Category: Uncategorized
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Thinking about sponsorship? Start here…
It’s very much planning season for a lot of companies out there, and that means some of you will be thinking about adding sports sponsorship to the marketing mix, possibly for the first time. Sport can be an incredibly powerful platform, helping brands to achieve many different things from simple awareness through to deep engagement…
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The power of a long-term sponsorship
There’s a lot to be said for consistency in sports sponsorship. BMW has sponsored the PGA Championship for 22 years running. Aside from The Open, this is the premier tournament in European golf and BMW is incredibly embedded within it, creating a real “festival of golf” feeling around the event. It’s one of those rare…
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Starbucks has nothing Toulouse?
Starbucks has made its first foray into football sponsorship, in a partnership with Toulouse FC. This strategy is all about reinforcing Starbuck’s new(ish) positioning around connection. When the new CEO joined two years ago, he found a brand that had lost its focus, wanting to stand for too many things. He quickly moved to simplify…
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Adding real value to an audience
In my 30 year career I can’t think of too many times when a brand has been given a round of applause by the fans or participants of the property it is sponsoring. But that is what we are starting to hear around Specsavers and its partnership with parkrun, which I have been working on…
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How important is brand alignment in sponsorship?
When brands are building a sponsorship strategy and considering which sports properties to partner with, there are many factors in the mix: audience fit, reach, visibility, activation potential, exclusivity, availability, budget. The list is quite long. I think one of the most under-appreciated factors is brand alignment. And by that I mean, do the core…
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The storytelling appeal of sport in B2B
Chelsea FC finally have a front of shirt sponsor in the form of IFS, at least until the end of this season. I’ll admit I’d never heard of IFS (so the sponsorship has already achieved something) but they “provide industrial AI and software for businesses that manufacture, service, and manage complex assets” in industries like…
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Sponsors are getting more (big) air time at the Olympics
I’ve been loving the Winter Olympics for the last couple of weeks. Joyous to see the bravery and skill of all these athletes, and the sheer fun they seem to be having in the process. I’ve also spotted some fairly visible sponsor branding, which until very recently was a complete no-go at the Games. It’s…
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What are we *really* trying to do?
“What are we *really* trying to do?” The most important question in the formulation of any brand’s sponsorship strategy. This comes well before thinking about audience insight, brand alignment, potential properties, activation and measurement. Even before thinking about specific objectives, we need to be clear on the primary business challenge that we want sponsorship to…
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Who watches the Winter Olympics?
The 2026 Winter Olympics starts in just a few days. It’s an event I really enjoy – a rare reason to watch sports that don’t usually cross my radar. The likes of snowboarding, ski-jumping, ice hockey, speed skating and, yes, curling. It’s always fun, but (and maybe this is a bit of UK bias) I’m…
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Why sport will thrive in a world of AI slop
I’ve been spending more time on Substack lately and Joe Pompliano shared a piece the other day which I thought was really interesting. Basically it was an investment thesis from Ari Emanuel that goes something like this: as AI makes it easier and cheaper to create ‘content’, sport (especially live sport) will become more valuable.…
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Making sense of multiple sponsorships
In a big brand, especially a global one, sponsorships often take on a life of their own. If decision-making is devolved to individual markets or regions, people will make their own decisions on what to sponsor and how to bring that to life, based on the specific needs and nuances of their market. Nothing wrong…
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Don’t be reactive
Many years ago when I was running a PR agency, we had a global drinks client; one with multiple household name brands in its portfolio. One day they asked if we could help them to launch and activate a new sponsorship for one of their brands, with a very famous Premier League football club. Great.…
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When is a fan not a fan?
In sport and sponsorship we often talk about ‘fans’. But this term can be lazily used to encompass everyone from the die-hard loyalist going to every single match, through to a very casual follower who may never actually attend in person. For a sponsor, it’s important to understand that not all ‘fans’ are the same.…
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Is image transfer in sponsorship a real thing?
I watch quite a lot of golf on Sky Sports. My wife would probably say that ‘quite’ is doing a fair bit of heavy lifting there, but anyway it’s for work, innit? Rolex is pretty heavily involved in golf, and has been for a long time. And despite (or maybe because of…) the incredibly pompous…
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Drinks brand preferences of US Open fans
With the US Open Tennis underway (sort of) I decided to take a look at some of the brand preferences of fans of the tournament, focusing on what they drink. The data comes from GWI, and is a global audience of people who watch the US Open live, either on TV or streaming. Fairly engaged…