Yeah this is a tricky one hey, typically sponsorship should come...

Yeah this is a tricky one hey, typically sponsorship should come under marketing spend which is on the 4C however certain deals can be structured in different ways with a mix of cash and product. When ever a company does sponsorship such as the one you mention it can be difficult to measure accurately, usually these types of sponsorships are to drive awareness and brand recall.
The return is usually much longer than say a social media campaign which has a Call to Action.
I would have thought that considering the amount of money the company are losing each month that top end sponsorship deals with a very long return on investment would have not been a priority.