I’m often surprised at how many sponsorship deals still seem to get done on a bit of a wing and a prayer.

Just the other day I was talking to someone who explained how a deal between brand and rights holder was agreed based on a chance meeting between the two owners at an event. I’ve also known global brands (who should know better) to get a bit giddy when a famous football club comes knocking at the door.

Of course, this is the way of the world, and sometimes it might work. Even if it doesn’t, if it was the owner or CEOs decision, someone will be told to make it look like it’s worked…

How about we have a strategy?

But the vast majority of the time, surely it’s better to take a more strategic approach to sponsorship decisions. This is, after all, a pretty big investment (not just of money, but time, focus and reputation) for any brand.

Taking the time upfront to develop a proper strategy and business case for sponsorship ensures that solid foundations are in place for deciding if sponsorship is actually the right approach, and for identifying properties (and activation strategies) that will help to achieve the objectives of the brand.

When I work with brands it’s usually at the point where they are thinking about sport as a marketing platform and want to approach it in the right way.

Or it’s when they’ve realised that they’ve ended up with a collection of sponsorship properties, but no cohesive strategy underpinning them. This tends to massively undermine the chances of those partnerships and activations cutting through, resonating with the audience and delivering a positive ROI.

Whichever stage they are at, I help these brands to go through a strategic process to determine a) is sport sponsorship the right platform in the first place and if so, b) how should we approach it?

1/ Define the strategic challenge

I start with a big step back to clearly identify (and get internal alignment on) the core business problem that sponsorship might be the answer to. This could be around raising brand awareness in new markets, launching a new product, repositioning a brand, defending market share, gaining access to key decision makers, enhancing employee engagement, or many other things.

Once there is clarity on that core challenge, we can also identify the specific business objectives that sponsorship can play a part in supporting.

2/ Audience insight

We need real clarity on the audience/s we would be looking to reach and influence through sponsorship.

Ideally, a combination of internal and external data can help us to get a deep understanding of our audience. What are their the current perceptions of the brand? How do they engage with sport? Which sports do they follow or take part in? What else do they do with their time? What are their overall attitudes, values, and beliefs?

3/ Brand alignment

It’s imperative for any sponsorship strategy to be aligned with the underlying foundations of the brand.

Understanding (and, if necessary, clarifying) the brand’s core values, purpose, personality, and positioning is a crucial step in ensuring the sponsorship strategy that is ultimately developed is designed to support and reinforce the brand’s existing (or desired) identity.

The importance of this alignment will vary, depending on the objectives (it’s less of a factor if the aim is purely mass brand awareness) but we definitely want to avoid any conflict between the brand and the properties we choose to partner with.

4/ Sponsorship proposition

This stage brings the previous elements together to develop a proposition that neatly articulates the job we want sponsorship to do for the brand, and the broad areas we want to operate in.

We’re not yet getting specific around individual properties that we might partner with, but it gives a good sense of what we are trying to achieve. Think of it as the internal positioning statement for sponsorship – it’s what you’d say if the CEO collared you and demanded to know why you were planning to get involved in sport.

As well as covering what the brand wants to get from sponsorship, this statement can also give a sense of how the audience (fans) or the sport itself could benefit from the brand’s involvement (again, depending on what the objective is).

5/ Strategic framework

This is where everything comes together into an actionable framework for why and how the business will approach sponsorship.

We now have clarity on the problem sponsorship is hoping to solve, a set of measurable objectives, a good understanding of our audience, alignment with the core brand, and a clearly articulated sponsorship proposition.

This framework is where we set out the types of sponsorship and types of property that could be a good fit, and outline a high-level approach to activation.

With this solid strategic foundation in place, we can then move on to the fun part of selecting the right properties to partner with, getting the deals done and developing activation strategies that will really resonate with your audience and move the needle for your brand.