Channel 4 has shared the results of its biggest ever sponsorship study after painstakingly gathering the thoughts of 80,000 viewers over the past five years, highlighting the relative efficacy of sponsorship as opposed to other forms of advertising.

Perceived as a safe but dull approach Channel 4 drew on the experience of Wickes, Domino’s and Lexus to show that the tangible benefits are anything but, with 89% of viewers viewing such sponsors as more trustworthy than their flashier counterparts.

Moreover sponsorship enjoys its highest cut through with younger audiences, with two-thirds of the hard to reach 16-34 age bracket engaged. Across audiences as a whole 79% perceived sponsorship as part and parcel to their viewing experience with 80% using sponsors idents as a cue to bookend their attention spans.

Other findings in the report show that 76% of audiences viewed sponsorship as more expensive while 91% considered the sponsoring brands to be more premium. This is reinforced by figures indicating that 68% would wish to see more sponsorship used as a form of advertising and the 54% who proclaimed themselves more likely to purchase a sponsors product.

As a measure of this success Lexus and Domino’s have both chosen to renew their sponsorship of Drama on 4 and Hollyoaks respectively.

Jonathan Lewis, head of digital and partnership innovation at Channel 4, said: “As an industry we haven’t talked about sponsorship for a while and it’s clear that recent generations of agency planners and buyers have not been exposed to its true potency. Although we’ve always known what sponsorship delivers for brands we lacked the proof.

“As the biggest survey of its kind this new research provides that proof. Some of the findings have left us pleasantly surprised, especially the positive perceptions around audience acceptance and relevancy amongst young audiences. At a time when brand safety and the need for accountability are paramount to advertisers we are delighted to see that TV sponsorship provides a reliable, transparent and effective platform for a host of brand and marketing communications challenges.”

The study was compiled by independent research agency Consumer Insight which aggregated 107 individual Channel 4 sponsorship studies.

Channel4 is currently basking in the warm glow of Bake Off after securing its highest ratings in five years.