A few years back, I read an article entitled, “The Impact of Sponsorship on Share Price Brand Value”. The main assertion is that companies that sponsor have better performing share prices than companies that don’t. While that was the first time I’d seen anyone make that contention in any serious… Read More
We’ve all been there. You start negotiating a sponsorship that you thought was a dead cert to renew, and it’s suddenly looking like a lost cause. You hadn’t seen the warning signs they were planning to exit, but to be honest, you weren’t really looking, and now you’ve got a… Read More
First right of refusal is a valuable defensive benefit for a sponsor, guaranteeing them the opportunity to review and take up a new sponsorship at the end of the contract, before it’s offered to a competitor. The parties involved often assume that means it needs to be a similar offer… Read More
The first meeting with a sponsor is both the most important, and the easiest to screw up. Sponsors know what they want to hear, they know the red flags, and if you get it wrong, you could foul a potential deal, and not even know why. This is a complete… Read More
When you hear that, what do you think? Some rightsholders are delighted that they’ve been asked to submit a proposal. The more astute rightsholders are frustrated because the sponsor hasn’t provided the information they need to create a good offer. First off, you need to know that a lot of… Read More
The normal role of a sponsorship consultant is to offer expert strategic advice, generally based on a reasonably long history of doing good work for good clients. That’s certainly what I do most of the time. There are, however, other reasons you may want a sponsorship consultant – reasons that… Read More
Sponsors all over the world are embracing best practice sponsorship – adding value to the fan experience, aligning with fan and customer passions, and favouring meaning and creativity over volume or visibility. This is fantastic, and as the gulf between great sponsors and old-school sponsors widens, more see the light… Read More
I can admit it: I’m a nerd. I love science fiction, hate JarJar Binks, and have stood in my back garden waving at the International Space Station as it’s flown overhead on dozens of occasions. So, when I thought of writing a blog about breaking sponsorship’s rules, for me, there… Read More
I’ve lost count of the number of sponsors I’ve worked with who managed their community sponsorship portfolio separately from their other sponsorships. In most cases, their “commercial” sponsorships were managed by the sponsorship or brand team, while their community sponsorships were managed by corporate relations (or similar). Different teams, different… Read More
Sponsorships get stale. And when they get stale, they don’t work. What was a great sponsorship or an awesome leverage idea several years ago, may be well past prime now, requiring a total overhaul – if it can be saved at all. Below, I’ve outlined some of the biggest warning… Read More
Nothing. Measuring sponsorship is not your job. You’re probably thinking to yourself, “If I can’t prove what the sponsorship delivered, then they won’t renew”. And to an extent, you’re right. If the sponsor doesn’t know what they accomplished, they’re not going to renew. But it’s not your responsibility to measure… Read More
Best practice sponsorship is strategic. It’s creative. It’s amazingly multifaceted, measurable, and just bloody amazing. But it’s also very different from the old way of doing things, and a lot of companies just aren’t good at change. Change requires vision, so if that’s what’s needed, establishing that vision becomes your… Read More