Today’s conversation is a masterclass in sports sponsorship strategy prompted by recent changes to the way FIFA is packaging its commercial rights.

Our guests are two people whose views I go to first whenever a major deal is done, so I’m very pleased to be able to get them around the microphone at the same time.

For two decades, Ricardo Fort was in charge of the global sports programmes for Visa and Coca-Cola, overseeing relationships with FIFA and the IOC among many others. He now runs his own consultancy Sport by Fort. 

Shaun Whatling is CEO of Redmandarin, the renowned sponsorship strategy consultancy which has advised many major global brands in and around the top table of sport, again including World Cups and Olympics.

So this is a deep dive in to the incentives, behaviour and psychology that sits just behind the decision making process at big corporate marketing departments, and the lens that is applied to sports rights and activation. 

As usual, every episode of Unofficial Partner can be found by using the big podcast providers, including Apple, Spotify, Google Podcasts or via your favourite podcast app. 

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And if you’re interested in more sports business comment and analysis, you can follow me on Twitter @UnffclPrtnr 

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