How we buy and sell sponsorship is changing and we’ve been talking about it for a while now.

What we’ve haven’t spent a lot of time on is what the financial aspect of these deals will start to look like. As an industry, we’ve come to automatically accept a traditional way of financial modelling around sponsorship deals where a brand pays a fixed fee and the rights holder gives them access to a suite of benefits. If it’s a top-tier sporting team, event, or attraction, then it is highly likely there is a standardised bonus scheme for the rights holder if certain milestones are reached.

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Like many around the world, when I started to see PwC’s 2018 Sports Survey across my LinkedIn feed, I followed the prompts and downloaded it to take a look. In its third edition, PwC’s Sports Survey collected the views of 470 sport industry leaders on a wide variety of trends that are prevalent in today’s market.

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I am a life-long sports administrator; having worked in sports marketing and sponsorship for more than 20 years. The skills I have developed through that period are sometimes unique to sport and sometimes applicable across all aspects of life.

About six years ago, I decided to deviate from my sports industry path and spend time working in a charity. My role was with was St Vincent de Paul; a large homeless charity in Australia where I took on the role of Director of Marketing and Fundraising. (more…)

It’s June/July 2018 and the world is going Football (Soccer for some of my Australian counterparts) mad about the FIFA World Cup in Russia. There has been a heap written and said about how different this world cup will be for commercial partners given the limited ability to capitalise on a ‘commercial culture’ like Russia’s. This is where I have been blown away with some of the activation, content, and advertising executed by Budweiser (an official FIFA partner). I think can all take something out of their innovative approach. (more…)

Just recently, and boasting 45 million players of the game, Epic Games announced that it will provide $100 million in prize pool money for Fortnite competitions in the first year of competitive gaming. Plus, the IOC will shortly be holding a summit, to better understand esports, which could be a precursor to inclusion in future Olympic games. (more…)

Charity partnerships used to be symbolised by a special game-day or event where your chosen partner was permitted to walk around with some donation buckets or raffle tickets to sell and spruik their fantastic work.

Not anymore!  (more…)

Trend number 5 in Nielsen Sports’ Commercial Trends in Sport 2017, is live sport gaining traction on OTT and social media. One man who has been on the OTT trail, from the early days, and even by his own admission, maybe a little too early, is Chris Wagner EVP and co-founder of NeuLion. (more…)

Pat Gallagher boasts a career in sports that spans more than 40 years and takes us inside Super Bowl 50 and the San Francisco Giants. (more…)

The emergence of OTT platforms and the entry of social media streaming for live sport is an exciting technological evolution for sporting teams, governing bodies, fans, spectators and most importantly for me … because it impacts sponsorship! (more…)

Summit, Conference, Convention … whatever label we give them, these types of events can provide us with a really rewarding experience. Last week, I was lucky enough to attend the Sponsorship Summit – New Zealand, in Auckland. As I boarded the plane back home to Australia, I pondered the big-ticket items I took away from this year’s event. (more…)