How PowerHeal Used Advanced Modeling + Consumer Insights to Vet a High Profile Sports Sponsorship Opportunity

The Brand

PowerHeal is a breakthrough brand in advanced wound care, offering the world’s only FDA-cleared bioelectric bandage clinically proven to accelerate healing by 2-3x while reducing infection risk and scarring. Unlike traditional bandages that simply cover a wound, PowerHeal activates the body’s natural healing process by generating microcurrents that mimic the skin’s own electrical signals. The end result: faster, cleaner, and more complete healing.

Prior to April 2024, the product was available for decades under a different brand name and only by doctor’s prescription to treat medical-related wounds. After receiving FDA clearance for over-the-counter (OTC) use, the product was rebranded as PowerHeal, unlocking a major opportunity to reach new consumer segments including sports enthusiasts prone to injury.

The Opportunity

Following OTC clearance, PowerHeal launched a go-to-market strategy including a DTC website, Amazon retail presence, and digital media investment across Meta, Google, and Amazon Ads building awareness and driving revenue.

Then came an inflection point: a prominent extreme sports property approached PowerHeal with a seven-figure, multi-year national sponsorship proposal. The deal promised exposure to millions of highly relevant consumers at live events and through affiliated media.

The Approach: A Triangulated Framework

M-Squared designed a rigorous measurement plan blending advanced analytics with real-time consumer insights and benchmarking data. This three-pronged approach was designed to evaluate the sponsorship through multiple lenses:

1. High Value Action (HVA) & Marketing Mix Modeling (MMM)

We began by segmenting PowerHeal’s revenue into two P&Ls based on purchase paths: Amazon (65% of revenue) and DTC (35%). Since both channels were contributing meaningfully to the business, we aimed to better understand the customer behavior behind each and whether audience motivations or engagement patterns differed.

Next, we collected and analyzed brand signal data, including organic search and social impressions, website traffic, Amazon star ratings, and more, to understand how these signals correlated with sales. Through correlation analyses across both P&Ls, we identified the brand variables most strongly associated with sales value – specifically, Google and Amazon organic search impressions – and used these to build High Value Action (HVA) models. These models quantified the impact of current marketing efforts on PowerHeal’s top brand drivers.

We found that paid media accounted for 25% of brand impact, while the majority of contribution was falling into Base. These findings spurred new hypotheses about what was driving brand growth, pointing to areas for deeper investigation in future analyses.

We then built multiple Marketing Mix Models (MMM) combining the top brand drivers, marketing channels (paid and non-paid), and Base variables to determine individual sales contribution for both Amazon and DTC.

Paid media drove the highest contribution (61.3%), followed by organic search (28.9%). Notably, PR accounted for 6.1%, a remarkable return given there were only two activations. While those releases had high circulation, the results were a significant eye-opener.

PR, like sponsorships, builds brand equity, drives awareness, shapes perceptions, and influences consideration. Both deliver broad reach in environments where the message is more credible and emotionally resonant. If two PR activations could perform this well, a high-profile sports sponsorship likely holds significant upside.

As a final step, we applied the respective MMM contribution percentages to overall sales and calculated two key metrics to compare value: 1) sales per thousand impressions and 2) sales per click.

The results were striking: organic search and PR, both brand-building channels, delivered substantially greater value than paid media. The power of brand for PowerHeal became abundantly clear.

2. AI-Powered Qualitative Research

While modeling helped dissect PowerHeal’s current business state from an analytics perspective, we also wanted to hear directly from consumers most likely to attend extreme sports events. To gather these insights, we initiated a qualitative survey. Our goals were to:

1. Understand how this audience treats their own sports-related injuries

2. Gauge how they would respond to PowerHeal sponsoring extreme sports events

3. Explore their perceptions of the PowerHeal product, including purchase intent and whether the sponsorship would influence that decision

To capture these insights quickly and cost-effectively, M-Squared partnered with Voicepanel, an AI-powered qualitative research platform that conducts adaptive, conversational surveys. The platform’s dynamic questioning and voice-recorded responses delivered breadth and emotional depth, surfacing clear, actionable takeaways in record time.

The findings were highly encouraging. Consumers saw the partnership as a natural brand fit, with many stating it would increase their trust in PowerHeal and positively influence their likelihood to purchase.

Example survey insights:

3. Case Study Benchmarking

Seeking additional external validation, we reviewed case studies from adjacent brands such as KT Tape and Abbott’s Libre Sense to understand how they leveraged sports sponsorships to drive brand lift and sales growth. We found strong evidence of significant revenue increases following KT Tape’s Olympic sponsorship and Libre Sense’s partnership with IRONMAN and elite marathoner Eliud Kipchoge.

In addition, we analyzed data from leading research sources including Nielsen and WARC, which consistently showed meaningful upside for brands investing in sports sponsorships. Notably, this channel ranks among the most trusted in advertising, with reported lifts in purchase intent often exceeding 40%.

A Clear Case for Sponsorship

M-Squared’s triangulated analysis told a highly consistent story, pointing to a strong likelihood of success. As a final step, we evaluated the sponsorship proposal through multiple lenses, crediting only what we believed to be high-impact impressions. Using PR as a performance proxy, given its strong similarities to brand sponsorships, we applied estimated funnel metrics to calculate ROAS and CPM. The results were compelling:

• Estimated ROAS: 3.3x

• Estimated CPM: $6.72

These metrics were not only cost-efficient, they exceeded benchmarks across PowerHeal’s current portfolio and projected strong short and long-term returns.

Conclusion: Confidence Through Convergence

By blending advanced modeling, consumer sentiment, and real-world benchmarks, M-Squared delivered a holistic, data-backed recommendation. Each input reinforced the others, painting a cohesive picture of opportunity.

The evidence pointed to this sponsorship as a strategic growth lever: a chance to elevate PowerHeal’s profile, accelerate adoption, and solidify the brand in the minds of a high-fit, high-need audience.

Today, PowerHeal moves forward with confidence, validated in their original instinct. All signs indicate that this sports sponsorship has the potential to be a transformative moment for the brand.