Tara Honeywell
VP of Growth
In brief, what does The Value Xchange do and what is your approach to sponsorship and partnerships?
Through the power of sport, entertainment and media, we help growth-driven organisations build sponsorship strategies and partnerships that create lasting impact. At its core, our role is about connecting brands with the right properties, and more importantly, with the audiences that matter most to their business.
Our approach starts with understanding people. We analyse audience behaviour, motivations and cultural context, because sponsorship only works when it earns its place in people’s lives. From there, we bridge the gap between data insights and commercial outcomes, helping clients move from instinct-led decisions to defendable strategies that stand up to scrutiny and deliver results.
What approach differentiates The Value Xchange and makes your sponsorship strategy unique?
At The Value Xchange, our approach is shaped by a belief in the Power of X; when the right partners connect, value multiplies. We focus on the intersections between brand and culture, creativity and data, and audience passion and commercial ambition, because that’s where sponsorship becomes powerful.
We are deliberately strategy-first. Before considering properties or rights, we define the role sponsorship should play within a brand’s wider marketing and commercial ecosystem. That might mean building credibility, opening new markets or deepening loyalty, but the strategy always comes first. Rights are selected because they serve the outcome, not the other way around.
Access and innovation are also central to our approach. By challenging traditional deal structures and introducing alternative funding models, we unlock opportunities that might not otherwise exist. This allows brands to invest more intelligently and enables rights owners to work with a broader mix of partners, ensuring value is created for all parties.
Ultimately, we design partnerships to grow in value over time. By connecting rights-owner IP, first-party data, technology and targeted media, we turn sponsorship from a moment into a system, putting it to work across the funnel from brand building to commercial return.
What do you see as current trends within sponsorship, and how are they affecting how you work and how you deliver on strategy?
Sponsorship is changing as brands now have better tools to make it work harder. The shift isn’t about what brands sponsor, but how they build and deploy it. With stronger audience data, flexible rights packages, dynamic content and better distribution, sponsorship IP is no longer fixed. It can be tailored to different audiences, activated across channels and refined over time, turning it from a one-off campaign into something that supports impact at every stage of the customer journey.
Sponsorship’s real strength is its ability to work through the funnel. It builds trust, meaning and mental availability at the top, relevance and engagement in the middle, and commercial momentum further down. When designed properly, it creates a clear link between brand building and business outcomes.
Measurement is also maturing. As the industry aligns around more consistent evaluation frameworks, brands are gaining more confidence in what sponsorship can deliver. The aim isn’t to replicate other marketing disciplines, but to enable clearer valuation and better decisions. When brands understand the return properly, they are more willing to invest for the long term.
Integration is another clear trend. The brands that outperform treat partnership IP as a core asset, not just something to activate around a campaign. When IP is embedded into product, media, culture and customer experience, its value compounds. When it sits in isolation, returns flatten.
For us, that means starting with the role sponsorship should play in driving growth, not with a list of assets. We design partnerships to be flexible, measurable and built to travel across the business, so the IP supports both brand strength at the top of the funnel and commercial performance further down.
How has sponsorship changed for The Value Xchange in recent years, and what predictions can you make about how it’s going to change in future?
In recent years, our work has become more embedded and upstream. Clients are less interested in one-off deals and more focused on long-term thinking. As a result, we are brought in earlier to shape strategy, define sponsorship’s role and establish what success looks like before conversations reach the market.
This reflects a broader shift in how brands view partnerships. Sponsorship has moved beyond having presence; it’s now about relevance and long-term value creation. That requires clearer intent and partnerships designed to evolve over time.
Looking ahead, we believe sponsorship will move closer to the centre of brand strategy. As audiences’ fragment and traditional advertising continues to lose efficiency, live sport and entertainment remain among the few environments capable of delivering collective attention, cultural relevance and emotional connection at scale. That makes sponsorship uniquely powerful, not just as a channel, but as a platform brands can build from.
We also expect continued experimentation in how partnerships are funded and measured. Alternative commercial models, more sophisticated frameworks and greater use of data and technology will allow brands and rights owners to share risk, prove value more clearly and unlock new growth.
Ultimately, the future of sponsorship lies in designing partnerships at the intersection of brand, audience and ambition. Those built to integrate, adapt and compound over time will define the next era of the category.
Is there anything else you’d like to add?
At TVX, our free Discover Lite audit offers an introductory assessment of how sponsorship could support your growth, based on audience fit, market context, and commercial value.
Get in touch if you’d like a clear starting point.
