How to hit the ground running in the first year of a sponsorship

Matthew Leopold

ESA Awards Chair of Judges

First-year sponsorships rarely win awards. Not because they are bad, but because they are still warming up. The strategy’s fresh and the assets are untested. Internal politics could generously be described as a team sport.

So when three campaigns walk into the ESA Awards and leave with trophies, all in year one of their partnership, you pay attention.

I recently had the pleasure of hosting a chat with some of the winners from the 2025 European Sponsorship Association Awards. We talked about what it takes to get it right from the start.

Meet the medal-winners:

These were not lucky wins. ESA judging is as rigorous as it gets. Winning in year one means you’ve built something sharp, creative and commercially focused – all while still figuring things out.

So, what can we learn from those who didn’t just launch, but landed?

1. Speed over polish

First-year campaigns don’t need to be perfect. They need to work. Fast.

Each winner prioritised what they could activate immediately. Komatsu activated early with driver visits and showcar appearances at tradeshows. Smirnoff went straight to a key audience insight and built the stage around it (literally). Accor anchored their activity in the guest experience and focused on what would resonate.

They didn’t obsess over every clause in the rights package. They picked what could move quickly and got moving.

2. Deadlines are momentum machines

The calendar isn’t your enemy. It’s your rocket fuel. Early deadlines helped these brands rally teams, build internal belief and show their partners they were serious.

You can finesse later. But if you’re not showing progress, you’ll lose the room.

3. Borrow reach

Rights holders have audiences. Use them well.

Each campaign leveraged their partner’s media, fanbase or digital muscle to scale their story. Komatsu tapped into Atlassian Williams’ huge digital footprint. Smirnoff worked with artists to amplify Electric Picnic content. Accor turned smart content into CBS airtime.

Not a nice-to-have. A deliberate amplifier.

4. Treat employees as beta testers, not a CC list

Internal engagement wasn’t an afterthought – it was a test bed. Komatsu ran fantasy leagues and visits to factories. Accor had staff cooking zero-waste meals with pro sailors.

These weren’t fluffy team-building moments. They were useful experiments. They helped build energy and stretched the sponsorship from day one.

5. Don’t forget your ‘why’

The moment pressure hits, teams can default to ‘doing’. But the best campaigns kept purpose clear.

Komatsu focused on recruiting engineers, Smirnoff aimed for emotional relevance and Accor used ESG – not as spin, but as a strategic lever for growth and investor interest.

Purpose gave them direction.

6. Start with your audience, not your assets

Sponsorship strategy must answer a brutally direct question: who is going to care? From there, everything else follows.

The winners didn’t start with a rights inventory or lists of contracted assets. They started with people. They didn’t build forward from the assets. They worked backwards from the audience.

7. One big thing beats 15 vague ones

Each brand had a single, tangible year one focus. Not a laundry list of stuff, hopes and dreams.

Komatsu was focused on awareness and staff engagement. Smirnoff went straight for emotional connection. Accor looked to communicate ESG to luxury travellers.

Strategic simplicity doesn’t mean small ambition. It means everyone knows where they are pointing.

8. Solve a business problem, not a branding itch

I’ve said it before and I will say it again. There is only one question that really matters: is your sponsorship solving a real business need?

For these winners, the answer was obvious. They had exceptionally clear objectives to solve the business problem. No vanity metrics. No fuzzy aims. Just clear commercial alignment.

Guess what? When the business problem is clear, the sponsorship is more focused. When the sponsorship has a clear plan to resolve that problem, it becomes super easy to make decisions. When it is easy to make decisions, decisions are made decisively and quickly. Year one becomes a lot easier to deliver.

9. Be brave. You only get one year one

There’s no warm-up lap. Year one is your opportunity to be bold and move fast.

That was the most repeated message from every speaker: be brave. These campaigns didn’t tiptoe in. They arrived with intent. They took risks and adjusted on the fly. They accepted that mistakes would be made.

But they didn’t let that fear get in the way of creativity and impact. They didn’t let that fear slow down delivery. They didn’t lose sight of the business problem they were there to solve.

So what now?

I urge you to watch the webinar. There is no magic formula. But there is a mindset shift we can all learn from. It’s about purpose, pace and conviction.

These campaigns didn’t wait until everything was ready. They started running, even while the ground was still being laid.