This was a question I came across a while back. To be fair, the person who asked wasn’t that blunt, but had definitely seen a lot of headaches from sponsors who didn’t pay their fees, didn’t do what they had promised, and generally bullied the rightsholder. After a nightmare like… Read More
I love umbrella portfolios. I make no bones about it. They’re powerful, flexible, and super-efficient – what’s not to love?! They featured heavily in my previous post, “How to Structure a Sponsorship Portfolio”, but I think they’re an important enough element that it warranted addressing this portfolio management technique specifically.… Read More
While there are lots of ways to measure sponsorship, how to conduct sponsorship research is often the most vexing. The thing is, sponsorship research isn’t actually that complex, but the way it’s been done, for literally decades, is so entrenched that sponsors often can’t see past it. But to get… Read More
I’ve written at length about sponsorship measurement in books and blogs, but I’ve never really addressed why sponsorship measurement so often, and persistently, goes awry. It’s a little concept called “confirmation bias”. “Confirmation bias” is the tendency for people to seek out and interpret information in a way that confirms… Read More
“We sponsor a great little organisation, but their reach is so small, how do we make this work for our brand?” “Our event is smallish and local, but we really need sponsorship. How do we get big sponsors interested?” “Our music festival is great, but it’s just one day. Sponsors… Read More
A while back, I read a blog by Seth Godin. In it, he asked a question that has stuck in my head ever since: Do you measure it because it’s important, or is it important because it’s measured? Our industry is guiltier than most of the latter, and that is… Read More
How complicated can sponsorship proposal assessment be? I mean, you just look at the back page for the price, and if you don’t fall off your chair, maybe read the executive summary. If that blows you away, then maybe read the rest of it… right??? Wrong. Although a massive number… Read More
I speak at a lot of conferences, and one question that comes up in North America – and nowhere else – is whether sports uniforms should carry sponsor logos. The reason it comes up in North America is that most leagues there don’t allow branding on uniforms, besides a small… Read More
If I had to hazard a guess, I’d say almost all of us has at least one multi-tool. I’ve got a much-loved, 20-year old Gerber that lives in the house, and is pressed into duty anytime I can’t be arsed going outside and unlocking the tool shed… which is a… Read More
I recently worked with a sponsor that had a major sponsorship with a professional sporting body, but when the rightsholder failed to deliver many of the biggest benefits – the benefits the sponsorship was bought and sold on – the whole thing fell in a heap. Most of us who… Read More
The sophistication level of sponsors increased dramatically in the aftermath of the global recession of 2007-2008, as sponsors had to deal with a new level of accountability. The pandemic has led to another huge increase in sophistication, as sponsors clear the dead wood from their budgets, and increase their focus… Read More
Sponsorship is an amazingly creative medium. Unfortunately, most sponsors still lack the imagination to really harness it. Either that or they are so deep in a rut that they can’t even see they’re going in the wrong direction. They negotiate the same types of sponsorship, and for the same boring… Read More