Every year at The Sponsor, we conduct a survey of our audience of brand and marketing leaders to ascertain what they look for in a sponsorship opportunity. The research highlights the most common factors that need to be present for brands to maximise their return on investment. The survey reveals the evolving priorities and insights on what truly defines a perfect sponsorship partner.

The perfect sponsorship partner is not merely about having a broad reach or an impeccable reputation. It’s a multi-faceted relationship that blends visibility with value alignment, audience engagement and a mutual commitment to making a positive impact.

Reputation 

Unsurprisingly, all sponsors identified the size and reach of the team or event’s audience as paramount. For some brands, particularly in the FMCG industries, this was their first, second, and third consideration when judging a new sponsorship opportunity. However, a significant portion of the respondents, particularly those from the finance and B2B sectors, identified values-based alignment as the primary area of examination.

Within these values-based alignments, responses predominantly considered a partner’s history, examining past successes and achievements. When was the team or event founded? How successful has the team or event been during its history? How does this help communicate our own heritage and trust?

Being seen as the leader or go-to provider in the market was a common theme for many sponsors. Consequently, a significant number of respondents consider a partner's perceived quality as a key criterion. What is the team or event’s current performance and reputation for success in modern times?

For tech brands in particular, infrastructure and how up to date the team or event’s physical and digital facilities are were important evaluation areas. Several luxury brands highlighted this measure by placing importance on association with best-in-class service. The final reputational brand characteristic considered by most sponsors was cultural relevance. How does the team or event behave off the pitch, and what action are they taking towards societal issues? This was particularly true of respondents from FMCG brands from the fashion and retail industry.

Audience

Despite the need for strong brand alignment between two partners, increased brand exposure remained paramount to almost all sponsors surveyed. Indeed, the single greatest benefit of sponsorship for most brands is supercharged brand awareness.

Beyond reach and exposure many individuals highlighted not only the number of eyeballs reached but whose eyeballs. One common theme was frustration with a lack of credible audience data around demographics, fan behaviour, and activity.

The results across demographics were diverse, highlighting each brand's different target audience groups, particularly concerning age demographics and affluence. However, a common thread that did emerge was the emphasis all brands place on gender ratios; even for sponsors operating in traditionally male-dominated sponsorship arenas, there was a very clear consideration of the female audience.

Social Contribution

An increasing number of sponsors identified social contributions and actions towards social challenges as important factors during the evaluation of potential partners. This theme was highlighted during the research, with 93% of respondents evaluating a team or event’s actions towards sustainability as part of their evaluation process.

85% of respondents also highlighted inclusion and equal support for female artists and athletes. These factors were followed by support for grassroots development and, most notably, support for the partner's associated community.

Experience

Collectively, across the board, the other consideration most sponsors highlighted was the extent to which clients and VIPs could be entertained through corporate hospitality. Large employers also highlighted the importance of volunteering and employee engagement within their partnership consideration and the responsiveness of those individuals charged with managing their partnership on a day-to-day basis.

Surprisingly, only a small number considered how their internal skills and know-how could help improve their partner’s offering. This is an important factor as it determines how a sponsor has helped improve an event for the fans or the wider community through their involvement. Those sponsors that demonstrate this are more likely to be perceived favourably by audiences, which impacts all those great measures of brand strength we track, like loyalty, advocacy and, most importantly, consumer behaviour, especially at the point of purchase.

While not all brands can find or afford a sponsor that ticks every one of these boxes, it is important to articulate what each brand’s perfect sponsorship partner looks like. Only then can we evaluate our hypothetical ideal sponsorship against real-world opportunities.

The post What makes a perfect sponsorship partner? appeared first on The Sponsor.

Many organisations unintentionally find themselves entangled in a web of diverse and often disjointed sponsorship commitments. This situation typically arises when brands succumb to various requests from employees and key customers or grant local branches autonomy in making sponsorship decisions. While these seemingly innocuous partnerships may appear harmless at first, they can lead to a range of challenges that undermine the brand's identity and strategic objectives.

Mixed Messaging: A Brand's Silent Nemesis

One of the primary pitfalls of diverse sponsorship initiatives is the emergence of mixed messaging. When a brand sponsors a multitude of unrelated causes or events, customers may struggle to decipher the core values and identity of the brand. This lack of clarity can dilute the brand's message and leave customers questioning what the brand truly stands for.

The slippery slope of valuable resources

Granting numerous small sponsorship requests can be a slippery slope, with each approval leading to a cascade of additional commitments. As these sponsorships multiply, the brand may find itself stretched thin, struggling to recall the extent of its sponsorship portfolio. The more sponsorships in play, the greater the demand on resources, both in terms of time and costs, to address the inevitable challenges that arise.

Budget control: A tangled web of costs

Small-scale sponsorships may seem inconspicuous, but their cumulative costs can add up rapidly. Brands may discover that a significant portion of their budget is tied up in these diverse sponsorships, yielding minimal growth for the business. Exit strategies become challenging, leaving marketers rueing missed opportunities to allocate budget where it could have a more substantial impact on brand growth.

The path to redemption: A unified sponsorship strategy

The solution  to this fragmented disjointed sponsorship portfolio lies in the development and implementation of a single, consistent sponsorship strategy that operates seamlessly at all levels.

1. Craft Ideal Sponsor Profile: Begin by meticulously defining the qualities of your ideal sponsorship partner. Consider factors such as shared values, target audience alignment, and resonance with your business objectives. This profile will serve as a benchmark for evaluating current and future partnerships.
2. Evaluate Existing Partnerships: Conduct a comprehensive assessment of your current sponsorship portfolio. Analyse each partnership in terms of how closely it aligns with the criteria set in your ideal sponsor profile. Simultaneously, evaluate the time, effort, and resources invested in each partnership.
3. Exit Misaligned Partnerships: Swiftly identify and exit partnerships that do not align with your ideal criteria. Prioritise those showing a significant misalignment, freeing up resources and reducing the potential negative impact on your brand's messaging and identity.
4. Enhance Alignment Through Activation: For partnerships with lower alignment that cannot be immediately terminated, develop strategic activation plans. Implement initiatives that align these partnerships more closely with your key values and objectives, maximising their impact within the defined criteria.
5. Articulate Ideal Profile Criteria: Clearly define the criteria derived from your ideal sponsor profile. These criteria should guide all future sponsorship decisions, ensuring a consistent and intentional approach to partnership selection.
6. Transition to Proactive Strategy: Move from a reactive stance of approving or rejecting incoming requests to a proactive approach. Actively seek out sponsorship opportunities that align with your established values, objectives, and target audience. This proactive shift allows you to curate a portfolio that strategically contributes to your brand's growth.

In conclusion, sponsors must carefully assess the impact of small-scale sponsorships on their overall brand image. Redirecting funds towards more strategic initiatives is essential. Investing in a cohesive sponsorship strategy helps brands avoid the pitfalls of mixed messaging, regain control over valuable resources, and strategically allocate budgets for maximum impact—ultimately fortifying brand identity and contributing meaningfully to growth and success.

The post From chaos to cohesion: Strategies to mend fragmented sponsorship and strengthen your brand identity appeared first on The Sponsor.

An estimated $105 billion was spent on sponsorship globally in 2023. The allocation of these significant budgets and the entities they support is entirely at the discretion of the purchasing brand. To quote the common proverb, ‘With great power comes great responsibility’.

At The Sponsor, we champion sponsorship as a force for good. We believe the best partnerships are those that not only provide a return to the sponsoring brand but also seek to make a positive contribution to the communities they impact.

Authenticity and engagement are the keys to a successful partnership. When brands go beyond advertising-based sponsorship and actively make a positive contribution, they are viewed more favourably by audiences, increasing audience propensity to sample, purchase intent, loyalty and advocacy. In simple terms, people buy things from people they like; this is as true of sales as it is for brands and sponsorship.

So how can brands use sponsorship as a force for good to authentically engage audiences and positively shift stakeholder perception?

Enhancing audience Experience

The first step for almost all brands moving beyond simple logo placement is to use their position as a sponsor to enhance the audience's enjoyment or experience of an event. This can be straightforward, like tech brands giving fans greater insights with real-time sports data analysis. There are simple examples outside the tech realm, such as behind-the-scenes content giving fans , free event transportation, or exclusive meet-and-greet experiences. Such activity ensures that exposed audiences are not only aware of the sponsoring brand but have developed an enhanced perception. Partnerships lacking this most basic form of activation are, in reality, nothing more than very expensive advertising.

Gender Equity

Women’s sports have seen tremendous growth in recent years, driven partly by the fantastic work of early adopters such as Barclays. The bank has not only been a long-term supporter of women’s professional game but has also contributed immense support for youth with gender equity through its Girls’ Football School Partnerships. The campaign has grown significantly in recent years and is now active in over 10,000 schools, with 85% of teachers agreeing that the campaign has positively impacted young girls' perception of football.

Earlier in the year, The Sponsor sat down with Rosie Guest, Chief Marketing Officer of Apex Group, and sponsors of Sail GP. The company had a pre-existing aim to improve gender equity across financial services, and this transfers through to its sponsorships. At present Sail GP has no female captains but Apex, working together with Sail GP, is seeking to use it’s position as a sponsor to change this.

“I firmly believe that when we empower women and provide them with the necessary tools, resources, and support, they can excel in any field, including the traditionally male-dominated sport of sailing. By breaking down gender barriers and fostering a culture of inclusivity, we can unleash the full potential of talented female sailors and create a more balanced and dynamic competitive landscape.”

You can read the full article here.

Actions speak louder than words, and such public action transcends written statements of inclusivity and diversity, demonstrating a genuine commitment that is not lost on stakeholders.

Supporting Youth Development

Brands can build positive associations by using their sponsorship budget to support youth development in a particular field. For example, Under Armour compliments its high-profile sponsorships with significant support and development of young talent, improving access to sports equipment for millions of teenagers. What impact does such an activation have on those young people, their friends and families when shopping in the local sports shop?

Similarly, many large financial brands are seeking to enhance perception through their support of young musicians and artists. American Express, for example, hosts the Amex Gold Unsigned, giving young, relatively unknown artists a powerful platform to showcase their talents, play at festivals and build a following. In the art world, American Express’ reputation is enhanced by such activity, not because they put their logo on it but because they make a meaningful and authentic contribution.

Sustainability

Perhaps the one topic that transcends all sports, cultural events and industries is sustainability. Sponsors can provide invaluable know-how to make events more sustainable; they can provide access to expensive tools and technology and use their immense purchasing power to only partner with events demonstrating a genuine commitment to sustainability.

For example, Formula 1 as a sport has come under increasing pressure from sponsors to cut emissions. This pressure has resulted in significant changes to the sport, including the introduction of sustainable fuels, resulting in up to 96% carbon emission reductions as part of its ambitious 2030 net zero pledge.

Sticking with Formula 1, The Sponsor spoke with Arjan Sissing, Global Head of Brand at DHL, to learn how the company is using its position as a sponsor to provide efficient, environmentally friendly logistics for Formula 1’s travelling circus of nearly 35,000 tonnes of racing freight each year.

DHL used Formula 1’s huge platform to build its own brand and raise awareness about sustainability amongst F1 fans.

“At the Brazilian Grand Prix, for example, we used our partnership to raise awareness of marine plastic pollution. We partnered with NGOs and 90 volunteers to collect over 500 kilos of waste. With the help of a local artist, we used this waste product to create a beautiful Formula 1 car sculpture at the track.”

These sustainable activations do not disappear into thin air, they resonate and resurface at key points in the consumer decision-making cycle.

Charity

The most philanthropic sponsorship activity brands can employ when seeking to use sponsorship as a force for good to enhance perception positively is to support charitable events such as Standard Life’s support for Cancer Research Race for Life.

Perhaps the most charitable sponsorship of all was BNY Mellon and Newton Investment Management’s sponsorship of the Oxford Cambridge Boat Race. Having secured the rights to the world’s most famous rowing race, the firm gifted the sponsorship and all its associated brand awareness to the event charity partner, Cancer Research UK. Such an act may indeed reduce BNY Mellon’s brand exposure, but to its existing clients and stakeholders, it undoubtedly increased loyalty and advocacy.

"We're not fussed about the actual coverage of our name this year – we're handing that over. This goes to the heart of businesses being responsible to society and connecting with communities. I feel very strongly that this is what it takes to be a modern and responsible business, we hope that others would then follow suit and we would see more companies thinking actually how could we use our sponsorships in different ways?"  Helena Morrisey, Former Chief Executive, Newton Asset Management.

Conclusions

When sponsorships are strategically harnessed for the greater good, they yield tangible benefits for the community and exert a transformative influence on brand reputation, leading to enduring financial returns that persist long after the partnership has drawn to a close.

By aligning corporate support with meaningful social initiatives, sponsors contribute to the community's welfare and forge a lasting connection with consumers who appreciate and remember the positive impact. This synergy between altruism and brand promotion creates a ripple effect, amplifying the resonance of the partnership and solidifying the brand's position as a socially responsible and ethical entity. Consequently, the dividends reaped extend far beyond the initial collaboration, establishing a legacy of goodwill that continues to shape the perception of the brand in the marketplace. continuing to deliver benefits long after the partnership concludes.

The post Actions speak louder than words: How Barclays, DHL, and Amex embrace sponsorship as a force for good appeared first on The Sponsor.

Saudi Arabia’s cultural capital has swelled as it continues to invest in global sport. In the past couple days, the Saudi Professional League has targeted Premier League club Chelsea and their bloated squad issues, offering high wages in a rapidly growing division. The move further cements the nation as both a lucrative and attractive option for sports business dealings. Here are the four most important things to know about the rapidly growing influence of Saudi Arabia if you are seeking sponsorship from or within the nation. 

Things move fast: look to the next growing market 

As journalist Miguel Delaney notes, ‘Saudi Arabia is now trying…every approach.’  Government sources have indicated that the nation is aiming to host 25 world championships across a number of sports by 2030. 

If anything indicates this tactic, it’s the country’s recent takeover of golf. LIV Golf, the PGA Tour, and DP World Tour announced an agreement to merge commercial operations under common ownership by the Public Investment Fund. The PGA Tour was founded in 1929 - the standing it has taken the PGA Tour nearly a century to acquire, Saudi Arabia has, in effect, reached in just over two years by buying it. Yes, things move fast. 

With Saudi Tourism Authority’s successful IPL partnership, the nation is further spreading its influence into cricket after twenty years as a member of the ICC (International Cricket Council). Importantly, the partnership was leveraged at a geopolitical level, with the opening of dedicated visa centres in India, increasing accessibility between the two countries and helping fulfil STA’s ambition for India to be a leading tourism source market by 2030. To read more about the landmark deal, click here.

Clearly, there are two central factors determining Saudi Arabia’s investment movements: geopolitical opportunity and the development of a range of sports domestically and abroad. 

Fast growth doesn’t always mean clear opportunities

The fast growth has also meant uncertainty for sponsors. With information on dates scarce, sponsors of the remarkable new golf tournament could be left without ample time to plan long-term activations. The previous PGA Tour schedule could well change to respond to new climates and partnerships need to keep up to date in order to maximise the opportunity.

With regards to its domestic football league, the only precedent for such an expansion is the Chinese Super League. Investors ought to be aware of a potential bubble which caused the CSL to wane in influence. For Uefa president Alexsander Čeferen, Saudi Arabia is “making the same mistakes as China” by not investing in the development of their own players. That said, when paired with wider expansions, including a potential takeover of the African Super League, Saudi Arabia appears to be building for long-term stature in the world of sport. 

Know the Saudia Arabian audience 

Understanding the culture and demographics of Saudi Arabia is key to knowing its next steps. First, it’s a young nation, with 70% of the population under 35. It is also football-obsessed. Since Ronaldo joined, attendance at Al Nassr games is up by 143 per cent. Clearly, the investments have domestic relevance that is waiting to be leveraged. 

Saudi Arabia also has a long-standing football culture through one of the more successful national teams in Asia. It is not so much of a surprise that the country has been able to attract players such as Ballon D’or holder Karim Benzema. True, the investment is astonishing, but the country nonetheless has fertile sporting roots and a population eager to capitalise on them. 

With its money and global geopolitical network, the Saudi Arabia league appears to be easing Chelsea’s bloated squad issue, proving its worth as a big game player and building relationships for the future.

Understand the debate and know where you fit in 

“If they’re going to be investing this kind of money in the sport, we’ve got to be realists,” said Eddie Hearn after Anthony Joshua’s victory over Andy Ruiz Jr in Diriyah in 2019. The levels of investment that Saudi Arabia’s various investment channels provide are nonpareil. However, even with the remarkable rate of change, culturally and financially, Saudi Arabia’s human rights record remains a factor for global audiences. 

Just recently, FIFA dropped plans for Saudi Arabia’s tourism arm, Visit Saudi, to sponsor the 2023 Women’s World Cup. It followed a backlash from co-hosts Australia and New Zealand, players including Arsenal's Vivianne Miedema, and fellow sponsors. 

Prior to the sponsorship scrapping, Football Australia and Football New Zealand wrote letters to FIFA President Infantino outlining their disappointment and concern over the possibility of the sponsorship, which had been negotiated without their knowledge or input. "We cannot express strongly enough the potential repercussions and fall-out that could result from this decision," the letter said.

Fortunately, that was avoided. It did, however, highlight the potency of public opinion around Saudi Arabia’s expansionism. Knowing where you are as a brand, and where your audience sits within the debate is crucial to avoid destructive campaigns. 

The post Four things to know about investing in Saudi Arabian sports appeared first on The Sponsor.

At over 60 years old, Vhi is the largest healthcare insurance company in Ireland. In 2016, Vhi became Presenting Partner of parkrun, the free running event which sees competitors across 22 countries complete a 5k revery Saturday. In this interview we spoke with Corporate Communications Manager at Vhi, Niamh Walker, about how the alignment of both brands raises awareness of their collective aim of enabling healthier lives.

Alignment & Intention

A leading provider of health and wellbeing services, Vhi focuses on physical, emotional, and mental wellbeing holistically. When it comes to alignment, Niamh underlines parkrun’s similar mantra of promoting a ‘happier, healthier planet.’ It fits functionally and philosophically with Vhi’s purpose of promoting ‘longer, stronger, healthier lives.’ For Niamh and Vhi, its sponsorship of parkrun Ireland “gives meaning to the brand and actively supports the community.” Furthermore, Niamh stressed that Vhi wanted to support a grassroots campaign that enabled the company to talk to current and potential customers in a casual but practical setting.

How does it look in practice?

Alongside running a reward system, whereby Vhi customers can earn rewards when they walk, jog, or volunteer at five Saturday parkruns, Vhi staff routinely offer their own volunteering services. Niamh tells me she even volunteered at her local parkrun the Saturday previous to our chat. There have also been staff volunteer takeovers in Kilkenny, County Cork, and other locations around Ireland, showcasing the company’s commitment beyond the financials. Vhi gives its time, as well as its capital.

“In 2016, there were only 55 parkruns in Ireland, now there are around 130…in 2016 there were 5,000 competitors, now there are over 12,000.”

Vhi have found the perfect brand ambassador in former Irish Olympian David Gillick. At parkrun events, Gillick will run the course, encourage the participants, and lead the warmup. His own advice is to start small to guarantee long-term success - what better way to promote this than through parkrun? More, how better to drive brand awareness for Vhi than to be seen encouraging healthy routines?

How has Vhi shown its worth?

During COVID, Niamh explains that there was a drop in 30–45-year-olds taking part in parkrun. As a result, Vhi made that group its target audience as part of an integrated campaign. Once again, the innate alignment and clear communication allowed Vhi to help parkrun with a significant issue while simultaneously emphasising their own commitment to health and wellbeing. It’s a good reminder that sponsors need to be both flexible and capable of responding to change if they want to truly show their worth beyond branding.

How has the partnership been beneficial internally?

The internal positivity created around the partnership has helped support the company’s culture, with virtual lunchtime running sessions and staff involvement in parkruns. It may sound obvious, but what we see in purpose-aligned partnerships is fantastic brand awareness on the side of the sponsor, and positive functional benefits on the side of the sponsored.

What advice does Niamh have for marketing and sponsorship teams looking at similarly aligned partnerships?

• Understand the company purpose, internal and external
• Be clear on what your role is as a sponsor
• Maintain clear and constant communication between the sponsor and rightsholder

For more fantastic tips from a Head of Marketing on finding the right sponsor, click here.

The post Vhi’s Corporate Communications Manager, Niamh Walker, on alignment and activation with parkrun Ireland appeared first on The Sponsor.

TritonLake is a boutique placement agent for private and alternative fund managers, established in 2017 and with offices in New York, Texas, and Dublin. The firm’s growth has been greatly stimulated by its partnership with the Ireland Men’s and Women’s Rugby Sevens teams. We spoke with CEO and Founder Conor Smyth, to hear more about TritonLake’s sponsorship ambitions and his own tips on how to maximise returns when partnering with a national sports team.  

You entered into a partnership with Ireland Men’s and Women’s Rugby Sevens – how did that come about? 

I was at the Hong Kong Sevens in 2018, where the Ireland men's team were looking to qualify and become part of the Seven Series. It’s played across ten different locations around the world: Dubai, Hong Kong, Singapore, Los Angeles, London and so on. They failed to qualify in 2018, but it planted the seed in my head that this could be an interesting piece of sponsorship property to look at when they do qualify given the geographies involved. We’re a financial services business, and those cities I just mentioned are key financial centres. Those ten locations would be key cities as we grow a global network of investors.  

The other thing that struck me was the product itself. Sevens is different to a standard 15-a-side game of rugby, where it's 2 hours sitting there in quite an intense atmosphere. Sevens is over a couple of days, the games are short and fast, and you could watch a few games, then go in and have something to eat and have a chat. You get an opportunity to mingle with different people - it’s a fun atmosphere that people really enjoy. The key for us was very much around business-to-business relationship nurturing and I felt it would be a great opportunity to do that.  

We opened a dialogue with the IRFU after the team qualified in 2019 and then of course, COVID happened and the whole World Series was put on hold while travel was in lockdown. We kept in touch and in June 2021 concluded a deal. 

When you decided it was the right time and the right partnership, what were your intended goals? 

The intended goals from our side related to those international markets and leveraging the different stops on the tour to bring along key people from those communities, be it Hong Kong, Singapore, and so on.  

The first year was about understanding what would be possible given that we were just coming out of COVID and there was a lot of uncertainty and moving around of the schedule. Some of the stadia only got clearance to host the events with spectators a few weeks before, so it was very difficult to coordinate anything around that. This year has been much easier, and we've had a lot of success in terms of bringing people along. In Sydney, London, and LA we’ve brought between 14 and 25 people to the events. For us, that's what it's about, it just allows us to solidify and strengthen our relationships.

What are the benefits to sponsoring a national sports team and how have you leveraged the partnership to mutual benefit? 

Firstly, the teams get a sponsor that's very interested in what they're doing, which isn't always the case. I saw the teams this morning, to check in with them and say hello as both squads are heading to the Algarve tomorrow for a tournament. That's one side of it. 

Sevens in Ireland has only really been around for five or six years in any serious capacity. So, this is the first time they've had a proper entity that's backing them and wanting them to succeed. Sevens is also an Olympic sport now, so it's a real opportunity to attract people that maybe wouldn't have considered rugby to come along and play. At the elite level, it acts as a pathway through to the 15s. We’re a partner that supports that ambitious atmosphere at all levels and works with them.  

One of the key things that we perceived we would benefit from was the high-performance nature of elite sports - of being associated with it on one hand, but also learning from the athletes. I really underestimated the impact that would have. We've got a couple of players that work with us on a part-time basis and what they bring is a winner's mindset, an attitude where they want to succeed with everything they do, hard work ethic, and structured and disciplined outlooks. That aspect of the partnership has had a really positive impact on the broader team. We’re trying to be the best at what we do, and we want to be high-performance from a business perspective, so the alignment is very strong there. 

Because we all feel we have the same goals, success for either of us reflects on the other. We're a smaller company rather than a big brand and so the alignment can be more concentrated. The parallel, as I mentioned earlier, is that the Sevens programme has only been around for five or six years, so has TritonLake. They've only just really come onto the scene with the men's team qualified for the last Olympics in Tokyo and the women's team just qualified for their first Olympics a few weeks ago in Toulouse. They haven’t been the radar of the public until recently. Like TritonLake, they’re emerging from a relatively recent start, and I fully expect the trajectories for both to continue upwards from here. 

To learn more about the benefits of alignment in sponsorship, click here.

How do you think this partnership might have changed or broadened perceptions of TritonLake?  

I think it has brought more awareness to the brand, but the partnership for us is more around activation and the business-to-business side of things. There's no doubt, however, that it simultaneously underpins that we're a serious business, associated with things we're passionate about. Becoming involved in the Rugby community has plugged us into that global network of businesses that are talking to us, but also people that used to play rugby or are involved in rugby, and now there's a familial kind of feeling to it whereby everyone wants to help each other in that space. In that sense, we’ve upped our connectivity by a number of levels which is great from a credibility perspective. 

Have you been able to measure any responses to the partnership, either quantitatively or qualitatively?

We’ve tracked a few bits in terms of number of contacts in the markets and different things like that. The opportunities to see and hear from media outreach increased by 70% from launch to the pre-Rugby World Cup event - including 118 mentions for TritonLake. 1.7 million article impressions were garnered across three days of Rugby World Cup Sevens through TritonLake’s partnership with The42.ie. 

Via the TritonLake Perform Podcast and performance-focused social content, we reached 23,594 organic content views and listens at the end of our first season. Clear spikes in the social conversation during Sevens competitions were evident, with 76% positive sentiment toward TritonLake. Our sponsorship was also called out in commentary during Ireland’s Rugby World Cup Quarter & Semi-Finals at the Rugby World Cup Sevens. 

Do you have any advice for fellow marketing teams looking for similar sponsorships? 

 If it's the first time that you've done something like this, you need to manage your expectations around that first year - as both parties become more successful, the association will grow stronger so be patient and know what you bring to the table. Be prepared to learn as you go and have a team, or a company help out on the PR side. A lot of those companies have real experience working with brands as they sponsor sports teams and what they can bring to the table in terms of social media activation and ideas will boost your profile massively. It’s difficult to do it all yourself that's for sure.  

The post TritonLake CEO, Conor Smyth, on how to maximise partnerships within elite sports appeared first on The Sponsor.

With over £10 billion of assets under management on behalf of 18,500 clients, JM Finn is one of the UK’s leading wealth managers. The firm’s growth is supported by strategic partnerships with Surrey County Cricket Club and the Affordable Art Fair. We spoke with Head of Marketing Oliver Tregoning, to hear his tips on how to manage a successful partnership and maximise business returns. 

How did your partnership with the Affordable Art Fair (AAF) come about and what was the reasoning behind it?  

Like all sponsorships, we needed to meet a brand challenge, not just a passion or...dare I say it, an ego trip. Our clients are of an older demographic, and they needed to know how to pass on assets to the next generation - our brand challenge was speaking to that existing older client base while simultaneously engaging the next generation of wealth owners. The Affordable Art Fair allows us to do this in a less formal environment beyond boardrooms and business.   

The AAF has never had an individual fair headline partner, so it felt like an exciting space for us to step into. One of their strengths is that they have a loyal client base, but they also know a lot about that base. Most importantly for us, it has the right demographic with over 40% between the ages of 45 to 65, and 40% have over £100,000 of household income. It’s our perfect target audience.  

We look for three things in our partnerships:  

1. Client Engagement. 
2. Brand awareness. 
3. Lead Generation 

How do you think this partnership might have changed or broadened the perceptions of JMF?  

 I think by adding the AAF, we appeal to that younger generation and probably come across as less stuffy. The Fair is all about getting people into art collecting - that marries really well with our purpose of helping people start investing journeys.   

 Externally, we've broadened our appeal and our awareness. Through post-fair surveys, we ask standard questions to a fair visitor: do you know who the sponsors were? Did you know who they were before you came? Do you know what they do? We've since seen a growing awareness of JM Finn which shows that our branding is cutting through.  

What have you seen in the market research?  

The market research has been great. We wanted to test whether that brand alignment and brand awareness is working in practice. Undoubtedly, it is. As I said, we’re seeing a rise in recognition of the brand, and that's the first thing we ask for. At each fair that we've done, we've offered competitions and opt-ins at ticket purchase, and the number of opt-ins and participation has increased every time. That’s an increasing sign of brand recognition. We’re not aggressive marketers, and the last thing we want to do is ‘brandalise’ an event. It's a slower burn, centered on building trust.  

JM Finn has sponsored Surrey County Cricket Club, based at the Kia Oval, for over 15 years. What is it about this partnership that works so well for you?  

We’re the longest standing corporate partner there. The partners who initiated the partnership loved cricket, and so they took a box with the aim of entertaining some of their clients. That then grew to a couple advertising boards. Over time, we got to know the club and they’ve really looked after us. What started as a box, has since become something much bigger. 

The next opportunity was for the naming rights to the Vauxhall End Stand, which we took. It was an interesting point in our relationship with them because it was during the pandemic, and the then-current naming partner of the stand was pulling out completely. They came to us because they knew us well and knew what we would want out of it. They were absolutely right.  

Since we signed that deal, there's been a new Chief Executive, a new Chairman, a new Commercial Director, so it feels a bit like we're starting the relationship building again. But I have to say they’ve been phenomenal. It's a hugely successful club, both on and off the pitch. It’s also member-owned, which means that it's putting its membership and its fans first. Just as with JM Finn, where everything is done through the lens of our clients, everything at SCCC is done through the lens of their membership. As an investment-led company, that’s very important to us.   

They’ve also always invested in their academy and produced the next generation of star players for county and country. Because of the membership, ownership, coaching staff, and management team structure, it’s a very collegiate club. That chimes with everything we’re trying to do.   

With the AAF, it’s about starting your journey through art collecting. For SCCC, it’s about starting your journey for a long life in cricket. And what we do is about starting your journey through wealth management. It all aligns purposefully.  

Do have any advice or warnings you would give a Head of Marketing who's considering a similar sponsorship?   

I mentioned at the beginning that sponsorship should be about brand alignment and/or meeting a business challenge - sometimes those two are very interlinked. Here’s what I’d advise:  

1. Understand what you're trying to get out of it; understand what you're trying to do; and understand what you can put into it. So many times, and I've been guilty of this in the past, you underestimate the activation cost - you pay your headline figure and suddenly you haven't got any budget to make the most of it.  
2. Set goals. Our goals at Surrey are more about brand alignment, reputation, and increasing our brand awareness than meeting a business challenge. Make sure that you’ve set out internal expectations of what your goals are.  
3. Make sure you know what you can measure. We do post-match surveys to find out if people are recognising who the sponsors are, and if they know what we do. Typically, the CFO will want to know exactly what return you're going to make, but that’s difficult to measure. We track each client we take to the cricket: do we get additional flows from them? Do we get introductions or referrals from them within 12 months of coming to a game?  

How can a successful sponsorship approach benefit a company internally?  

One of our investment managers is taking on the transatlantic row in December with an all-female group of four. We’re supporting her with time off, but we’re also sponsoring the team. It’s exciting for everyone involved because we're big believers that people should follow their passions.     

The whole point of sponsorship is lifting your brand: you're missing a trick if your people don't understand why you're doing it, because they’re all brand ambassadors. We've got 300 staff and I’m confident they all know why we're sponsoring The Oval. When we see photographs of cricket and there’s the JM Finn brand in the background, it instills a sense of pride. It’s an aspect of sponsorship that often gets lost, but truly, it's one of the key objectives.  

 If you are interested in learning more about the benefits of sponsorship of the arts, read our interviews with EY's Michel Driessen and BMW's Head of Cultural Engagement, Thomas Girst.

The post JM Finn’s Head of Marketing, Oliver Tregoning, on how to find and retain the right sponsorship partner appeared first on The Sponsor.

On Thursday, the Premier League announced that its teams had agreed an effective ban of front-of-shirt gambling sponsorship commencing in the 2025/26 season. We spoke with Tom Banks, Head of Corporate Affairs UK/Global at Kindred Group – the operator responsible for Unibet and 32Red. The question: how can operators continue their partnerships with responsible campaigns and mutually positive results?

Would you be able to give us an update from a sponsorship perspective on the ditching of betting sponsors from the front of Premier League shirts?

If the idea is that removing front of shirt sponsorship will make gambling safer, then I'm not too sure that that's really going to do what people are hoping. It's a blunt measure.

The ban won't come in for a few years, so it won't be that operators have to immediately remove themselves from the front. But I think the fact that this is just in the Premier League shows that there is still quite an important role for the operators to play - we have a place in sport because we’re a part of sport. Some people don't like that, but that doesn't mean to say that it's not something that should be allowed to continue. We want to keep talking about setting limits, staying in control and we can do that through our sponsorship and advertising.

We confront the issue ourselves through our journey towards zero which is a publicly stated ambition to reach 0% of our revenue from harmful gambling and from high-risk play. We're only able to do that if we are all part of the conversation and all part of the solution. I don’t agree with the idea that you can just remove betting operators from the public eye and hope that things will get better.

The EFL have also been quite strong on the fact that it's a huge financial benefit outside of the Premier League where you don't have the broadcast money and the big money deals. Betting sponsorships are crucial for lower league clubs, so any betting sponsorship bans for those clubs down the line could mean hundreds of thousands or millions of pounds off their balance sheet and if they can't get someone to pick that up it’s a real risk to their future.

What is Kindred Group’s new model of sponsorship and what compelled the company to introduce it?

This is something that we started rolling out a few years ago. We challenged ourselves to think about different ways to utilize our sponsorship for good as part of a broader approach that we have towards sustainability. We feel like if we're going to have a place in football and in sport more broadly, we need to make sure that we're using that to keep gambling safe and responsible.

We’ve seen an increase in the use of safer gambling tools over the last two years and it's probably no coincidence that we're all talking about it more. You won't really see a Unibet or a 32 Red logo without some form of responsible gambling messaging, whether that's ‘set your limits’, ‘stay in control’, etc. Other operators do it too. Skybet, for example, have adverts with Jeff Stelling and others talking about setting limits – I think that’s really good.

What are some of the tangible effects you’ve seen as a result of your new sponsorship model?

Derby County F.C. were piloting a scheme called Team Talk and came to us with the concept. We commissioned some research into how working-class men, but then men more broadly, interacted with football and how they interacted with talking about mental health. It was clear that they felt more comfortable opening up about mental health issues in the context of a football environment. At Derby, that environment was a room at the stadium and in their foundation facilities where it's really relaxed and gives men the space to open up. We funded that scheme and it had real success; the participation rates increased, and the success rates are phenomenal in terms of the improvement in mental health.

Now there's a Team Talk model at Rangers and a similar project at Middlesbrough called Think With Your Feet, which is another way of introducing conversations about mental health to people to kind of feel more comfortable to understand the symptoms.

Are those examples of how you see yourselves as part of the solution to the more negative side of gambling?

There is absolutely a role for us to play. In the debate around betting sponsorship there have been calls for a complete blackout of gambling operators in sport. I think, to be honest, that would kind of miss the point of what we're all trying to achieve.

We’ve seen some really encouraging signs from, for example, the use of safer gambling tools. If we're all able to advertise and we’re all able to sponsor, we can use that platform to put those tools on a pedestal. If it's done correctly, there's a role for responsible licensed operators here in the UK.

There’s a question worth asking on unlicensed operators and on those operators who use sport and use football as a billboard. If you're a brand that's advertising in the Premier League - on the front of the shirt - and you can't even get an account in the UK with your company, it's clearly just a marketing tool. What's the real benefit besides the financial benefit to the club? Is that something that we're all collectively happy with English football being used for?

Football is a key passion point. That’s something that we see in the future of partnerships between betting operators and sport: how we leverage that passion for good. It's probably testament to why, for example, we've got a long-standing deal with Rangers – we’re into our seventh or eighth season. We don't tend to do quick work; we like to maintain partnerships with clubs and organizations that we sponsor because we’re then able to build a proper relationship and do good work in the community over several years.

We’ve also seen that with the way alcohol is advertised in sports. A lot of the advertising now for Heineken will be Heineken Zero, Guinness will be Guinness 0.0%. There's a real effort across sectors to look at how you do your sponsorship in a more responsible way. In our mind, there's no difference for betting operators and we should all be looking and challenging ourselves to do better and that's why our model of sponsorship is so important.

The post Kindred Group’s Tom Banks on the future of gambling sponsorship in football appeared first on The Sponsor.

TikTok bring scale to anything they touch - that’s clear in the stratospheric numbers on their view counts. Through their continuing journey with Women’s Rugby, TikTok spur on a snowballing sense of progress in one of the fastest growing women’s sports.

Harley O’Dell is the Sports Marketing Lead EU for TikTok. We spoke by Tobacco Docks, at a launch event for the 2023 TikTok Women’s Six Nations. The first thing Harley was keen to stress was that “partners find success when they engage culturally, beyond sport." It follows, too, that partners embedded in culture find success when they connect with sport.

Diversity and Inclusion

This is the platform where “all fans play” and looking at the range of content sprouting on the platform, it’s difficult to argue against the unique engagement that TikTok fosters with sports fans. For all its enormity, Harley believes that this is a “grassroots platform for creators” – the platform doesn’t geoblock, nor does it, in relation to the Six Nations, favour one competing nation over another.

In support of this competition, which will see all 15 matches televised on the BBC for the first time, TikTok are placing diversity and inclusion at the centre of their campaign. It coincides with a special time in the sport: “The Women’s Six Nations has its own tournament window,” meaning that it takes place after, not concurrently with, the Men’s Six Nations. The hope, we agree, is that it is no longer seen as an appendage on the men’s game. TikTok’s partnership with the Women’s Six Nations is exceptionally considered here: how better to fuel a women’s game that now stands on its own than to offer players a chance to express their individuality online?

#SixNationsRugby Hub

To help develop a “soundbox of creativity,” the platform will take fans behind-the-scenes with its #SixNationsRugby Hub - the home of rugby content in-app that will spotlight ‘the best match highlights, training ground footage, fan reactions, creator content and more.’ By utilising their scale and content wingspan, this Hub offers entertainment to fans at any stage of rugby fandom. The resulting product will “help people move on a path” through rugby-related entertainment. What’s more, TikTok are partnering with fellow Six Nations sponsors, Sage Data & Analytics, to create informative content within this Hub. The proximal collaboration is a perfect example of how partnerships can innovatively mutate.

It’s just one way in which the company are looking to build on the success of the partnership in 2022. There, the French team caught fire on TikTok with a trend of showing their meal plans, offering a crystalline window into historically unseen parts of the game. Crucially, the content remained in the hands of players themselves. Harley and I spoke about how templated press conferences and interviews often fail to engage fans, much less inspire them: “authenticity is always number one with us.” With players able to genuinely connect, the game becomes both enlivened and more approachable.

Protection from negativity online

TikTok is “natively positive." Women’s rugby, likewise, is suffused with deep optimism and an eye on progress. Through this historic partnership, the game is riding TikTok’s wave of creativity while providing a vessel in which TikTok can promote its positive potentials. At a time when social media companies are scrutinised for their action or inaction to contend with the negative aspects of fan engagement, TikTok are “proactively protecting” athletes and fans with a Swipe Out Hate campaign. Each of the six Unions competing in the women’s and men’s Championships has fronted the project. Swipe Out Hate sees the platform collaborate with sports figures across the board, including Scottish referee Holly Davidson, with an expressed mission to eradicate hateful speech online. To elevate Swipe Out Hate even further, Union captains will front the campaign alongside TikTok creators for the first time, explaining what respect and sportsmanship means to them and sharing how people can report hateful content. The campaign will also appear on billboards around the stadiums, in print, and online. When I bring up Twitter and the cauldron of negativity often nourished by the company, Harley explains that “direct messages can only be sent by followers, which, in terms of proactively protecting players, is so important for us and for the athletes."

How has it worked?

In our conversation, we keep returning to ‘diversity and inclusion’ and the success of TikTok’s approach has palpably transferred to the raw data. Last year's Championships broke attendance records for women's matches with a 69% increase in stadium support, while ‘unprecedented TV audiences watched in 137 countries thanks to significantly ramped up broadcast coverage.’ In that same timeframe, there were more than 100 million video views on the @womenssixnations TikTok channel and 110,000 new followers.

This is a deeply impressive partnership, in which the two parties reciprocally elevate each other each step of the way.

The post TikTok’s Harley O’Dell on the Women’s Six Nations: “Partners find success when they engage culturally, beyond sport” appeared first on The Sponsor.

The Six Nations finale last Saturday saw Ireland secure the Grand Slam on St Patrick’s Day weekend – surely the dream advertisement for the event’s beloved title sponsor, Guinness. There were just four main sponsors of the Guinness Six Nations, each looking to use their product directly to enhance the sporting and viewing experience.  Below, we assess exactly how effectively these partnerships were leveraged to benefit both parties.

Guinness – Official Title Sponsor and Official Responsible Drinking Partner

As expected, Guinness, who signed a six-year deal to be title sponsor in 2019, had a huge visual presence at the Six Nations. Promoting their largest ever responsible drinking campaign, Guinness’ 0.0% alcohol drink logo featured on the pitch, corner flags, and the protection pads on the goalposts. Even beyond that visual branding, Guinness banked on their established position as an alcoholic beverage company, to attract a new audience of non-drinkers or those looking to reduce their alcohol intake.

The 0.0% drink was launched in large part as a response to the pandemic, where real fears grew of rising alcohol abuse. This commitment could be seen at the Six nations on some of their billboards around the pitch, which featured the phrase ‘not drinking?’ It may seem counterintuitive for a historically alcoholic brand to be leading potential drinkers away from its main export, but 0.0% has opened up the experience of watching Rugby at the pub or elsewhere to those excluded by rugby’s drinking culture.

After revealing a large increase in sales in Northern Ireland, Guinness-maker Diageo handed out 50,000 free pints of alcohol-free Guinness over St Patrick’s Day. They also rebranded the Common Market in Belfast by replacing the two o’s in ‘common’ with two zeros. Roughly 150 pubs were a pint of Guinness 0.0 via the AnyExcuse app across March 16-19.

Guinness supported over 15,000 outlets and by putting Guinness 0.0% at the heart of their Six Nations plans, they doubled down on their ‘Never Settle’ campaign - a Guinness-led inclusivity initiative aimed at making rugby a place where everyone can belong and participate. Past successes with ‘Never Settle’ include being named Ireland’s best loved sponsor after their tireless work to promote women’s rugby. From a public perception standpoint, it’s fantastic to see Guinness actively contending with prevailing issues around alcohol sponsorship, contending with growing awareness for the negative effects of alcohol, and crucially doing so with a campaign that has real life positive impacts.

They had a very apparent sense of timing and responsibility and their work with the Six Nations went slickly with their concurrent campaign called “Make it a St. Patrick’s Day to Remember”. As the title quite smartly suggests, it's about a different way of enjoying an event that typically involves a lot of alcohol. Considering recent calls for alcohol sponsorship bans within sport, Guinness did a very good, expansive job of suggesting a third option in which they use their position as an established alcohol brand to promote a new culture-wide relationship to alcohol that is based on enjoyment not dependence.

As part of their fan engagement, Guinness held four fanzones in London, Cardiff, Edinburgh, and Manchester. The function of these zones was to provide an atmosphere similar to that of a game so that people who missed out on expensive tickets can access that intense, involved experience. Alongside giant screens and an intense atmosphere, they featured guest appearances, game-themed menus, courses on how to pour the perfect pint, live entertainment, and quizzes. As Guinness say, “it’s the next best thing to being inside the stadiums themselves.”

One potential issue with fanzones is that they take possible custom away from the pubs which give Guinness so much business and the fans such a memorable experience. But as anyone who stepped outside on Saturday knows, there was no shortage of packed pubs for the Ireland vs England game; it would be fairer to say that these fanzones ensured everyone had a place to view the matches.

Guinness’ Six Nations sponsorship was dominated by their 0.0% product. While there were many impressive aspects of this front-and-centre approach, it’s extensive presence may have dwarfed other elements of the campaign. Nonetheless, the company’s genuine devotion to inclusivity was on full display and that will live long in the memory of viewers.

Overall: 7.5/10

TikTok – Official Fans of the Guinness Six Nations

TikTok will bring scale to whatever project they become involved in. After there were almost six billion views with the hashtag #SixNationsRugby in 2022, TikTok were looking to cement themselves as fan representatives of the event. Everything they did had both fans and players in mind, from promoting creators in each of the competing nations, to providing a platform for players to show another side of professional Rugby. In their words, they are a ‘soundbox of creativity’ for displaying all sides of the sporting experience.

@therugbyguyofficial A brilliant day out at Murrayfield with @Guinness Six Nations! 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿❤️🏉 #SixNations #SixNationsRugby #TheRugbyGuy #AwakenAnticipation #ScotlandRugby #Rugby ♬ original sound - The Rugby Guy

Developing from last year, TikTok set up a ‘search hub,’ which allowed users who engage with one Six Nations-related video, to then encounter videos like rule explanations or highlights. This created a journey-like experience for fans and no doubt satisfied a lot of keen interest, while also feeding pre-existing fans of the sport.

Fully utilising their content wingspan, TikTok Top Picks presented a selection of trending videos which “captured the spirit of the Six Nations” and included everything from crunching tackles to on-air commentary slip ups. It provided a platter of snackable content in a manageable load and was an entertaining source of highlights.

TikTok’s platform is uniquely suited to player protection at a time when social media companies are being scrutinised for their capacity to look after athletes. Beyond their ‘Swipe out Hate’ campaign with a number of elite athletes, DMs can only be sent by followers, further protecting players from the negative side of fan engagement. That, together with the fact that player users could depart from templated press conferences and actually express themselves, made TikTok a truly ideal match on both sides of the sport.

In their press releases, TikTok focused heavily on the fact that they will be title partners for the Women’s Six Nations (starting this Saturday). Although Guinness remained title sponsors for the Men’s Six Nations, TikTok brought their remarkable scale and engagement capabilities to the event in superbly dedicated fashion.

Overall: 8.5/10

Sage – Official Insights Partner

“At the convergence of sports and technology, you will find data and analytics.” This was the thinking behind Sage Data & Analytics sponsorship of the Guinness Six Nations, and their services were very effectively involved in this campaign.

Sage issued all participating teams, coaches, and players useful insights to improve performance and decision-making, deepening understanding of the game. At a level of performing that is so heavily dictated by marginal gains, this level of insight is crucial. While atomised performance details are not new to professional sports, Sage claims they are “fostering innovation.” Their presence, both visible and on the team’s drawing boards, seems to support this.

By employing smart ball technology, Sage were able to provide in-game stats like kick hang times and territorial gains, to fans, thus ensuring that their analytical capabilities were not just featured behind closed doors. This helped to make the overall viewing experience more impressive, delivering fascinating stats and data to new and more long-term.

This campaign follows a growing presence in sport for Sage and their smart ball technology, after they signed multi-year deals with Major League Baseball and The Hundred. During the Six Nations, they also collaborated with fellow sponsors to produce informative content - an example of how entering a sponsorship can provide mutative networking opportunities.

This was a palpably worthwhile and smart sponsorship that had real life effects. While it was not plastered across the event in the way that Guinness or TikTok was, Sage’s functional and impactful product was deeply involved in a meaningful way.

Overall: 8/10

Breitling – Official Timing Sponsor

The partnership with Breitling covers the Guinness Six Nations, Women’s Six Nations and Autumn Nations Series, as well as any Home Union warm up matches ahead of the Rugby World Cup 2023.

The luxury Swiss watchmaker selected ambassadors from each of the competing countries and presented them with a watch designed in their nation’s colours (these watches are available at £7,400.00). In terms of maintaining awareness as a luxury brand, this venture certainly vindicates that. Indeed, that may be all Breitling sought from this partnership.

Nevertheless, Breitling’s presence during the Six Nations was minimal. The company failed to seek avenues towards fan engagement with the same success of TikTok or Sage and this was the most glaringly obvious limitation of their campaign. The press releases too were sparse on activation details and used up potential space with overly enthusiastic soundbites that seemed almost deliberately vacuous.

Ultimately, this sponsorship did not capitalise on the position afforded to it by such a worldwide event, but it did maintain perceptions of Breitling as a high-calibre and illustrious watchmaker.

Overall: 6.5/10

To learn more about successful  sponsorship campaigns at other sporting and cultural events, please see our FIFA World Cup 2022, Rugby World Cup and Laver Cup reports.

The post Six Nations Sponsorship Report appeared first on The Sponsor.