Partnership with Purpose
This post, Partnership with Purpose, explores the implications for sponsorship and partnership practice in a landscape in which social and environmental action, and business contribution to the Sustainable Development Goals are increasingly important. A bit of historic context We’re so used to the concept of shareholder primacy that it’s strange to remember that the idea […]
Why you should sponsor FinLit – with MAIA
(Especially if you’re in FS) In 2015, we received an amazing brief from a UK High Street bank. It was to find or develop a platform capable of delivering social impact and building community engagement. With reach, relevance and salience. For a retail bank, that means community with a small c, ie communities the length […]
Sponsorship, impact and ESG
Sponsorship, impact and ESG used to be very remote companions – but now there’s a large role for sponsorship in both communicating and delivering impact. Humans are creatures of habit. As a rule, we avoid change, anything which destabilises our existence – until the need becomes overwhelming. Burning platforms can be financial, existential, psychological but […]
Purpose-led sponsorship
Purpose-led sponsorship is a recurring theme on this blog, and reading Trinity Mirror’s new study on consumer trust last week reminded us our blog on purpose in 2014. The study reports the unsurprising figure of 43% of consumers claiming to mistrust brands and 69% claiming to distrust advertising. There’s nothing particularly noteworthy there but more interestingly, the research […]
CR Campaign-ability
The Body Shop remains the paradigm buster. Its campaign, Stop violence in the home, originating in Canada, wasn’t based on the usual passion drivers. Instead, it addressed the taboo of domestic violence, a subject which at the time even western governments would barely acknowledge. And from that counter-intuitive platform, it launched a campaign which by […]
Good business?
The role for business, on the Cabinet Office flier on the Big Society, is modest and relatively feasible: protect the environment, improve skills and create jobs, support your community, improve quality of life and support small businesses… – no mention of sponsorship, very wisely. There’s also no mention of public private partnerships either, a concept […]
Conjoined twins?
Sponsorship and philanthropy – conjoined twins? There’s an industry mantra dating back to the 80s, that sponsorship is a commercial means to a commercial end. In the 80s, of course, it was a useful line to avoid approaches being routed to ‘community giving’; nowadays, it’s the logical defence against accusations of profligacy. But like any […]
Brand purpose and sponsorship
There’s a close relationship between brand purpose and sponsorship, but…. Whatever happened to vision? It used to be a fundamental part of how businesses described themselves. I grew up with it…. Nowadays though, business vision is really hard to find. It’s been well and truly eclipsed by brand purpose. How a CEO responds to the […]
Own goal?
I think historians will look back and pinpoint Sydney 2000 as the event which truly marked the beginning of sport as a dominant global belief system. I’m not talking about global appeal or commercial value, I’m talking about sport as a predominant metaphor for living. Not disregarding the scepticism that preceded the Games, what was […]