Inside Sponsorship

Blockchain companies investing in sports sponsorship is projected to reach US$5 billion by 2026. Cryptocurrency, blockchain and NFT sports sponsorship investment is projected to increase by a massive 778 per cent compared to 2021. The next highest increase in sports sponsorship is 44 per cent for IT software and hardware. Retail, automotive, and energy sponsorship investment is expected to rise by seven per cent, five per cent, and four per cent, respectively.

Last year, the number of people in the world investing in crypto doubled to 100 million. Now, it’s estimated to be more than 220 million and many analysts expect that to double again next year.

It is an attractive space for rights holders as they look to shore up commercial programs to help recover from pandemic-driven losses in a category that barely existed a few years ago.

Of course, while awareness of blockchain companies is growing, sponsors are also focused on converting. That needs to be a key understanding for any rights holder looking to pitch a blockchain company.

However, while the space is overflowing with opportunity and possibility, rights holders do need to tread carefully. It is vitally important that they are not seduced and blinded by the money on offer at the expense of due diligence and properly vetting potential partners.

Eddie Fitzgibbon, Principal Consultant at Sports Rights Tech joins us to help understand and navigate the space. SRT is a specialist advisory business focusing on the intersection of technology, intellectual property and rights in sport and entertainment.

SRT have a unique understanding of the Web 3 and NFT space for sports and entertainment. Through their Web 3 and NFT Advisory Services, SRT are able to support rights holders and brands through a number of potential projects & use cases in this ever-evolving commercial opportunity.

You can connect with Eddie on LinkedIn and you can learn more about SRT at www.sportsrightstech.com

Enjoy.

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We hear so much about the importance of Data. That’s because it is important. It is often no longer acceptable to make gut decisions or use your intuition when comes to making business decisions and sponsorship is no different.

Whether you are on the rights holder side, brand side, or you work for an agency, data now plays an important role in reducing any risks and unknowns around sponsorships; whether that is using data to identify well-aligned partners, presenting sponsorship proposals, evaluating proposals, or tracking and ensuring partnerships that are in place.

There are, however, lots of organisations and platforms collating data and trying to bring it to life and make it useful. Sometimes, organisations even have silos of data which can present problems. Data, at times, can feel big, unwieldy, and hard to make sense of and work for you.

There are some that are doing it well and, as such, joining us for this episode is Christian Fizia, Sponsorship Insight and Operations Manager at Kindred Group.

During the last 25 years, Kindred has established significant market share in key regulated markets across the globe. Today, Kindred is one of the world’s leading online gambling operators with business across Europe, US, and Australia; servicing over 30 million customers across nine brands. They are over 1,600 people strong, representing 62 nationalities, located across offices in 12 locations.

As an innovative company that builds on trust, Kindred has led the development into areas such as tech, mobile solutions, new product launches, and sustainable gambling. As part of their journey, in 2020, they became the first global online gambling company to commit to zero revenue from harmful gambling by 2023.

Clearly, as a digital-only company, data plays an important role in Kindred's sponsorship evaluation and measurement.

You can learn more about Kindred Group at kindredgroup.com and you can connect with Christian on LinkedIn.

Enjoy.

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The world of sponsorship was already experiencing a lot of change, before COVID, but, as we are now fairly and squarely in the middle of living with COVID, the industry continues to change.

2022 has a real sense of optimism as we see people flocking to live sports events including the rise and rise of women’s sport where we recently saw a record set for the biggest crowd at a women’s football match when Barcelona hosted Real Madrid and 91,553 people attended. No game had more people in it all season – and that includes the men’s clásico.

Brands are also taking stock and, in some cases, pivoting or re-jogging their sponsorship approaches and portfolios, looking for new ideas and opportunities.

That’s why I thought it would be good to look at some of the trends that are happening in the sponsorship industry right now.

Paula Beadle is the Founder and CEO at Caravel Marketing. Paula is a sponsorship industry leader who has mastered the art and science of sponsorship over 30 years of experience in sponsorship, media, sports, major events, and entertainment.

Paula is also the founder of Sponsorship Mastery – an organization dedicated to improving individual and organizational sponsorship performance.

Paula also serves on the Board of Directors for the Red Cross, Seattle Sports Commission, Washington Fairs and Events Association (WFEA), and as a Mentor for Women in Sports and Entertainment (WISE). 

Paula presents to conferences on Navigating the Future of Sponsorship Marketing and she frames her presentation around research conducted. 

Enjoy.

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Esports is no longer a sector that we can look at and say, “Let’s just wait and see how it plays out”.

Reports from Newzoo and Juniper Research last year show that the global Esports audience grew to 474 million in 2021, with revenues from competitive gaming just shy of US$1.1 billion. The growth of Esport’s audience represents year-on-year growth of 8.7 percent.

To be classed as part of the 474 million Esports audience, you had to watch competitive gaming more than once a month. The audience is expected to continue to grow with a compound annual growth rate of 7.7 percent which will see it rise 577.2 million people in 2024. 

The US$1.1 billion in revenue is a 14.5 percent increase on the US$947.1 million from 2020. Of the 2021 US$1.1 billion revenue figure, US$833.6 million will come from media rights and sponsorship. That’s 76% of total revenue.

Significant seems the common thread here. Significant audience growth. Significant revenue growth. Media rights and sponsorship contributing a significant percentage to total revenue.

Brands are noticing and teams and players have realised their position or power.

Patrick Collins joins the show and takes us inside Esports sponsorship. Patrick has a long history in sport having worked on the agency and rights holders side and, most recently, as Head of Partnerships at Excel Esports.

Patrick has recently launched his own Esports agency; Leapfox. You can also connect with Patrick on LinkedIn

Enjoy.

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This episode is born from KORE Software’s 2019 free whitepaper, Storytelling in Sponsorship: The importance of storytelling in selling, reporting, and activating partnerships in sports and entertainment.

Storytelling drives our lives. A myriad of new OTT broadcasters, the rise in popularity of Instagram and Facebook Stories, TikTok and YouTube’s increasingly influential stars, and a multitude of news sources where the dilemma of credibility and authority are changing the ways information is shared, all impacting our everyday.

Stories are at the heart of this new world of information sharing. For what is the foreseeable future, they will continue to shape relationships, understanding, and behaviors.

In this episode, we want to shine a light on how both brands and rights holders can utilize storytelling to their advantage, across the whole lifecycle of their partnerships. In a world of instantaneous conversation and differentiation, expectations of audiences as well as clients have changed. In this episode, we look at the three most important aspects of the partner relationship; selling, activating, and reporting.

To help us explain best practice in storytelling, we’ve pulled together insights from around the world of sponsorship, with help from some of the biggest and most influential national and international brands and rights holders, including HSBC, the Golden State Warriors, and the British Olympic Association.

We explore how brands and rights holders can survive and thrive in this new, evolving world of storytelling. Today, it’s vital to understand how both can find that mutual area of understanding and value creation; what are the key differentiators of the relationship, where can value be added and importantly, how can storytelling help them to achieve this. Whilst branded content and sponsorship have always allowed brands to become a more intrinsic part of fan and audience engagement, as audiences become tech-savvy ad blockers, and the advertising and media landscape continues to shift, sponsorship will become an even more important vehicle in the years to come.

You can download a copy of the whitepaper here.

We also welcome Leo Baudino, Product Marketing & Communications Manager at KORE Software who joins us to discuss her latest blog, 4 Essential Steps to Selecting the Right Partnerships.

Enjoy

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It goes without saying that 2021 was a challenge but, as we know, the show must go on and that includes sponsorship. As such, despite the challenges of 2021, it was still a great year filled with lots of amazing chats with sponsorship professionals from all over the world.

Now, as always, we've wrapped up the year and re-visited the 11 episodes of Inside Sponsorship from 2021. You might have seen on social media that, for each show, we pull out a 30-45 second snippet and turn it into a video to help whet your appetite. As such, we’ve gone back and pulled the full question and answer, for that snippet, and created a best of 2021 show for you.

Enjoy.

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Josep Borrell, Head of Commercial Strategy takes us inside Valencia CF’s commercial program. Josep made the move to Valencia CF from the agency side where he spent two and a half years at Nielsen, in London, including roles as a Football Account Manager and a Commercial Insights Manager.

Playing in Spain’s La Liga, Valencia have a great footballing history and celebrated their centenary year in 2019 by winning the Copa del Rey, Spain’s annual knockout football competition. Not only does Valencia  CF have a great footballing history, They also have a real and deliberate connection with the Valencia region and that absolutely translates positively to Valencia’s commercial program.

Those efforts include the Valencia Innovation Hub and a business club they established during their centenary year that has seen other football clubs reaching out and connecting.

You can connect with Josep on LinkedIn and learn more about Valencia CF at valenciacf.com

Jordan Rutner, Research Marketing Manager at KORE Software, also joins us to discuss his latest blog which examines Quick Service Restaurant Partnerships in Sports.

Enjoy.

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Welcome to the third of three industry roundtables focusing on the future of sponsorship.

In each of the roundtables, we hear from multiple guests, from rights holders, brands, and agencies, about how they think the future of sponsorship is shaping up.

Each guest will share their views and opinions across the same six questions and, joining us in this episode, are:

• Stuart Ramsay, Head Of Brand Partnerships at the British Olympic Association
• Katherine Butterworth, Mastercard’s, Marketing Director, Consumer, Partnership & Sponsorship Marketing Australasia
• Michael Israel, Senior Account Director, Client Consulting + Services at GMR Marketing
• Mark Thompson, co-Founder at Sports Rights Tech
• Jordan Rutner, Research Manager at KORE Software

Enjoy. 

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Welcome to the second of three industry roundtables focusing on the future of sponsorship.

In each of the roundtables, we hear from multiple guests, from rights holders, brands, and agencies, about how they think the future of sponsorship is shaping up.

Each guest will share their views and opinions across the same six questions and, joining us in this episode, are:

• Misha Sher, Global Head of Sport, Entertainment & Culture at MediaCom
• Rajesh Menon, VP | Head & Director on the Board of Royal Challengers 
• Alice Larkworthy, Senior Partner Services Manager at Arsenal F.C.
• Scott Tilton, CEO at Hookit
• Gareth McCarthy, Sponsorships Manager at HCF Australia

Enjoy. 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Welcome to the first of three industry roundtables focusing on the future of sponsorship.

In each of the roundtables, we hear from six guests, from rights holders, brands, and agencies, about how they think the future of sponsorship is shaping up.

Each guest will share their views and opinions across the same six questions and, joining us in this episode, are:

• Joel Seymour-Hyde, Octagon Managing Director, UK; 
• Sophie Morris, who is not only the Strategic Marketing & Sponsorship Director of Millharbour Marketing, but also Board Director of the European Sponsorship Association and Advisory Board Member for the Institute of Sport Business at Loughborough University;
• Sven Gloor, Global Manager - Rugby Partnerships at HSBC;
• Josh Kritzler, Co-Founder at 4FRONT;
• Andrew Mikhail, Chief Commercial Officer at the Parramatta Eels National Rugby League Club; and
• Brendan Moynihan, Executive Vice President, Consulting and Sponsorship Activation at SPORTFIVE

Enjoy. 

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