Let’s face it—sponsorship is messy.
Few initiatives within your organization involve as many stakeholder groups: brand, sales, operations, trade teams, procurement, legal, corporate communications, the executive team, and others. Each of these groups can extract value from your sponsorship investments, yet all are expected to contribute to their overall success.
Achieving alignment and shared understanding among these diverse stakeholders can be a daunting challenge. A typical sponsorship portfolio often includes properties with varying objectives, supporting multiple brands and business units. It may span different geographies, involve varying seasonality, and include contracts with differing term lengths and end dates. Each property comes with its own set of assets and activation plans, further complicating your landscape. The sheer volume of details that need to be managed can be overwhelming.
Sponsorship, unlike other forms of marketing pressure, is labor-intensive. Once the heavy lifting of negotiating and signing a deal is complete, the real work begins. By comparison, media buying is relatively straightforward, and with a short time horizon—plan, buy, measure, and move on. Sponsorship, on the other hand, is relational, integrated, and long-tailed, requiring ongoing engagement and coordination across multiple business functions.
In many organizations, those ultimately responsible for sponsorship can struggle to keep up with even the necessities. Managing renewals, assets, tickets, activation plans, and maintaining relationships with partners can feel like an endless juggling act. This intense focus on day-to-day logistics often leaves critical areas like measurement, strategy, and omnichannel activation without the attention they deserve. When these areas are neglected, the true potential of sponsorship as a strategic business tool can go unrealized.
Our sponsorship operations model changes that.
We’ve developed a sponsorship operations and governance model that’s tailored to your organization’s unique needs. Our model establishes the routines and processes necessary for decision-making, approvals, and reporting. It includes clear guidelines for asset utilization, ensures compliance with contractual obligations, and sets a structured framework for renewals. Moreover, it defines a consistent approach to engaging both your internal and external stakeholders, ensuring that every aspect of your sponsorship portfolio is aligned with your business and brand objectives.
Imagine how much more effective your sponsorship initiatives could be with a streamlined, strategic approach. No more juggling day-to-day tasks at the expense of long-term value. Our model enables you to focus on what truly matters—leveraging your sponsorships to drive meaningful business outcomes.
Ready to transform your sponsorship management into a well-oiled machine that propels your business forward? Contact us today to learn more about how we can implement our battle tested model in your organization.