Influencers of Sponsorship Marketing - a Roth Revenue Podcast

Gavin Roth here with another episode of the Influencers of Sponsorship Marketing, sponsored by The Programme, your guide to finding and watching women's sports online and on television. Subscribe to the weekly newsletter at https://theprogramme.substack.com/

Adam Mitchell is the kind of person who swings into action when he isn’t happy about something. He resented the fact that over $100b was spent on sponsorship globally without a reliable common currency.

That’s what inspired him and his colleagues to start SponsorPulse.

Adam’s journey included stops at Labatt, Kraft the CBC – all preparing him for the role he’s in today as CEO of a leading consumer insights firm

Accordingly, this episode is loaded with insights and perspectives:

The importance of blending gut instincts with supporting data and insights.

How consumer data - determining what consumers care about - is the great equalizer.

How data supports the strength of the national women’s soccer team.

A unique view on how to structure long-term partnership deals.

How properties are adopting a deeper commitment to insights-driven selling.

The risk of value banks.

And, how cause properties deliver exceptional brand impact and ROI to their partners.

Adam shares trends that are catching his eye and great professional development advice around personal values. And the perils of spending too much time on LinkedIn.

You’ll leave informed and inspired. I hope you enjoy!

And for more episodes of the Influencers of Sponsorship Marketing, follow me on LinkedIn, visit Apple Podcasts, Spotify, SoundCloud… or check out rothrevenue.com

Gavin Roth here with another episode of the Influencers of Sponsorship Marketing, sponsored by The Programme, your guide to finding and watching women's sports online and on television. Subscribe to the weekly newsletter at https://theprogramme.substack.com/

If you want to get Brent Barootes going, ask his opinion on Toronto being the quote unquote centre of the universe. And ask him to talk sponsorship marketing.

Brent is an author, a sought-after speaker and one of the top sponsorship thought leaders in the country. We’ve been threatening to do an episode together for while and the stars finally aligned.

We discuss his cross-country career journey – including stints in the hospitality sector, salmon farms, nightclubs and radio stations.

We focus on his time selling sponsorships on the Calgary Flames radio broadcasts, where he helped charities and other groups promote their brands. During that time, Brent noticed a gap in the market and started the Partnership Group.

Brent mentions the people that inspired him along the way – including a cool story about one early adversary who became a mentor and friend.

Insights into some of the partnerships Brent has been involved, with a focus on municipality naming rights success stories in small towns like Summerside, PEI, and Morinville, Alberta.

Brent shines a light on the new Jumpstart partnership with Clareview Rec Centre in Edmonton.

He then shares insights into sponsorship marketing trends – including:

The rise of purpose-driven partnerships, the way brands and properties band together in times of economic uncertainty, the intersection between technology and data, and an example of how data and technology can be applied to help charities like Crohn’s & Colitis and the MS Society fundraise and target partners.

We wrap with awesome professional development advice. And his answer started with a question… a deep, philosophical question.

You’ll leave informed and inspired. I hope you enjoy.

And for more episodes of the Influencers of Sponsorship Marketing, follow me on LinkedIn, visit Apple Podcasts, Spotify, SoundCloud… or check out rothrevenue.com

Gavin Roth here with another episode of the Influencers of Sponsorship Marketing (https://rothrevenue.com/), sponsored by The Programme, your guide to finding and watching women's sports online and on television. Subscribe to the weekly newsletter at https://theprogramme.substack.com/.

As we celebrate International Women’s Day on March 8th, it’s hard to think of a more appropriate guest than Nathalie Cook – a leader in the sports marketing space and a driving force in the movement for gender equality and investment in women’s sports.

What a career… with stops at IMG, the Special Olympics, the 2010 and 2012 Olympic Media Consortium, Bell Media – where she became the first female VP and TSN - President at Cimoroni & Co., Chair of Canadian Women & Sport. She even has an award named after her - The Nathalie Cook Canadian Women & Sport Disruptor Award. I’m proud to call her a friend and former colleague and it was great to chat with her.

We discussed her career journey; the people who inspired her along the way – very telling answer to this question.

She gives insights into some of the sport partnerships she has been involved with.

We dive into the work Nathalie is doing with Canadian Women & Sport | Femmes et sport au Canada and Project 8 Sports Inc. around investing in women’s sports and the development of Canada’s first professional soccer league.

Nathalie then shines a light on other female leaders in sports and business. What a cool list of names. Many the next gen of leaders in this country.

And we wrap with awesome professional development advice – so succinctly summed up in one word… I’ll let you listen to find out what that word is.

You’ll leave inspired. I hope you enjoy!

And for more episodes of the Influencers of Sponsorship Marketing, follow me on LinkedIn, visit Apple Podcasts, Spotify, SoundCloud… or check out rothrevenue.com

Gavin Roth here with another episode of the Influencers of Sponsorship Marketing, sponsored by The Programme, your guide to finding and watching women's sports online and on television. Subscribe to the weekly newsletter at https://theprogramme.substack.com

Canadian Tennis is having a moment. It’s actually been having a moment for the better part of the past decade. So, I tracked down the man tasked with stewarding the development and growth of the sport – Michael Downey.

Michael’s resume is beyond impressive, with stops at Labatt, MLSE, Molson, the Lawn Tennis Association in Britain and Tennis Canada – where he is serving his second stint as president & CEO.

We discussed Michael’s career journey, the people that made an impact on him along the way and his proudest accomplishments. By the way…I loved the way he answered that last part.

We also discussed his move to England between stints at Tennis Canada, what he learned, how he changed vs his first term at Tennis Canada and some cool insights into Wimbledon – one of the truly iconic global events.

Michael shared insights into the partnerships Tennis Canada has with the likes of National Bank, Rogers and Sobey’s and how they are working together to leave a legacy in communities and grow the sport of tennis.

And we wrap with some wonderful professional development advice.

As a life-long fan of the sport, it was a personal treat to chat with this dynamic and accomplished leader. I hope you enjoy!

And for more episodes of the Influencers of Sponsorship Marketing, follow me on LinkedIn, visit Apple Podcasts, Spotify, SoundCloud… or check out https://rothrevenue.com

Gavin Roth here with another episode of the Influencers of Sponsorship Marketing, sponsored by Elevent, makers of sponsorship software that track, evaluate and manage all requests for partnerships. Learn more at Elevent.co

Keith Pelley is inarguably one of the most accomplished sports media and sports marketing executives in the world. Appropriate given his role as CEO of the DP World Tour (formerly the European Tour and headquartered in the UK) takes Keith across the globe as he stewards the 2nd largest professional golf tour on the planet.

Impressive doesn’t begin the describe his career journey – with stints as president of TSN, the Toronto Argonauts, Canada’s Olympic Broadcast Media Consortium, Rogers Media, and now the DP World Tour.

I’ve had the pleasure of working with him - and for him - on a few occasions and can say without hesitation that he possesses an unrivalled work ethic and passion for whatever he does.

For this episode, I caught Keith at his home outside London, England to discuss his career journey, his current mandate at the DP World Tour and some of his many career accomplishments – i.e. Taking the former European Tour to new commercial heights through partnerships with DP World and Rolex… creating Friday Night Football at TSN… taking on the monumental task of producing and commercializing the coverage of the 2010 Olympics, and more.

A few fun stories sprinkled in as well. It was a fun, inspiring and insightful chat. I hope you enjoy!

And for more episodes of the Influencers of Sponsorship Marketing, follow me on LinkedIn, visit Apple Podcasts, Spotify, SoundCloud… or check out https://rothrevenue.com

Gavin Roth here with another episode of the Influencers of Sponsorship Marketing, sponsored by Elevent, makers of sponsorship software that track, evaluate and manage all requests for partnerships. Learn more at Elevent.co

Bobby Sahni is a champion of diversity and growth. And while that could sound lofty, he has the credentials to back it up.

Bobby is a leading Canadian authority on ethnic marketing. Together with partner Howard Lichtman, he founded Ethnicity Matters in 2013 – a multicultural marketing agency dedicated to helping companies drive growth by catering to the unique preferences of multicultural communities across Canada.

Prior to launching Ethnicity Matters, Bobby was instrumental in spearheading multicultural marketing initiatives, thought-leadership and successes at Rogers, ICICI Bank and the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation, Canada Post and Star Media Group.

He is also a sought-after speaker who guest-lectures at Canadian universities and delivers keynote addresses across North America.

We cover a lot of ground in this episode:

- Bobby shares his career journey.

- His views on the changing demographic profile of Canada and how brands should approach multicultural marketing.

- Some of the work Ethnicity Matters is doing to help sports and entertainment properties attract new audiences.

- The personal mission Bobby is on to promote inclusivity in hockey as a passionate hockey fan and a newly appointed Hockey Canada board member.

- And as always, a couple rabbit holes like toilet paper and Michael Jordan – separate stories.

It was a fun, inspiring and insightful chat. I hope you enjoy!

And for more episodes of the Influencers of Sponsorship Marketing, follow me on LinkedIn, visit Apple Podcasts, Spotify, SoundCloud… or check out https://rothrevenue.com

Nic Sulsky is not short on passion, enthusiasm, and opinion. He also knows the iGaming space as well as anyone… anywhere. Combine those two and you can see why PointsBet – an Australian-owned sportsbook operator – tapped Nic to lead their sales and marketing efforts in Canada.

You see, PointsBet entered the Ontario sportsbook waters at a disadvantage to their rivals when the government opened the coveted Ontario market to licensed and regulated operators on April 4 of this year. Their pockets weren’t as deep, and they didn’t have an existing database to convert to paying bettors. So Nic and his team had to be crafty. A couple pillars they leaned on heavily were sponsorships and influencer marketing, quickly snapping up deals with Curling Canada, Alpine Canada, the Trailer Park Boys, NHL Alumni Association and – most recently – MLSE. All part of Nic’s strategy to build a brand wrapped in the Canadian flag.

In our chat, Nic shares that strategy and his views on the Ontario sports betting market. We also stepped back and revisited his time as president of the popular disruptor daily fantasy brand, Monkey Knife Fight (any Simpsons fans out there?). A brand that in less than 3 years got purchased by Bally’s for $90 million.

The sports betting business in Canada has never been hotter and Nic is the perfect guest to discuss it with. Some terrific insights, fun stories… and even an explanation of how one can be both a Habs fan and a Leafs fan at the same time.

I hope you enjoy!

And for more episodes of the Influencers of Sponsorship Marketing, follow me on LinkedIn, visit Apple Podcasts, Spotify, SoundCloud… or check out rothrevenue.com.

Jacquie Ryan was destined to end up in her current role as Chief Brand & Commercial Officer of the Canadian Olympic Committee.

From growing up in an Olympic family to working as a ski instructor to an internship at a top sports marketing agency, to leading the Olympic portfolio at RBC, and reshaping the philanthropy and sponsorship portfolio at Scotiabank. Yes, Jacquie landed in the perfect role.

We discuss that journey, some of the more noteworthy sponsorship initiatives she has worked on – think Olympic Torch Relay and Scotiabank/MLSE – her mentors and views on leadership.

We also discuss how that leadership was put to the test over these past 2 years and how the COC emerged in great shape.

And we wrap with a look ahead to Beijing 2022 and some terrific professional development advice.

I’ve wanted to have Jacquie on the show since I started my podcast and it was worth the wait. A wonderful chat with an inspiring leader.

I hope you enjoy!

And for more episodes of the Influencers of Sponsorship Marketing, follow me on LinkedIn, visit Apple Podcasts, Spotify, SoundCloud, YouTube… or check out https://rothrevenue.com

I’m back from a summer hiatus and thrilled to welcome Pat O’Brien onto the show.

You may know Pat from the trademark cowboy hat he proudly wears to industry events. He’s a great guy who embodies the spirit of the property he has worked at for the past 16 years – the iconic Calgary Stampede.

We discuss how Pat landed the role as Manager of Sponsorship at the Stampede and who inspired and supported him along the way.

We cover how the Stampede plays a crucial role in the Calgary community and how they aligned with their sponsors to lift the spirits of the community during the heart of the pandemic in 2020.

Pat shares some of their proudest accomplishments over the challenging last 18 months and how they enthusiastically welcomed fans back this past summer.

Some great insights and inspiring stories. I hope you enjoy!

And for more episodes of the Influencers of Sponsorship Marketing, follow me on LinkedIn, visit Apple Podcasts, Spotify, SoundCloud, YouTube… or check out https://rothrevenue.com

In this episode I catch up with Nicolas Marullo, CEO of Cinco.

For 19 years, Nick and his team at Cinco have been at the forefront of experiential marketing. So it came as no surprise to me when I learned of his virtual experiential marketing platform called xSpace.

Nick gives the lowdown on how xSpace came to be…why it is so relevant in today’s sponsorship marketing space…and how it is being used by brands and properties.

Nick shares insights from the work he has done in Asia, and reveals the trends catching his curious eye.

You'll also learn about Nick’s career journey, his mentors, and the evolution of Cinco.

I hope you enjoy!

And for more episodes of the Influencers of Sponsorship Marketing, follow me on LinkedIn, visit Apple Podcasts, Spotify, SoundCloud, YouTube… or check out https://rothrevenue.com