Blogs

After listening to this week’s ESA webinar on leadership in lockdown, I started thinking about how our new normal provides an opportunity for everyone to be a leader and specifically a thought leader. In the entertainment industry we’ve pressed pause for good reason on in-real-life live activity, but which button are we going to hit next? Play or fast forward? Albeit against our will, we’ve found ourselves in a moment where all bets are off and rebuilding should be an adventure not a ... read more

Now, I’m not saying I’m a control freak. After all, the process of labelling people is reductive, limiting fascinating, complex people with stereotypes. That said, if I were, even on the odd occasion, to show any tendencies that might be associated with a stereotypical control freak, then I might be in a good position to sympathise with anyone who’s confounded by a COVID-19 world where daily choices we used to take for granted are no longer ours to make. Reverse psychology is a killer. Have ... read more

While COVID-19 has caused the day-to-day operations of sport and entertainment organisations to change drastically, it has also revealed the true strength of Europe’s sponsorship industry. Faced with a global crisis, many ESA members have responded to adversity with inspiring, diverse and creative approaches - from individuals such as ESA Board Director Matthew Leopold, who is volunteering as duty tactical commander at the new NHS Nightingale Hospital, to multiple organisations pivoting ... read more

It's a strange time trying to prospect but the harsh reality for businesses is that the show must go on – at least in trying to start or keep conversations going for when 'normality' returns. It’s important to keep the wheels turning… As I stated up front in my column last week that introduced our new Covid-19 resilient brands report (available to rights holders completely free), prospecting for sponsorship feels a little bit odd right now; inappropriate even. Brands are ... read more

Last week’s #ESAwebinar was on Partnerships with Purpose and it got me thinking: how is purpose - personal, professional and corporate – changing in the age of COVID-19? I decided that I don’t think it is. How we bring our purpose to life to resonate with the world around us might be changing, but why we act shouldn’t be changing, not if we had a true and timeless purpose to begin with. I quote Simon Sinek with regular monotony (even in this blog), but much as I believe his Start with Why is ... read more

Misha Sher, Global Vice-President at MediaCom Sport & Entertainment, discusses how brands can handle the turbulence upending the 2020 sports calendar It’s safe to say that the sports marketing industry is living through unprecedented times. Never before has sport come to a complete halt across the world (with a few minor exceptions like Belarus), depriving billions of people of a much-loved emotional outlet and daily passion point. Brands, which were predicted to spend £37.5 ... read more

What’s your name and position within the organisation? Olivia Collier, I am head of the GB office at creative agency, Verve. Give us a brief overview of Verve as a company and your approach to sponsorship and partnerships specifically? Verve houses a multi-disciplinary team of creatives, storytellers, techies and thinkers – as well as the producers, makers and doers who bring the ideas to life. With offices in London, Dublin and Amsterdam, Verve has been partnering with clients for ... read more

My favourite creativity ‘model’ is Walt Disney’s Three Chairs. I say it’s my favourite because it’s directive enough to be useful but leaves plenty of room for flexibility, because it sits well in my head, and lastly because if you’ve ever worked with me you’ll know I can find a way to work it into pretty much any conversation. Simply put, it takes the process of creative innovation, or ‘imagineering’ as Disney would call it, and proposes that mastery comes when three different, ... read more

Last week ESA hosted our latest #ESAwebinar, esports: building audiences during lockdown. Hundreds of people from almost 30 countries tuned in. One great thing about lockdown is that more people can attend our live events. I also love the fact that now I can attend the same events as friends from all over the world, live. Speakers on other continents can take part who wouldn’t have been able to join. We’re connecting in new and interesting ways every day, including in how we engage with live ... read more

What’s your name and position within the organisation? Marcus Wight, Chief Executive of PHAR Partnerships Can you tell us a little bit about PHAR Partnerships? I set up PHAR with three colleagues in 2011. We are now a company of 120 people with offices in London and SouthEast Asia. We specialise in delivering ancillary revenues for owners of transport, infrastructure and leisure properties, through creating and selling sponsorship packages. Our work covers both public and ... read more

It’s an unprecedented time for the world and every industry. Just when we thought that we had found the light at the end of the tunnel regarding Brexit, and businesses finally had some clarity about the future of the economy, COVID-19 has thrown us the biggest curveball in a generation. In the lockdown period there are already some clear industry winners such as home entertainment, online communication services, delivery companies and, of course, supermarkets. But there’ll be a heck of a lot ... read more

I’m not on the front-line fighting COVID-19. I’m trying to do my bit; I’m staying home, I’ve volunteered and am offering support anywhere I can. New challenges are facing us all at this time. As behavioural psychologist Richard Tyler wrote in his recent blog Going Within, “In a world where so many souls seek a degree of predictability and routine we have entered a fluid space.” Like many, I’m separated from vulnerable family members (in my case that means all my family!), but I’m not ... read more

Your house is probably due to undergo its third deep-clean in two weeks, your garden has received more love and care than any previous start to spring, and you’ve almost certainly rummaged through a box of old stuff that has gone untouched for years. During our current lockdown period we’ve never had more time to focus on the bricks and mortar* we now call our place of habitation and place of work (*other building materials are available). Suddenly those home chores and maintenance tasks ... read more

Sarah Riggott, Group Marketing Director at CSM, considers how the sport and entertainment industry continues to be a force for good in troubled times. The term ‘in isolation’ is defined as ‘without relation to other people or things; separately.’ It is the antithesis of what our species craves, what enables society to flourish and what sets this industry apart in its ability to nourish our most fundamental need: that human connection to a cause greater than any individual could muster ... read more

I thought I was pretty down-with-the-kids back when I learnt what FOMO was. Then recently, I was introduced to JOMO, the joy of missing out, just in time for lockdown. One thing I’m not missing out on is a whole new set of jargon – from furloughing to social distancing and flattening curves (which is a contradiction in terms – I stay at home to flatten the curve, but I can assure you: self-isolation + well stocked cupboards ≠ flattening curves). Even saying COVID-19 makes me feel like ... read more

Jason Steele, Head of CSM Engage, explores some possible avenues through which brands, rights holders and venues can offer hope to fans in isolation. Last Sunday afternoon, I ritualistically flicked across to BT Sport to find, in place of Manchester United vs. Tottenham Hotspur, a replay of a Hyundai A-League mid-table clash. I mean no disrespect to the Australian league, but on a weekend which was set to host a full house of Premier League fixtures, lights out on the Formula One season ... read more

As sponsorship professionals, we put relationships, be they brand-to-brand or with our audiences, at the heart of everything we do. Central to these relationships is humanity: knowing what people need, why they need it and how to fulfil that need in a genuine way.  With mass sport and entertainment event cancellations and businesses across Europe moving to work from home, now more than ever, we need to find ways to stay connected and do what human beings do best: adapt.  Over the ... read more

What’s your name and position within the organisation? Karen Morris, Director/Founder, Reg&Co was previously called brandmeetsbrand which I founded in 2003. How did the organisation come to work with Rights Holders and Brands? What “bigger picture” did this relationship seek to meet? We have always worked exclusively with Rights Holders to unlock commercial value through partnerships and sponsorship. We work with rightsholders because it gives us such diversity in the people we ... read more

COVID-19. Everyone’s talking about it, but let’s discuss how to talk about it at work. I’m ruing the fact my parents didn’t send me to circus school, because it’s like walking a tightrope. How do you make and communicate constructive plans at a time of global pandemic without fuelling people’s fear? The simple answer is that, as with the virus itself, there’s no cure-all. All we can do is mitigate risk through effective scenario planning (if you can plan for it, you should) and ... read more

      What’s your name and position within the organisation? Emma Sheldrake, Head of Commercial Partnerships at Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) and Lord’s Ground.   How did MCC come to work with its current sponsors/ rights holders? What “bigger picture” did these relationships seek to meet? Cricket is a complex landscape, with a complicated structure of rights split across the Counties and MCC.  It’s an amazing sport, and our partners are as passionate about ... read more

What’s your name and position within the organisation? Sam Baring, Head of Sponsorship at The AOK Events Group. We launched our dedicated sponsorship consultancy, AOK Connect, in 2018. Can you give us an overview of AOK Connect as a part of The AOK Events Group and your approach to sponsorship and partnerships specifically? Founded by Alex Hewitt in 2000, The AOK Events Group has become most well-known for three dedicated, events-focused, departments. AOK Cavendish are the largest ... read more

As data and analytics in sport continues to evolve, David Smith of SAS highlights how the multinational tech company is enhancing fan experience, on-field performance and team operations through partnerships with British Rowing and the Orlando Magic Over the past 15 years or so there has been an explosion of data analytics in sport, as individuals, teams, organisations and even video games’ developers seek to capitalise on what has come to be known as the “Moneyball effect”. The 2003 ... read more

What’s your name and position within the organisation, as well as your professional background? . Louis Saha, Founder and CEO of AxisStars. Former Professional Footballer for teams including Fulham, Manchester United, Everton, Spurs and France. Retired 6 years ago and started to develop AxisStars. In 2018 he partnered with Brand and Digital Marketer Kate Hamer. With over 20 years experience working for and with global brands such as Orange, Unilever, Disney and L’Oreal, she brings ... read more

What’s your name and position within the organisation? Sarah Dawson, Managing Director – Brands at CSM Give us a brief history of CSM and what makes your company unique? Over the last ten years, we have brought together more than fifteen individual agencies that all shared a similar culture, vision and values, under one brand. This was to form the challenger agency ‘CSM’ that we are today - our DNA has strengthened, as many of the original entrepreneurs are still involved.   ... read more

What’s your name and position within the organisation? Claire Ritchie-Tomkins, Founder and Chief Executive of SQN. Having been in the IT industry for 15 years working for HP and then Nortel, where I was in-house sponsorship manager looking after F1 and sailing, I set up SQN in 2001 with a specific vision of offering sponsorship and marketing services to companies in the ICT space. Give us a brief overview of SQN as a company in general and your approach to sponsorship and ... read more

ESA’s partnership with SPORTO gave Chairman, Andy Westlake, and Board Director, Sophie Morris, the opportunity to see how things are done in Slovenia. Here are Sophie’s key takeaways from last month’s sponsorship and sports marketing conference… Firstly, the location of this conference is fabulous. The glamorous, beautiful vistas of Portorož and being driven to the conference’s luxury hotel in a SPORTO-branded Toyota (conference partner). What more could you want? Oh, a sauna in your ... read more

What’s your name and position within the organisation? Garry Dods, Founder and MD at WeAreFearless. Give us a brief overview of WeAreFearless as a company in general and your approach to sponsorship and partnerships specifically? WeAreFearless was founded with a challenger mindset and a commitment to bring real change.  Four years in, we’re proud of our award-winning work and joined up thinking with the likes of Bridgestone Europe, UEFA and Sky. We’re on a mission to break new ... read more

If you do nothing, nothing will change Alban Dechelotte of Riot Games at Host City 2019 As part of ESA's partnership with Host City 2019, ESA Board Director Katie Traxton moderated a pair of panels on sponsorship, ROI, fan engagement and audience experience. Here Katie outlines the major themes and take-aways from the Glasgow event. Talking; I like it a lot. Listening; I like it even more. Why? Because when you listen, you learn and there are few things I love more than learning. ... read more

Peter Raymond, the Course Director of the ESA Diploma and ESA Arts Certificate, discusses his favourite arts sponsorship campaigns, how to become a successful arts marketer and why the two courses will be combined for the first time in 2020. Tell us more about ESA Arts Sponsorship Certificate The Arts Certificate is the industry’s only formal training course for those wishing to practice in private fundraising via sponsorship in the arts and culture sector.  It has been in ... read more

What’s your name and position within the organisation? Samantha Lamberti, Head of Consulting, Europe & Middle East at Nielsen Sports. I work with our clients to transform data into actionable solutions and drive strategic business results.  Can you tell us what your company does and how you help your clients? Nielsen Sports is the global leader in sports intelligence, measurement and consulting services providing brands and rights holders with impactful solutions to ... read more

As the power of individual athletes rises, CSM Sport & Entertainment Account Director Michael White argues that the talent on display in Formula E could provide the answer for new heroes. Heroes are an essential part of what makes sport so compelling. The storylines, the highs and lows and the rivalries that emerge. In motorsport, these heroes are front and centre; a critical aspect of the sport, helping to draw in audiences, entice brands to join the journey and serving to add a human ... read more

Formula One™ has just unveiled its new vision for the sport, revealing the much-anticipated 2021 regulations change that is viewed by many as the most radical overhaul in the sport’s history. But what do the rule changes mean, why do they matter and what will the impact be on fans and partners of the sport? Lizzie Isherwood of ESA member CSM Sport & Entertainment breaks down the regulations. The big change: closer racing One of the main aims of the new-for-2021 rules is to ... read more

With the NFL's annual festival recently returning to London amid record interest in American Football, Nick Nixon of ESA member rEvolution surveys the case for a permanent team based in the UK. The culmination of the NFL’s 2019 International Series, now in its 12th year, at Wembley on Sunday matched the Jacksonville Jaguars against a dominant Houston Texans. With two of the four regular season matches played on UK soil contested at a sparkling new purpose-built stadium, the question ... read more

What’s your name and position within the organisation? Andy Anstey, Head of Business Development at England Athletics. I am responsible for commercial income generation across business partnerships, retail and new product development. Tell us a little bit about England Athletics? England Athletics’ vision as the membership and development body for grassroots athletics and running clubs in England is to make athletics and running the most popular and inclusive sport in the ... read more

After England's footballers were racially abused in Bulgaria, Emma Wright from ESA member Hill + Knowlton Strategies assesses the communications efforts of The FA and reflects on the lessons all comms professionals can learn from the incident. In the harsh spotlight of the inexcusable behaviour of Bulgarian fans even the most brilliant communicator may wilt. Yet as former pros, leaders of governing bodies and pundits stepped up, logged on and hit “tweet” there was one person who divided ... read more

What’s your name and position within the organisation? Jim Campling, President of Marketing Partnerships at Live Nation UK. I oversee the creation, negotiation and development of commercial partnerships across Live Nation’s UK portfolio of festivals, venues, promoted shows and ticketing solutions. Give us a brief overview of Live Nation as a company in general and your approach to sponsorship and partnerships specifically? Live Nation Entertainment is the world’s leading live ... read more

As the Premier League giants head to court over a new kit deal, Michael Lister and Mike Jones of ESA member Harbottle & Lewis discuss the case and the key to finding the balance when negotiating matching rights in club partner agreements. Liverpool made a perfect start to the 2019/20 season, winning their first seven Premier League fixtures, and building on the back of Champions League success in May. Off the field, there also appeared to be cause for celebration after it was widely ... read more

The European Sponsorship Association was a media partner of last week’s sold-out SportsPro Fan Conference, held at the state-of-the-art Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. Packed full of insights from industry leaders and #ESAmembers, the conference attracted more than 350 attendees. Here we outline five key themes from the summit. Women’s sport is flying – but brands need to invest properly to reap rewards As many have documented, women’s sport has moved from the periphery into the limelight in ... read more

What’s your name and position within the organisation? Hello, I’m Laura and I head up the Partnerships & Sponsorship team at m/SIX. Tell us what your company does and what makes m/SIX unique. As an agency, we pride ourselves in being honest, energetic and pioneering. Everyday our specialists combine data, creativity and trading at scale to build industry-leading solutions for some of the world’s most recognisable brands. What makes m/SIX unique is that the agency is a ... read more

With the biggest date in Britain's annual cycling calendar around the corner, rEvolution's Gayle Jenkins looks at the state of women's cycling The Tour de France is one of the biggest sporting occasions of the year, receives seven figure sums in sponsorship deals annually and is shown on mainstream TV around the world. Efforts to create a women’s Tour have been made, but there has not been an official women's Tour de France in 30 years, with the last such event held in 1989. Is this due to ... read more

How is Asian investment altering the commercial landscape of the English game? Sixteen years ago, Chinese telecoms company Kejian cast a solitary figure in English Premier League sponsorship, as the only Asian brand to appear on a shirtfront. Fast forward to 2019 and there are eleven front-of-shirt sponsors from the region, with a further seven shirt sleeves bearing the name of an Asian company. All this comes at an aggregated cost of approximately £160m per season. The Asia region is now ... read more

Gavin Peters, ESA Awards Committee member and Chief Strategy Officer at Wi5, gives us his thoughts on writing that killer awards entry... We all know how easy it is to de-prioritise an awards entry to the point where it’s seen as a bit of last-minute admin to get to a day before the deadline. Because not only are all the senior people tied-up in project delivery, pitching and marketing, but that great campaign you did speaks for itself anyway, right? Unfortunately not. No matter how good ... read more

Ahead of our next two-day ESA Leaders Programme starting in September, we speak to Course Leader, Russell Soden, from course partner Russell Soden Consulting. Course highlights Understanding the role of the leader in the world of sponsorship and developing the skills and strategies to build your own highly effective leadership style, lies at the core of the course. Increasing one’s self awareness – becoming more highly attuned to those tendencies which may currently be undermining ... read more

5 reasons for sponsors to stay tuned to the Women’s game, post WWC19 Ultimately, the Lionesses' amazing world cup adventure unfolded in a very familiar way, with a red card and a missed penalty to rue. The scriptwriter even threw in a headbanded tormenter. This time the name was Morgan, not Modric, and her tea drinking gesture after scoring the opener in the semi-finals became one of the defining images of World Cup 2019. Despite the heartbreak, England’s journey has inspired many. Their ... read more

An extraordinary final has opened a gateway to a new, dissimilar and burgeoning audience It is rare, which is what makes it so special, but just occasionally the extraordinary nature of an event allows it to cross societal boundaries; through age, race, religion, gender and background, into the very essence of what it is to be human. Such an event offers a joyous and shared middle ground between you and your children, your mother-in-law, your neighbour, shopkeeper, bus driver, pub landlord, ... read more

What’s your name and position within the organisation? Ben Treadaway, Vice President EMEA at Wasserman. What are the main areas of focus for your business? Wasserman was founded in 2002, and, back then, our roots were in sports. We’ve evolved considerably since then; now, we’re a full-suite marketing services and representation agency, delivering work across the worlds of music, art, entertainment, social, tech, content, and beyond. Our teams are built with capabilities across ... read more

by ESA Member, CSM Sport and Entertainment It’s March 2018, Melbourne. The then four-time Formula One (F1) World Champion Lewis Hamilton causes controversy ahead of the season-opening Australian Grand Prix by posting a video on social media of a steady stream of old, white, male fans walking in to the Albert Park circuit.  In it he criticises the lack of diversity amongst the fans coming to F1, questioning why nothing has changed in the 11 years he has been in the sport. How do ... read more