New Vertical AI solution autonomously detects and measures in-stadium signage, digital overlays, and broadcast integrations with EDO’s investment-grade TV outcomes data — quantifying sports sponsorship performance ahead of the 2026 FIFA World Cup

EDO, the TV outcomes company, announced the launch of Sponsored Ad Outcomes™, a new AI-powered media measurement tool that automatically detects, classifies, and quantifies brand integrations across live sports broadcasts — including in-stadium billboard takeovers, digital scorebug overlays, “Sponsored By” graphics, and studio show segments. Brands, agencies, networks, and publishers can measure live sports sponsorship engagement with EDO’s investment-grade outcomes data — without the manual processes that have prevented the scaling of sponsorship measurement in the past.

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With the 2026 FIFA World Cup returning to North America from June 11 to July 19, brands finally have the investment-grade TV outcomes data they need to understand, benchmark, and optimize their sponsorship dollars at scale while the tournament is still being played. To validate their new sponsorship outcomes solution, EDO back-tested the Sponsored Ad Outcomes against the 2022 World Cup, running the new scaled technology across 64 matches and 24 sponsorship brands.

EDO’s technology-powered research brings powerful quantitative context to long-held assumptions about live sports sponsorship value. Viewers were 117% more likely to engage with on-screen digital overlays integrations than with in-stadium billboard takeovers — and digital overlays paired with an adjacent standard ad in the same commercial pod drove a 34% increase in engagement than the average World Cup integration.

“Sponsorships have always been among a brand’s highest profile investments, but often the hardest to measure at scale. Sponsor brands and leading networks shouldn’t have to rely on hunches and surveys while the rest of their streaming and linear TV measurement has moved to outcomes. EDO is here to change that for sponsorships, and the World Cup is the perfect moment,” said Kevin Krim, President & CEO of EDO. “With Sponsored Ad Outcomes, we’re extending that promise to the integrations and overlays that have never before been measurable at scale — and closing a major gap in Convergent TV advertising. This is what investment-grade AI and outcomes measurement looks like when it goes everywhere. ”

Building — and Proving — a Sponsorship Measurement Solution at Scale

Sponsored Ad Outcomes ingests raw broadcast and streaming feeds and applies leading-edge models to automatically detect, classify, and log brand integrations across live sports broadcasts. A human-in-the-loop review branch handles low-confidence detections, preserving the accuracy EDO clients expect of investment-grade measurement. This creates an apples-to-apples comparison between the performance of sponsorship integrations and traditional TV ads.

In EDO’s 2022 World Cup test, the engine cataloged 3,774 custom integrations and 1,168 standard ads across 64 matches — work that previously required roughly four hours of manual review per game and now completes in approximately twenty minutes per game, a 92% reduction in time and a 98% reduction in cost relative to manual sponsorship measurement.

“Every brand we work with that’s spending on sponsorships has been asking the same question for years: Did it work? They had spend totals, they had hit logs, they had GRPs — but they didn’t have outcomes, and the other measurement solutions didn’t scale,” said Laura Grover, SVP, Head of Client Solutions, EDO. “Sponsored Ad Outcomes changes that. Brands, networks and streamers can now apply the same proven engagement signals they trust — not surveys, not recall, not assumed value — to evaluate their ad and sponsorship investments. And rights holders can prove value to their partners with the same investment-grade data the entire TV ad industry already trusts. For the first time, sponsorship measurement is on the same playing field as the rest of advertising measurement, and that’s a win for everyone.”

Why the Market Has Been Overdue for Sponsorship Outcomes

As live sports are increasingly buying premium inventory, the ability to measure sponsorship outcomes in real time — grounded in behavioral data, not audience delivery — is becoming a competitive necessity for every brand in the market. For decades, brands have committed nine-figure budgets to in-stadium signage, broadcast integrations, and presenting-sponsor slots with no outcomes-based way to evaluate them. The question every brand and rights holder has been asking for years is simple: Did the sponsorship work? Until now, no one had a defensible, quantitative answer.

What Sponsored Ad Outcomes Captures

• Integration Detection: Automatically identifies in-stadium billboard takeovers, digital overlays, scorebugs, “Sponsored By” graphics, and studio show segments across live sports broadcasts.
• Outcomes Measurement: Connects every detected integration to EDO’s investment-grade engagement data via the same methodology used across linear and streaming.
• Adjacent Ad Attribution: Identifies standard ads airing within 60 seconds of integrations to measure halo effects and compound engagement value. EDO's 2022 World Cup backtest found that digital overlays paired with an adjacent standard ad drove 34% more engagement than the average integration.
• Sponsorship Benchmarking: Will enable performance benchmarking against specific sponsorship elements within measured sports, events and programming..
• Custom Reporting: Delivers integration data in a custom database with optional dashboard visibility for brands, rights holders, and networks.

Sponsor Ad Measurement — for the World Cup, NFL, and beyond

EDO’s Sponsored Ad Outcomes debuts as a custom analysis offering for the 2026 FIFA World Cup, beginning June 11, 2026, with coverage available across all 104 matches in real time. This enables advertisers to benchmark sponsorship-driven engagement against the rest of their 2026 media plan thus far, and even reassess their plans for future live sporting events.

Beyond the World Cup, EDO’s Sponsored Ad Outcomes will be made available for major sports moments — including the NFL, NBA, WNBA, college football, women's sports, and other live tentpole and shoulder programming. EDO is delivering the measurement solutions purpose-built for live sports in an increasingly convergent TV world.

To download EDO’s latest World Cup TV Sponsored Ad Outcomes Study, and learn how brands, rights holders, and networks can apply EDO’s sponsorship measurement to the 2026 World Cup, the upcoming NFL season, and beyond — visit edo.com/sponsored-ads

ABOUT EDO

EDO is the TV outcomes company. Our leading measurement platform connects convergent TV airings to the ad-driven consumer behaviors most predictive of future sales. EDO empowers the advertising industry to maximize media impact, measure creative performance, and know the fair value of every impression — across linear and streaming for an increasingly programmatic world. By combining immediate engagement signals with world-class decision science and vertical AI, EDO equips industry leaders with syndicated, investment-grade data that aligns media to business results — with detailed competitive, category, and historical insights. Leading brands, agencies, networks, streamers, and studios trust EDO’s TV intelligence to know what works.

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