I loved Man vs Wild. I mean, who would have thought being a survivalist could be sexy? Thankfully, Bear Grylls is still at it, because I think we can all agree that we’ve learned a lot from Bear, over the years: Colourful caterpillars are poisonous; pull the stingers off scorpions… Read More
Any regular reader of this blog knows that I talk a lot about sponsorship being win-win-win. That third win is for the target markets, with the goal being small, meaningful benefits for all or most of the market, not a chance to go into a draw for one person to… Read More
If you asked one hundred sponsorship professionals what the most precious resource in our industry is, ninety-nine of them would say “money” – money for fees, for leverage, for cash flow, whatever – and ninety-nine of them would be wrong. Money is important, no question about it, but it pales… Read More
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
Here we are, at the beginning of the year – 365 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… Read More
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
Organisations with charitable status often have enormous commercial potential, but more often than not, that potential goes unrealised. Instead, most charitable organisations make one big mistake after another, with the result being sponsorship income that is a fraction of what it could be. So, I’m going to go through some… Read More
In the past, I’ve tackled a lot of aspects of negotiation, but I haven’t really blogged about the basics of the whole negotiation process before. It’s probably about time. Many of us remember a time when negotiation was seen as largely a win-lose prospect. It was adversarial, with the ultimate… Read More
If you’re a rightsholder – particularly in the non-profit or charitable space – your board probably holds a lot of sway over your sponsorship budget, and at least one of these will sound familiar: Your organisation is planning an expansion or other costly activity, so your board increases your sponsorship… Read More
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
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
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