Rory Natkiel, the former Sid Lee Sport Chief Strategy Officer who has spent two decades leading global strategy for the likes of adidas, UEFA, Tommy Hilfiger and Pizza Hut, has announced the launch of Box Count.
The specialist consultancy is designed to bring marketing science and rigorous effectiveness to the sponsorship industry, tackling what Natkiel describes as a ‘structural gap’ in how partnerships are valued.
Launched at a time when sponsorship is one of the fastest-growing areas of global marketing investment, Box Count arrives to bridge a structural gap in the market that sees millions being left on the table in unrealised commercial value. Natkiel argues that while traditional advertising has spent decades refining effectiveness, sponsorship remains 10-15 years behind – stuck in a cycle of evaluating success through vanity metrics like impressions and social engagement, while the evidence-base for what drives tangible business impact is limited.
Natkiel’s transition from leading campaign strategy for partnerships including Tommy Hilfiger x F1 The Movie and Lidl x UEFA Europa League is fueled by his work as the founder of the Sponsorship Effectiveness Forum (SEF) and his proprietary research, The Sponsorship Effect. The study conducted a statistical analysis of 92 global case studies coded to IPA-style standards and revealed a stark divide: high-performing sponsorships share the hallmarks of effective advertising – commercial objectives, integrated campaigns, and robust attribution. Underperformers lean almost entirely on engagement and reach.
Through SEF, an industry body and research platform that brings together sponsors, rights holders, agencies, and research partners, Natkiel will continue to advance sponsorship effectiveness thinking with cross-industry analysis and shared evidence.
Rory Natkiel, Founder of Box Count, commented: “The sponsorship industry has built itself around the deal. Shift the rights, divide up the inventory, worry about the rest later. Activation’s an afterthought and measurement gets cut because nobody wants to pay for it. The end result is brands with billions on the table and no real idea what’s working. That’s not a measurement problem, it’s a strategic one.”
Box Count offers four core service areas: Sponsorship Strategy, Activation Planning, Measurement & Evaluation and Effectiveness Transformation. Central to Box Count’s approach are proprietary maturity frameworks for both sponsors and rights holders – diagnostic tools that establish where an organisation is on its effectiveness journey, and what it would take to progress. The consultancy is already in conversation with rights holders looking to articulate value beyond eyeballs and brands seeking to understand the true ROI of their portfolios.
The launch has already garnered significant praise from industry heavyweights with Andrew Tindall, Chief Growth Officer at System1 commenting: “Rory is bringing some much-needed rigour to an area that’s had too little for too long. His synthesis of advertising’s research approaches with sponsorship case study data is a game-changer, and is already shedding new light on how to plan and optimise sponsorships.”
For more information on Box Count or to read the latest findings from The Sponsorship Effect, visit www.boxcount.co.
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Media Contact:
Matt Williams
About Box Count: Box Count is the sponsorship effectiveness consultancy. Based in London, it helps sponsors, rights holders, and agencies make clearer, more confident investment decisions by applying marketing science to the world of sport, culture, and entertainment.
About Rory Natkiel:
Rory Natkiel is Founder and Principal Consultant of Box Count.
Rory has spent more than two decades leading creative and commercial strategy across sport, culture and entertainment in senior agency roles, working with brands including adidas, UEFA, Tommy Hilfiger, KFC, Lidl, Samsung, and Coca-Cola.
He’s the founder of the Sponsorship Effectiveness Forum (SEF) and author of The Sponsorship Effect, a statistical analysis of 92 global sponsorship case studies coded to IPA-style standards, establishing what actually differentiates high-performing sponsorships from underperforming ones.
With Box Count, Rory is applying marketing science to sponsorship for the first time, developing tools, frameworks and approaches that help organisations make clearer, more confident decisions about how to use sponsorship to create sustained competitive advantage.
