mscsports, we obsess about creating measurable impact for brands and rights holders by creating fame, growing and engaging audiences, and ultimately generating revenue from their sponsorship investments," says Grant McEwan, head of strategic communication at MscSports. 

"We call this impact marketing. The starting point for any of our impact marketing strategies is the collection and analysis of audience, category and brand data, which is used to arrive at unique and informed insights for our clients," adds McEwan.

"Our partnership with GWI provides us with access to reliable data and insights into attitudes, interests and perceptions of local and international audiences, relevant to any brand, competitor or segment within our industry and beyond," he says. 

"Where research and data collection could take weeks or months to complete, we now have instant access to an up-to-date global database within seconds. This allows us to spend more time on the creative elements of the strategic process, as well as adjust our strategies in real-time to continuously deliver maximum impact and performance," adds McEwan.

"As sponsorship budgets are increasingly placed under pressure, accessing audiences by understanding them, connecting with them and ultimately engaging authentically is the most direct route to delivering growth in performance, measurable ROI and impact. We are excited to have GWI on board as a partner to help us deliver this for all of our clients," he adds.

The Unified Core Survey is completed by over 800 000 respondents in over 46 markets globally by digitally active people; this gives access to immediate insights to over two billion connected consumers. 

"We are very excited to be working with Mscsports. We love GWI and have worked closely with the Mscsports team to get to this point. We truly believe that they will benefit from the GWI insights and platform, by helping compete at the highest levels and by providing their clients and strategy teams with this world-class insights platform," concludes Ryan Brunyee, GWI product lead at YOUKNOW. 

For more information, visit www.youknow.co.za. You can also follow YOUKNOW Digital on Facebook or on Twitter