The biggest mistake we make in sponsorship
Rory McEvoy
Founder & CEO
The biggest mistake we make in sponsorship is believing that visibility equals value.
For years we’ve measured success by asking one simple question: how many people saw it?
I think the more important question is becoming: how many people chose to take part?
That shift is why I founded QuizWizards.
I didn’t come from the sponsorship industry. I spent more than 20 years as a management accountant for major multinationals, where my job was to understand value, measure outcomes and separate what looked impressive from what genuinely delivered results. When I moved into entrepreneurship and became involved in sponsorship, I was struck by how much emphasis was still placed on impressions, media value and logo exposure.
Those metrics still matter, but they don’t tell the whole story.
Today’s sponsors want evidence that audiences engaged. Rights-holders want lasting relationships with their fans rather than borrowing their attention for 90 minutes. Fans expect experiences that are interactive, mobile-first and genuinely enjoyable.
That’s where I believe sponsorship is changing.
When people ask me what QuizWizards does, I rarely start by talking about quizzes or technology. Instead, I ask a different question.
‘What are you actually trying to achieve?’
Are we trying to make a sponsor more relevant? Generate leads? Learn more about an audience? Increase dwell time? Reward loyal fans?
Once the objective is clear, creativity has purpose.
We built QuizWizards around one simple belief: participation creates more value than passive exposure.
Whether it’s a prediction game before kick-off, a live stadium quiz, fan voting or an interactive personality experience, the format is almost secondary. The real objective is giving people a reason to participate.
When fans voluntarily engage, something powerful happens. Sponsors stop feeling like an interruption and become part of the experience. Rights-holders gain valuable first-party insights through consent-based interactions, while fans receive something entertaining in return.
Everyone wins.
We see this consistently across our activations. Typically, more than 90% of people who start a QuizWizards experience complete it, with 70-85% going on to register. Those numbers can be achieved whether the experience is being used at a live event or reaching audiences through digital and social channels. I’m proud of those results, but they’re not the real story.
The real story is that people willingly participated because the experience deserved their attention.
I also believe we’re moving beyond one-off activations. The best sponsorships are becoming ongoing conversations that reward repeat engagement, build richer audience insight and create multiple meaningful moments for sponsors throughout a season rather than a single branded interaction.
Artificial intelligence will accelerate this trend by helping personalise experiences and making fan journeys smarter. But AI won’t replace creativity. The best ideas will always begin with understanding people first and technology second.
If there’s one lesson I’ve learned since founding QuizWizards, it’s this:
Never start with the game.
Start with the outcome.
When you know what success looks like, the technology simply becomes the vehicle to achieve it.
I genuinely believe sponsorship is entering one of its most exciting eras.
The organisations that thrive won’t necessarily be those with the biggest audiences. They’ll be the ones that build the deepest relationships by giving people something worth participating in.
For decades we’ve measured what people saw.
I believe the future will be measured by what people did.
That’s the future of sponsorship.
And I’m excited to help build it.
