I recently worked on a big project that involved what amounts to a monopoly rightsholder. (Not my client.) As part of the job, I had to go through literally dozens of sponsorship contracts, and boy howdy, what a ride that was! Equal parts illuminating and depressing, it was difficult to fathom how any modern sponsor could justify making the investment at all.
It’s certainly not the first time I’ve worked on a project involving a monopoly rightsholder, but this time around it highlighted so many deficits in the approach to sponsorship that I thought it was high time to address it.
So, what is a “monopoly rightsholder”? A monopoly rightsholder is an organisation that controls virtually all of the elements of the fan experience in one category. Two of the most predominant types of monopoly rightsholders are:
Yes, I know there are others types, but these are the two I come across in my work over and over, so I’ve used those to illustrate the point.
If you’re reading this as a rightsholder that doesn’t have a monopoly, you may be thinking the scenarios outlined above would be a license to print sponsorship money. And to an extent, you’re right. If a sponsor wants an authentic connection with your fans, the obvious route would be through you. But it’s by no means the only route. Plus, leaning on the fact that you’ve got a monopoly more often than not leads to terrible sponsorship habits.
To be fair, there are monopoly rightsholders that have embraced best practice. Bravo to them. Seriously, they’ve broken the pattern, and they, their fans, and their sponsors are doing very well for it. But that’s not this article. No, in this article, I’m making the case for breaking that pattern, because it’s locking so many monopoly rightsholders in a cycle of mediocrity.
The first and biggest issue is complacency. Monopoly rightsholders often approach sponsorship with an “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” attitude. Getting sponsorship has always been relatively easy, so why change anything?
Meanwhile, you’re still doing sponsorship circa 1992.
Your skills are literally decades behind best practice, and decades behind a great many sponsors. Those sponsors want sophisticated peers, who understand how modern sponsorship works and where the value truly lies. They want peers who are strategic, creative thinkings; who will help them to achieve their overall marketing and business objectives with key target markets.
You may still make the sale, but it won’t bring in the revenue it could, because you’re not providing any vision for what a modern sponsor can do with it. Worse, you could end up with a portfolio full of cost-of-doing-business sponsors. They think they need to sponsor you, for whatever reason, but they sponsor at the lowest possible level and don’t leverage it at all, because they have no expectations that it will perform.
You think I’m kidding? I’ve worked with dozens of sponsors that provide me with lists of their sponsorships. Down at the bottom are a bunch of smaller sponsorships with no leverage budget. When I ask about them, they say, “Yeah, those are really just a cost-of-doing-business for us. Politically, we have to do it, but they don’t do anything for our brand.” Is that really what you want? Or do you want to maximise revenues with engaged sponsors, who are adding value to the fan experience?
Then there are the sponsors that really want to do amazing leverage – to do super-creative things to add real value to the fan experience – but they are frustrated over and over by the lack of a commensurate level of creativity, flexibility, and strategic thinking on behalf of the rightsholder. They can’t negotiate the benefits they need to make it happen. They can’t get the permissions to do out-of-the-box things on-site. They can’t do anything interesting or meaningful in rightsholder socials. I’ve worked with loads of sponsors in this situation, formulating ways to leverage effectively that won’t be thwarted by an uninspired control freak of a rightsholder.
Monopoly rightsholders have some of the worst sponsorship proposals I’ve ever seen. The entire focus is on their pre-eminent position in the sector, the size of the market, and that sponsoring them is the only way to reach that market. Meanwhile, 99% of what “sponsoring them” means is gratuitous logo slaps to get in front of their audience. Not adding value, not connecting with, not building alignment with the audience. Just getting in front of them.
What’s missing is anything meaningful about the sponsor, their overall objectives, or their markets – which includes, but are definitely not limited to, fans of the rightsholder. In fact, the majority of these proposals have no customisation at all, save for a search-and-replace on the sponsor’s name. Then there are the prospectuses. Slick documents with zero customisation at all. And in both cases, the offers themselves are often arranged in some derivative of gold-silver-bronze.
All of this tells a sponsor that you don’t care about them, their needs, or their markets. They see your proposal and know you’re not going to be a good partner to them. They may still sponsor you at some level, but its not because they think it’s going to be a great experience, or that they’ll achieve much, if anything at all.
Beyond the lack of sponsor-focus, vision-building, and customisation is the sheer banality of what is offered. Uninspired, hygiene benefits rule the day, with the benefits lists of monopoly rightsholders virtually interchangeable with each other.
Think I’m wrong? (I’m not.) Look at your proposals. If they’re anchored on the following benefits, your offer isn’t an opportunity; it’s a commodity, and any sponsor with a modicum of sophistication knows it:
The thread running through all of this is arrogance. So. Much. Arrogance.
Arrogance in the self-involved sales process. Arrogance in the mundane offers presented. And arrogance in sponsorship delivery. The attitude is, “What are they going to do? Leave?? Not likely.”
If you think sponsors can’t feel that arrogance, you’re wrong. And it will cost you.
While the easy choice in the category might be to sponsor your organisation, if your approach or attitude is bad enough, sponsors will find a way to work around you.
They may opt to sponsor an emerging competitor, working with them to build something new and better for the audience. They may work with one or more media, sportspeople or other related celebrities, or industry luminaries to create a leveragable platform for their brand. They may create their own platform, whether that’s owned events or an amazing bank of content that adds real value to the target market. They may use that content in concert with a social campaign specifically targeting your fans. Yes, some of this could be categorised as ambushing your organisation, but newsflash: Strategic ambush is absolutely possible, without breaking any laws.
The other option for sponsors is simply to sponsor something else, or some combination of properties. The key drivers for sponsorship selection are market relevance, market fit, and leveragability. Your audience has a whole life outside of your properties, with many, many ways to align with or influence that market without you.
So while you may be the easy option, if what you offer is too weak, or constrains their creativity enough, you’re in danger of both rejections and exits by disgruntled sponsors. Or if they do decide to sponsor, minimising their investments and running all their creative leverage ideas on their own platforms, where you have less influence.
There is so much potential around monopoly properties. The revenue, the sponsor relationships, the fan experience you’re leaving on the table by staying stuck in the past is staggering. It’s way past time to raise the game.
If you’re interested in working with me, I can provide the following options. Just click through for more information, and drop me a line if you want to discuss.
Please note, I do not offer a sponsorship broker service, and can’t sell sponsorship on your behalf. You may find someone appropriate on my sponsorship broker registry.
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