This is almost the holy grail of sponsorship questions, and ESA Board Director Sophie Morris recently put the question to some of the panellists at SportsPro Live.
Phil Moore, VP of Southern and Northern Europe for Deezer, the music streaming service, and Dan Barnett, CCO of Americas Cup, were on stage to answer. The panel, titled ‘Making the deal, or not: how do you identify the right partner?‘ had already discussed giving value to partners and working with them to measure their KPIs.
A strong factor for both organisations on stage was the need to grow their own audiences through the sponsor brands network and they talked a lot about mutually beneficial relationships.
In answer to Sophie’s question, the key criteria for the Americas Cup was brand fit.
Will this make sense to the many stakeholders and will it reflect well in merchandising and licensing decisions?
For Deezer, the strongest factor is end user fit: does it makes sense to, and does it add value to, the end user.
If the partnership doesn’t have a genuine fit then customers won’t buy into it.
Whilst it was acknowledged earlier in the session that cash is the primary motive for partnerships, they would both aim to wait for the right ‘fit’ rather than just taking the first cheque.