Inside Sponsorship

A lot of us are old enough to remember when the broadcast landscape was dominated by TV, radio, and print. As we all know, however, the internet came along and the opportunities to engage with audiences exploded, and continues to grow, as digital provides innovative ways to take people’s offerings, products, rights, and sponsorships right around the world. Some will remember reading stories and hearing opinions about the decline, the decay, the fragmentation, and the death of traditional media. While traditional media’s dominance has certainly diminished, it hasn’t died nor is it going away. In fact, just like all good companies and organisations, traditional media has often adapted, and continues to do so. In a lot of cases, they’ve taken the “If you can’t beat them, join them” approach and moved into digital offerings themselves which gives them some advantages in integrating their offerings across many platforms. A man who knows the space well is Patrick Moloughney, Network Director of Sport Sales at Sev

The refrain, "If you don't know where you're going, any road will take you there." is essentially a paraphrase of an exchange between Alice and the Cheshire Cat in Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. It is particularly apt in a sponsorship sense when, even today, we see so many sponsorships that seem bereft of objectives and goals. Those sponsorships are always set up for the comment “We just don’t feel like this sponsorship is working!”. Feeling, however, shouldn’t come into it at all. Most of us would be familiar with the name Peter Drucker, the man known as the father of modern management and one who wrote 39 business management books. Even in today’s vastly different business environment, he is still widely regarded as the greatest management thinker of all time. One of his most famous quotes is, "If you can't measure it, you can't improve it." Today, teams and budgets are under pressure to produce more, and better results, with less. So, it becomes pretty obvious why measurement is so

There are a lot of people who will write blogs and rock up to conferences to talk about the future of sponsorship. While I tip my hat that they have the guts to get up and present, I don’t know about you, but I am often not left full of confidence and enthusiasm for a way forward. As Senior Manager Global Rugby Strategy & Planning at HSBC, Sven Gloor is not like that at all. Passion and enthusiasm are words used too readily these days, however, they are apt for describing Sven. He believes that sponsorship is undergoing huge change and is becoming more and more important for brands in order to solve specific and real business problems. In this episode, he joins us to take stock of the sponsorship industry and share his views and insights on where it is all heading and what you need to do to prepare and position yourself for success. Also, on the show is Mark Thompson, KORE’s Head of International Business, who discusses his most recent blog which looks at the increasing importance of Business Intelligence

Every time you discuss Asia, and the opportunities it presents, it is hard not to get overwhelmed by the numbers involved. They are truly staggering and just continue to grow. There’s no doubt that Asia has been growing in terms of sport and, with that, sponsorship as well. It would seem that lately, However, that there is a continued trend towards major events being hosted in Asia. Further, we are starting to see more Asian brands sponsoring large events, outside of their home markets, such as China’s 1573 sponsoring the Australian Open and China’s Mengniu Dairy sponsoring the FIFA World Cup. Joining us to discuss sponsorship in Asia is Adam Hodge, Head of Planning & Strategy [APAC] at Octagon. Also joining us on the show is Daniel Ferguson-Hill, SponServe’s Commercial Manager for Australasia, who has taken a look and blogged about the five trends in sponsorship that we’re are not talking about. Enjoy.

There is no doubt that sports teams now have a huge reach, with fans all over the globe, following their teams passionately through apps, OTT streaming, and social channels. The norm is for teams to be bound to their home country while traveling domestically for away fixtures. There are some sports teams, however, that travel the globe competing and that includes cycling. While some teams may yearn for the ability to take their sport across the world, and engage with non-domestic markets, it does come with its own unique set of challenges. In this episode, Kolja Koracak, Brand Director, takes us inside sponsorship at Bahrain Merida Pro Cycling Team. One awesome thing that Kolja mentions is the 360 video the team put together. You can connect with Kolja on LinkedIn and find out more about Bahrain Merida Pro Cycling Team on their official website. Before we hear from Kolja, Daniel Ferguson-Hill, SponServe’s Commercial Manager for Australasia, joins us to discuss the changing face of sponsorship

The rise of social media influencers, in recent times, has meant that some have been able to create full-time jobs around their influence and followers. They certainly have some power. Simply put, influencer marketing is the process of identifying, researching, engaging, and supporting the creators of highly engaging and impactful content and conversations around your brand, services, or products. The value of influence over potential and current customers, however, isn’t exactly a new concept in marketing. With the rise of digital marketing, and social media in particular, information travels far and wide and can do so quickly, especially when facilitated by influencers. That is because they have large followings where they already have trust and influence and they can use that to shape engagement and sentiment towards loving or shunning a brand. It all sounds very rosy but it isn’t always smooth sailing. The industry is rife with influencer fraud. Influencer marketing is home to one of the bigge

Sponsorship is clearly important to the banking industry with some of the world’s biggest and longest standing sponsorships involving banks. In Australia, banks have been a staple for many sports teams, events, and community groups. That includes Westpac Group’s brands including Westpac itself, St. George, Bank of Melbourne, BankSA, and RAMS.  Westpac Group’s portfolio of sponsorships is varied and includes the iconic Westpac Lifesaver Rescue Helicopter Service, City2Surf, Invictus Games, St.George Bank Dragons, St.George Queensland Reds, the world-famous Melbourne Cricket Ground, and the Melbourne Food and Wine Festival. Our guest this episode is Pat Cunningham who is the Head of Sponsorship & Events at Westpac Group. Pat’s sponsorship roles have been at some of the world’s most recognisable brands including Vodafone and TUI. Also joining us on the show is SponServe’s Commercial Manager for Australia and New Zealand, Daniel Ferguson, to discuss his latest blo

Sponsorship, these days, is a well-worn path. Rights holder’s commercial programs are well established and there is lots of great advice and best-practice to follow. While fundraising is a long-established discipline for many charities, more and more sports rights holders have been activating fundraising initiatives to impact positive change in their communities or help fund special projects such as high-performance centres. Fundraising, in sport, however, is still on a learning curve. Patrick Walker is the CEO of the Australian Sports Foundation. The ASF’s mission is to help Australians fundraise to achieve their sporting dreams. Patrick has a strong finance background, strong leadership, and strategic skills gained in senior executive, CEO and board roles both in Australia and internationally. Patrick joins us on the show to discuss fundraising in sport and share his wealth of knowledge, insights, and advice. You’ll also hear from Mark Thompson, SponServe’s Managing Director, who joi

There is loads of great advice on how to do sponsorship right. However, with all the advice, steps, guides, hints, and tips available, it isn’t an exact science and it is a challenge in the application. Plus, we are all human and we make mistakes. In fact, Chris Baylis, from the Sponsorship Collective, thinks a lot of you are sinners! That’s because we recently saw a great piece of content that Chris had produced called The Seven Deadly Sins of Sponsorship. Not only was it a great blog but an awesome and handy infographic as well. So, we asked Chris if he’d join us on the show and run us through The Seven Deadly Sins of Sponsorship. You’ll also hear from Daniel Ferguson-Hill, SponServe’s Commercial Manager for Australia and New Zealand. Daniel outlines the four main things that he thinks brands, who are renewing or negotiating new sports-based sponsorships, should consider to help ensure success. Enjoy

Music and entertainment sponsorship isn’t an area of sponsorship that lives in the limelight. That is ironic considering the artists involved do exactly that day-to-day; live in the limelight. We know that so much about sponsorship is a brand partnering with a rights holder to access an audience that they would otherwise find difficult to access. It’s clear that music artists have huge audiences and highly engaged ones at that. Universal Music Group is the world’s leading music company. Universal own and operate a broad array of businesses engaged in not just recorded music, but also music publishing, merchandising, and audio-visual content in more than 60 countries. Combine that with the huge and engaged social media followings, and music certainly looks attractive to sponsors. As such, in this episode we go inside sponsorship at Universal Music Group and hear from Roddy Campbell, Managing Director, New Business. You can learn more about Universal Music group at www.universalmusic.com and y

Supanova Comic-Con & Gaming Expo has been the welcoming home of Australia’s pop culture fandom since 2000; a place where fans inspired by imaginary worlds emanating from comics, sci-fi, fantasy, anime, gaming, nostalgia, and literature have been able to come together to celebrate. A place to rejoice in cosplay and also a place to express their inner geek and their inner child. What used to be considered nerdy and not really mainstream has well and truly shifted into the spotlight in recent times. Some of that can be attributed to the rise in popularity of esports as well as the never-ending releases of superhero movies. At Supanova, supa-star celebrities, fan-clubs, exciting exhibitors, and exclusives have been woven in with entertainment technology, collectables, and toys. Whether they are seven, or seventy, Supanova boasts an incredibly engaged audience who have huge passion for the content. That presents a great opportunity for brands through sponsorship. Listen in as Patrick Bradley, Busine

Having been formed in since 1889, 129 years ago, Brentford FC endured a nomadic existence, playing at five different home grounds before, in 1904, settling in at Griffin Park. And, that’s where they’ve played for the past 114 years! Excitingly, however, Brentford are set to move into a new home ground late next year. Our guest this episode is James Parkinson, Commercial Director at Brentford Football Club. James joins us to talk about the challenges of managing a commercial program in such a competitive market as London as well as the excitement of the impending new stadium and how that will impact his commercial team. If you’d like to connect with James, you can do so LinkedIn or visit the Club's site at www.brentfordfc.com In the past few weeks, sports betting has been legalised in the USA; something which has not been the case for a very long time in much of the country. As such, joining us on the show, to discuss his latest blog, is SponServe’s Managing Director, Mark Thompson

Just recently, and boasting 45 million players of the game, Epic Games announced that it will provide $100 million in prize pool money for Fortnite competitions in the first year of competitive gaming. Plus, the IOC will shortly be holding a summit, to better understand esports, which could be a precursor to inclusion in future Olympic games. Late in 2017, Essendon Bombers Football Club, a Melbourne based team who compete in the Australian Rules Football League, acquired Abyss esports team, in partnership with Executive Sports and Entertainment and, it included, a full re-branding of the team to the Bombers and full integration with the football club and its operations structures. Rohan Sawyer is the managing director of Executive Sports and Entertainment and is also the Executive Director of Bombers Esports and he joins us to discuss their commercial program as well as his experiences as GM Commercial and Marketing at the Rugby League World Cup 2017 and Head of Commercial at the Australian Tur

A lot of people think sponsorship is a complex beast; that it is a hard job. Not Jackie Fast who founded Slingshot Sponsorship in 2010, from her apartment, with only a laptop, basically because no one would give her a job in sponsorship. Jackie grew Slingshot Sponsorship from a start-up to an international, award-winning agency with a head office in London as well as offices in Singapore and Oslo. It’s not so much that Jackie thinks sponsorship is easy. It’s more that she’s started a personal crusade to help people who she believes are making stupid mistakes that hurt their sponsorship programs; both rights holders and brands. Recently, after selling Slingshot in 2017 to The Marketing Group, Jackie wrote a book, Pinpoint – How challenging the norm is the only route to success in selling sponsorship. Jackie joins us on the show to discuss some of the learnings from the book as well as her wider views on the sponsorship industry. Also joining us on the show, to discuss his latest blog, i

Do you find hard researching and getting a foot in the door with those you want to discuss sponsorship with? Prospecting and researching potential sponsors is a a unique beast in the sponsorship industry. It’s definitely not the same as other industries. It can be a challenge to figure out a prospect’s position in the market, their appetite, their cycles, and their objectives. Lots of great advice around sales is applicable to the sponsorship industry. However, prospecting and approaching leads needs a little bit more attention and a refined approach. That’s why Brian McCue, Senior Director of Sponsorship Sales at Winmo, joins us on the show to help us navigate the tricky waters of prospecting sponsorship leads. Brian has helped hundreds of non-profits, event organizations, and professional sports teams build partnerships with major brands. From small non-profits in Alaska, to large professional sports organizations like the LA Lakers, Brian has helped companies of all shapes and sizes go af

How many of you, who rely so heavily on traditional inventory, things such as signage, uniform branding, home game activations, tickets, and hospitality, would struggle if you could no longer offer them to your sponsors?   What about if you are a rights holder who enjoys long and regular periods of sustained awareness and engagement, like an annual twenty plus week season? Would your job be tougher if you couldn’t rely on that high-profile regularity?   How would you even approach your job without those things?   While they are interesting hypothetical questions for most you, they are the reality for Ian Sargeant, Commercial Manager at Paralympics New Zealand. In this episode, you’ll learn about how Ian and the organisation deliver a highly successful commercial program, without the plethora of traditional benefits most rights holders boast, as we go inside sponsorship at Paralympics New Zealand. You can learn more about Paralympics New Zealand, connect with Ian on LinkedIn, or emai

Working in sponsorship is great. Yes, it is challenging, but there are loads of great aspects and it certainly beats working in some boring admin role in some boring office, right? For some, however, that can lead to staying in a role for a really long time and, when a move does come, moving to something very similar. Someone who has avoided that path, and gained a wealth of experience over some really great roles, is Sarah Lewis, Business Development Consultant - Sponsorship, Events and Luxury Tourism Specialist at Sursum Consulting. Sarah joins us on the show to share her stories and experiences which are really insightful for both rights holders and brands. There is lots of chat about activations and some of the challenges along the way including her being a graffiti artist! If you would like to connect with Sarah you can do so on LinkedIn. Sarah also talks about the upcoming Partnership Huddle where, if you get in contact with her, you can get a discount code for your registration. Sam Irvine, S

Events, either stand-alone or as part of a rights holder, such as team community days or end of season functions, bring people together where they are highly engaged and usually with really positive attitudes. For rights holders, there is a finite amount of time to deliver the event and, in turn, deliver for sponsors. There’s not a lot of wriggle room if something goes wrong. Still, for sponsors, events can be highly attractive because of a large gathering of highly engaged people from their target audience. Whether you are a rights holders or a brand, all of this presents not just a big opportunity, but also a unique set of challenges in executing sponsorship. Someone who is well placed to discuss the unique challenges, how to navigate them, and enjoy success, is Roberta Vigilance. Since 1997, Roberta, through her event planning company, Vigilance Style & Grace, has consulted and taught how to plan sponsored events and secure sponsors from local through to corporate brands and Roberta joins us on t

Whether you are a brand, or a rights holder, you’ve no doubt been in situations where a sponsorship has gotten off on the right foot, and with all the right intentions, but then one, or both, parties have struggled to bring the sponsorship to life and activate it well. It is easy to see how it can happen; especially if there is no explicit conversation about the additional investment that sponsors need to make towards activation which is over and above the investment of the sponsorship agreement. The big brands have in-house teams that concentrate on sponsorship and so this isn’t usually too much of a problem. However, there are a number of medium and smaller sized businesses, who, combined, have a significant sponsorship presence right around the world, yet may lack the knowledge and resources to activate their sponsorships well. In fact, they can often expect the rights holder to make it all ‘happen’. It is a shame, or even a weakness at times, because everyone wants the sponsorship

Trend number 5 in Nielsen Sports’ Commercial Trends in Sport 2017, is live sport gaining traction on OTT and social media. One man who has been on the OTT trail, from the early days, and even by his own admission, maybe a little too early, is Chris Wagner EVP and co-founder of NeuLion. For 14 years, NeuLion has been a worldwide leader specialiSing in digital video broadcasting, distribution and monetization. NeuLion deliver live and on-demand content to every Internet-enabled device imaginable. Chris has held numerous executive positions in the technology sector. The growth of internet television on computers, tablets, mobile, and internet-connected devices, has given Chris an opportunity to work closely with the largest brands in the sports and entertainment industry including the NFL, NHL, UFC, NBA, Univison, Dish Networks and many others. Chris joins us to discuss the OTT landscape and how rights holders can capitalise on it. If you would like to connect with Chris, you can do so on LinkedIn, Tw