Rightsholder Sponsorship Strategies for a Great 2024

It’s early in the year, the time when we look at twelve months stretching out in front of us, and the sponsorship possibilities seem endless. You make ambitious plans and lists and put dates on your goals – we all do! But how many times do you get to the… Read More


Sponsor Strategies for a Great 2024

Here we are, at the beginning of 2024 – 366 days where you can stick with the status quo, for more of the same uninspired approach to sponsorship, the same frustrations, and the same mediocre (or diminishing) returns. Alternatively, you can make some changes early, and alter the entire trajectory… Read More


What Every CMO Needs to Know about Sponsorship (Redux)

I write a lot about sponsorship – books, blogs, white papers – and virtually all of it is aimed at the frontline sponsorship and brand management team. It’s all about how they can get better results, how they can leverage more cost-effectively, how to create measurement plans, and all the… Read More


Using Sponsorship to Support DEI and ESG Initiatives (and Not Just Pay Lip Service)

DEI and ESG have been percolating away in the corporate world for a while, but in the past few years, have exploded. The profile of these priorities has increased exponentially. Corporate commitments to them have been expanded. And consumer expectations around them have gone from almost non-existent to, for many… Read More


Why I’m Not the Right Sponsorship Consultant for You

I’m a sponsorship consultant, undertaking sponsorship reviews, developing strategies, and building organisational sponsorship capacity. I absolutely love my job. But over all the years I’ve been doing this, I’ve figured out which potential clients are going to make the most of working with me, and which won’t. I know the… Read More


No Excuses: It’s Time for Developing Sponsorship Markets to Grow Up

Sponsorship sophistication varies around the world. There are mature, sophisticated sponsorship markets, developing markets, and some in-between. There are even some pretenders, where the market appears to think they’re oh-so-sophisticated, because there’s a lot of money being thrown around, but the underlying approach is anything but. Developing sponsorship markets include… Read More


How to Ride Out a Bad Sponsorship (and Get Out Gracefully, when the Time is Right)

Just about every rightsholder in the world can run through their sponsorship portfolio, noting the great sponsors, the improving sponsors, and the sponsors that are just taking up space – the bad sponsors. You don’t hate them, and they may be lovely people, but you know they just aren’t right… Read More


Sponsorship and Emerging/Improving Technology: The Rules of Engagement

I’m a nerd, and I love technology. My office, home, and travel is peppered with ridiculously-specced gear, and I don’t know what I’d do without it. I’m the first to admit that the emerging/improving tech available to sponsors is staggering – and oh so tempting – but is it all… Read More


Why Great Sponsorship Requires Both Right- and Left-Brain Thinkers (and How to Get the Best out of Them)

Yeah, I know. The left/right brain thing has been largely debunked. But it’s still accepted shorthand for tasks and people that are more analytic (left brain) and more creative (right brain), so I’m going with it. One of my very favourite things about best practice sponsorship is that it requires… Read More


39 Ways to Ensure You Don’t Sell Sponsorship

My blog is full of advice on how to sell sponsorship – the strategies, angles, and pitfalls. But in order to find the right information, you kind of need to know where you’re going wrong. So that’s what this blog is all about – a big list of the things… Read More


ChatGPT May Be New, but Its Views on Corporate Sponsorship Are Stuck in the Nineties

Like so many people in recent days, I’ve been giving ChatGPT a run. And like so many people, I’ve found it to be fun… and amazing… and slightly freaky. After trying a bunch of quite silly queries, I decided to see what it knows about sponsorship. The answer is quite… Read More


Sponsorship in a Recession: A Sponsor’s Guide

Left of boom. It’s a term used by intelligence agencies referring to the timeline leading up to some kind of attack. The idea is that they want to be working left of boom – before it happens – to either stop the attack, or mitigate the effects. The sponsorship industry… Read More