You don’t know what you don’t know. The first time I heard that phrase, my immediate thought was, “well of course you don’t…” but as it reverberated in my head, I realised the real point being made was the difference between being conscious of unknown unknowns versus being oblivious to them; the latter being far more dangerous.
Where’s this going? Keep reading, I promise it’s heading towards an unusual insight into untapped sponsorship terrain. Terrain, which is easily overlooked, for no reason I can find other than: you don’t know what you don’t know.
The idea for this blog came up by accident in a conversation with a friend who works in the heritage sector. We were having one of those lockdown chats, where you flit from subject to subject until the Big Bang happens (except a lot smaller, more like the really-quite-small-but-significant-to-us-sized bang – I do love a snappy title).
“Do brands sponsor the heritage sector?” I asked, feeling quite stupid about the question.
Silence.
“No,” she answered quizzically as if like me, she hadn’t considered the topic before.
“Why not?” I asked.
Silence.
“I don’t know,” she replied. To me, her knowledge of the heritage sector borders on encyclopaedic. Yet she sounded just as curious as I was about the concept.
Before we get to the big reveal about what happened next in our conversation – careful you don’t fall off the edge of your seats with anticipation – I’d like to introduce the friend who was on the other end of the phone; a friend who knows all sorts of things that I don’t. Her name is Alison Tweddle, though she insists on Ali.
I do my best to be a responsible and considerate daughter, friend, colleague, citizen, to have perspective and integrity, be resilient in the face of life and work challenges and hold myself accountable for my actions. Yet pretty much every conversation with Ali reminds me how easy it is to be swept up in deepening the knowledge and understanding you have in areas within your regular frame of reference, while overlooking the big black hole of information beyond it.
Ali has to be one of the least assuming people I know, so let me paint a quick portrait on her behalf. Driven by a desire to understand the world, cultures, people, history, and generally make a difference for the better, she spent months volunteering in Mozambique (alone!) aged 19, working on a whale shark conservation programme. At 22, she headed to Thailand to teach English as a foreign language before moving to Tanzania where she launched community engagement schemes, including writing English curriculums for schools and Massai communities. Returning home to County Durham, she now works in the heritage sector, while casually lecturing at Durham University on the side, and acting as Chair of Governors for a local primary school.
Whistle stop tour nearly complete, in her current Bishop Auckland-based role she has launched numerous community engagement schemes as Head of Learning and Community Engagement at The Auckland Project, a heritage-led regeneration charity, creating opportunities among groups of people bursting with potential but easily overlooked. She even used her annual leave in 2017 to support refugees in Moria Camp, Greece on the island of Lesbos.
I listen to Ali speak and realise what a luxury the opportunities my personal and working lives have given me are. I realise there’s a whole world out there (right now quite literally on the other side of the front door that I haven’t been out for over three weeks), but that sometimes we need a nudge to open our eyes and truly see it. Have you ever walked a familiar path but looked around you in a new direction? Taken a different route to get to the same place? Or tried something you’d been sceptical about for the first time and never looked back? When you look beyond the routine, you stop taking things for granted.
What do we most take for granted? Recently we’ve all realised safe day-to-day freedom of movement is one of them. Sanitisation, food, education; basics that in the UK many of us accept as part of life’s standard package deal have been thrown up in the air. It’s unsettling. For some people it’s far more than unsettling.
What about for those communities who, largely because of where they were born, have always understood those basic things as a privilege, rather than a right? 14 million people live in poverty in the UK – more than 1 in 5 of the population often have to choose between using the last of their weekly budget to feed their kids or to heat their houses. Where Ali works in Bishop Auckland, 25% of residents live in the top 10% of the most deprived areas in England, where health inequalities widen the gulf that poverty creates – and that was before COVID-19.
So how can we help? We can listen, respect the opportunities we have and use them to extend a hand to others who don’t have the luxury of taking ‘the basics’ for granted. It’s currently Mental Health Awareness Week. Mental health shouldn’t be a taboo subject. We openly talk about physical ailments (most of them anyway) without being judged. The same should apply to our mental health. Some of the strongest, most inspirational people I know have overcome mental health challenges; challenges often out of our control.
Ali talks openly about her own mental health journey, after the accidental death of her elder brother when she was 17:
After experiencing something like that at that age, you have to re-forge who you are. You have to take all that anger and pain and make it into something you can live with. In my case, it eventually became energy.
For Ali, this process took the best part of 10 years and she’s keenly aware that when she was most in need of help, she had a family who could afford it:
I couldn’t help what happened to me just like other people can’t help being born into poverty. Many people cannot imagine the toll relentless poverty takes on mental health; the hopelessness it perpetuates.
This story isn’t one of impenetrable bleakness though. Ali’s work in the heritage sector focuses on social regeneration:
Heritage assets don’t have to be static old buildings. They can provide wonderful platforms for revival if used innovatively. There are opportunities for local skills development in visitor-facing roles but also in everything from catering to horticulture or finance.
The Auckland Project where Ali works created a partnership with the local college to ensure people of all ages were trained for the opportunities a developing visitor attraction brings. Her community development work – which is original even for the heritage sector – goes further to tackle the underlying causes of health inequalities, it’s focus being on supporting people in building confidence and self-worth:
To thrive, people need sustenance, creativity and a sense of belonging that the heritage sector is well-placed to provide. It might seem basic, but critically all our community engagement includes food. Whether you’re attending an activity day or a long-term programme, you’ll be fed.
There’s no need for vouchers or proof of benefits often relied on in support interventions for disadvantaged areas that may make participants feel stigmatised. Sharing a meal is integral to building a sense of community, to welcoming people and making everyone equal in the space.
Dignity must be at the centre of any community development work. It is only when basic needs have been met that you can inspire and activate people. I believe in the genius of the community – they are the living experts of the area each with their own stories. Local people should be the voice of their own revival, they just need support in that process. We launch community social action programmes then the participants take control themselves. Success speaks for itself once you step back and someone else steps up. That’s grassroots work at its best. People don’t need rescuing, they need empowering.
Having heard all this made me wonder why you don’t see significant sponsorship deals in the heritage sector. Surely the values, culture and purpose driving programmes like those at Bishop Auckland align closely with those of a large number of businesses, particularly in their corporate social responsibility agendas.
In the world of sponsorship, conversations tend to be about how to do bigger, better or smarter deals. How do you cut through the noise to sign a partnership that’s differentiating for your business, has an original rights bundle and space for innovative execution? One answer is to consider worlds beyond our own, like the heritage sector, which is a rich and worthy bundle of untapped opportunity able to benefit both brand reputation and deliver business impact.
Imagine the possibilities, from sharing your brand or product with new audiences to having first access to rising stars. Even subsidising transport costs so that young talent can travel to take part in programmes that use art and heritage to teach business skills can change lives and help develop future leaders.
When I first met Ali, she told me that some people are game changers. I have no doubt that she’s one of those people. It strikes me that the heritage sector is crying out for game changing partners to come along and grab it with both hands. The real opportunity seems to lie in long-term, co-created partnerships looking to create a legacy:
The stumbling block that perpetually thwarts great work in the right place at the right time is long-term funding. Community projects survive hand-to-mouth. We raise funds where we can. Funding awards are available, but with limited follow through and pre-allocated parameters. They want to support something new rather than an existing programme or to restrict their terms to specific demographics, such as certain ages, genders or ethnicities, instead of the whole community.
Grants are often for only one year in which time you can’t make sustainable changes to complex circumstances of poverty. You employ someone to get the scheme up-and-running and kick off some amazing work, and then they, their work and the energy their success has inspired disappears. Funding from true partners willing to shape mutually beneficial objectives together and support the same community over an extended period of time could change an area’s demographical statistics forever. A generational approach could lift a whole area out of poverty.
There was no intended pitch. This entire blog is based on a true story of serendipity as two friends caught up with one another during lockdown. A catch up after which I for one, knew a lot that before it (I didn’t know) I didn’t know.
Katie Traxton is an ESA Board Director and Chief Communications Officer at Formula E. She was previously Managing Partner at WeAreFearless, ESA’s Pan-Europe Sponsorship Agency of the Year.