Inside Sponsorship

A lot of us are old enough to remember when the broadcast landscape was dominated by TV, radio, and print. As we all know, however, the internet came along and the opportunities to engage with audiences exploded, and continues to grow, as digital provides innovative ways to take people’s offerings, products, rights, and sponsorships right around the world.

Some will remember reading stories and hearing opinions about the decline, the decay, the fragmentation, and the death of traditional media. While traditional media’s dominance has certainly diminished, it hasn’t died nor is it going away.
In fact, just like all good companies and organisations, traditional media has often adapted, and continues to do so. In a lot of cases, they’ve taken the “If you can’t beat them, join them” approach and moved into digital offerings themselves which gives them some advantages in integrating their offerings across many platforms.

A man who knows the space well is Patrick Moloughney, Network Director of Sport Sales at Seven West Media which is one of Australia’s leading integrated media companies, with a market-leading presence in broadcast television, magazine and newspaper publishing and online. 

The company is the home to many of Australia’s leading media businesses and the biggest content brands including My Kitchen Rules, House Rules, Home and Away, Sunrise, the Australian Football League, Cricket Australia, and the Olympic Games.

Pat joins us on the show to take us inside broadcast sponsorship. You can connect with Patrick on LinkedIn and find out more about Seven West Media on their website.

Also joining us on the show, to discuss his latest blog, is Sam Irvine, KORE Software’s Director for Customer Strategy and Success, Australasia. Sam’s latest blog provides us with his 5 biggest takeaways from the recent Business of Sport Summit (BOSS) in Sydney. 

Enjoy.

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The refrain, "If you don't know where you're going, any road will take you there." is essentially a paraphrase of an exchange between Alice and the Cheshire Cat in Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.

It is particularly apt in a sponsorship sense when, even today, we see so many sponsorships that seem bereft of objectives and goals. Those sponsorships are always set up for the comment “We just don’t feel like this sponsorship is working!”.

Feeling, however, shouldn’t come into it at all.

Most of us would be familiar with the name Peter Drucker, the man known as the father of modern management and one who wrote 39 business management books. Even in today’s vastly different business environment, he is still widely regarded as the greatest management thinker of all time.

One of his most famous quotes is, "If you can't measure it, you can't improve it."

Today, teams and budgets are under pressure to produce more, and better results, with less. So, it becomes pretty obvious why measurement is so important in a sponsorship. Yet many don’t do it well, or at all, over above the 'feeling' of how it is all going.

Our guest this episode, to take us inside best-practice sponsorship management, is Ian Davidson, Head of Events & Sponsorship at INNOCEAN Worldwide, a company that has worked with the likes of Heineken, KIA, Hyundai, and Samsonite.

You can connect with Ian on LinkedIn and find out more about INNOCEAN Worldwide at www.innocean.com.au

Also, on the show is Daniel Ferguson-Hill, KORE’s Commercial Manager – Australasia, who discusses his most recent blog which looks Where Should The Money Go; In The Sponsorship Deal Or In The Leverage?

Enjoy.

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There are a lot of people who will write blogs and rock up to conferences to talk about the future of sponsorship. While I tip my hat that they have the guts to get up and present, I don’t know about you, but I am often not left full of confidence and enthusiasm for a way forward.

As Senior Manager Global Rugby Strategy & Planning at HSBC, Sven Gloor is not like that at all.

Passion and enthusiasm are words used too readily these days, however, they are apt for describing Sven. He believes that sponsorship is undergoing huge change and is becoming more and more important for brands in order to solve specific and real business problems.

In this episode, he joins us to take stock of the sponsorship industry and share his views and insights on where it is all heading and what you need to do to prepare and position yourself for success.

Also, on the show is Mark Thompson, KORE’s Head of International Business, who discusses his most recent blog which looks at the increasing importance of Business Intelligence in sports and entertainment.

Enjoy.

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Every time you discuss Asia, and the opportunities it presents, it is hard not to get overwhelmed by the numbers involved. They are truly staggering and just continue to grow.

There’s no doubt that Asia has been growing in terms of sport and, with that, sponsorship as well. It would seem that lately, However, that there is a continued trend towards major events being hosted in Asia. Further, we are starting to see more Asian brands sponsoring large events, outside of their home markets, such as China’s 1573 sponsoring the Australian Open and China’s Mengniu Dairy sponsoring the FIFA World Cup.

Joining us to discuss sponsorship in Asia is Adam Hodge, Head of Planning & Strategy [APAC] at Octagon.

Also joining us on the show is Daniel Ferguson-Hill, SponServe’s Commercial Manager for Australasia, who has taken a look and blogged about the five trends in sponsorship that we’re are not talking about.

Enjoy.

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There is no doubt that sports teams now have a huge reach, with fans all over the globe, following their teams passionately through apps, OTT streaming, and social channels. The norm is for teams to be bound to their home country while traveling domestically for away fixtures.

There are some sports teams, however, that travel the globe competing and that includes cycling. While some teams may yearn for the ability to take their sport across the world, and engage with non-domestic markets, it does come with its own unique set of challenges.

In this episode, Kolja Koracak, Brand Director, takes us inside sponsorship at Bahrain Merida Pro Cycling Team. One awesome thing that Kolja mentions is the 360 video the team put together.

You can connect with Kolja on LinkedIn and find out more about Bahrain Merida Pro Cycling Team on their official website.

Before we hear from Kolja, Daniel Ferguson-Hill, SponServe’s Commercial Manager for Australasia, joins us to discuss the changing face of sponsorship deals and what the next generation looks like.

Enjoy.

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The rise of social media influencers, in recent times, has meant that some have been able to create full-time jobs around their influence and followers. They certainly have some power.

Simply put, influencer marketing is the process of identifying, researching, engaging, and supporting the creators of highly engaging and impactful content and conversations around your brand, services, or products.

The value of influence over potential and current customers, however, isn’t exactly a new concept in marketing. With the rise of digital marketing, and social media in particular, information travels far and wide and can do so quickly, especially when facilitated by influencers. That is because they have large followings where they already have trust and influence and they can use that to shape engagement and sentiment towards loving or shunning a brand.

It all sounds very rosy but it isn’t always smooth sailing. The industry is rife with influencer fraud.

Influencer marketing is home to one of the biggest, most elaborate, and wide-spread scams in the history of marketing. If you’ve worked with influencers this year, chances are you’ve been part of this scam and it has cost you money.

Watch this video to see the full extent of it.

In this episode, Oliver Yonchev, Managing Director, USA at Social Chain joins us to discuss influencer marketing and provides some outstanding and practical advice and insights. If you like to connect with Oliver, you can do so on LinkedIn, and you can find out more about Social Chain on their website.

Before we hear from Oliver, Sam Irvine, Director - Customer Strategy & Success, Australasia at SponServe, joins us to discuss his latest blog which looks at how to handle a sponsorship break-up. Here’s Sam.

Also joining us on the show is SponServe’s Director - Customer Strategy & Success, Australasia, Sam Irvine, to discuss his latest blog, How To Handle A Sponsorship Break-Up.

Enjoy.

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Sponsorship is clearly important to the banking industry with some of the world’s biggest and longest standing sponsorships involving banks.

In Australia, banks have been a staple for many sports teams, events, and community groups. That includes Westpac Group’s brands including Westpac itself, St. George, Bank of Melbourne, BankSA, and RAMS. 

Westpac Group’s portfolio of sponsorships is varied and includes the iconic Westpac Lifesaver Rescue Helicopter Service, City2Surf, Invictus Games, St.George Bank Dragons, St.George Queensland Reds, the world-famous Melbourne Cricket Ground, and the Melbourne Food and Wine Festival.

Our guest this episode is Pat Cunningham who is the Head of Sponsorship & Events at Westpac Group. Pat’s sponsorship roles have been at some of the world’s most recognisable brands including Vodafone and TUI.

Also joining us on the show is SponServe’s Commercial Manager for Australia and New Zealand, Daniel Ferguson, to discuss his latest blog which dissects the key points around sponsorship from PWC’s 2018 Sport Survey.

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Sponsorship, these days, is a well-worn path. Rights holder’s commercial programs are well established and there is lots of great advice and best-practice to follow. While fundraising is a long-established discipline for many charities, more and more sports rights holders have been activating fundraising initiatives to impact positive change in their communities or help fund special projects such as high-performance centres.

Fundraising, in sport, however, is still on a learning curve.

Patrick Walker is the CEO of the Australian Sports Foundation. The ASF’s mission is to help Australians fundraise to achieve their sporting dreams. Patrick has a strong finance background, strong leadership, and strategic skills gained in senior executive, CEO and board roles both in Australia and internationally. Patrick joins us on the show to discuss fundraising in sport and share his wealth of knowledge, insights, and advice.

You’ll also hear from Mark Thompson, SponServe’s Managing Director, who joins us to discuss his latest blog, The Common Philosophies Which Align Sponsorship and Fundraising for Sport.

Enjoy.

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There is loads of great advice on how to do sponsorship right. However, with all the advice, steps, guides, hints, and tips available, it isn’t an exact science and it is a challenge in the application.

Plus, we are all human and we make mistakes. In fact, Chris Baylis, from the Sponsorship Collective, thinks a lot of you are sinners!

That’s because we recently saw a great piece of content that Chris had produced called The Seven Deadly Sins of Sponsorship. Not only was it a great blog but an awesome and handy infographic as well.

So, we asked Chris if he’d join us on the show and run us through The Seven Deadly Sins of Sponsorship.

You’ll also hear from Daniel Ferguson-Hill, SponServe’s Commercial Manager for Australia and New Zealand. Daniel outlines the four main things that he thinks brands, who are renewing or negotiating new sports-based sponsorships, should consider to help ensure success.

Enjoy

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Music and entertainment sponsorship isn’t an area of sponsorship that lives in the limelight. That is ironic considering the artists involved do exactly that day-to-day; live in the limelight.

We know that so much about sponsorship is a brand partnering with a rights holder to access an audience that they would otherwise find difficult to access.

It’s clear that music artists have huge audiences and highly engaged ones at that.

Universal Music Group is the world’s leading music company. Universal own and operate a broad array of businesses engaged in not just recorded music, but also music publishing, merchandising, and audio-visual content in more than 60 countries.

Combine that with the huge and engaged social media followings, and music certainly looks attractive to sponsors. As such, in this episode we go inside sponsorship at Universal Music Group and hear from Roddy Campbell, Managing Director, New Business.

You can learn more about Universal Music group at www.universalmusic.com and you can connect with Roddy Campbell on LinkedIn.

Also joining us on the show is our MD, Mark Thompson who recently read a report, by the Association of National Advertisers and the Marketing Accountability Standards Board, titled Improving Sponsorship Accountability Metrics. Mark’s summation of the report? While there are lots of great insights in the report, Mark’s take away was that sponsorship professionals should be focusing on measurement accountability.

Enjoy.

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