A culture of sustainable growth

In episode #326 of Unofficial Partner we spoke with Daniel Lambert, COO of Bohemian FC and Harry McCann of sponsor Dublin Bus. Bohemian FC is a member owned club from the Phisborough area of Dublin famous for its uncompromising stance on values. Having gone to the brink of insolvency with the prevailing commercial model for […]

Shared values in sponsorship

Looking for partners with shared values is a popular ambition these days, as rights-holders respond to increasingly values-conscious social audiences and the recognition that sustainability is less of a discretionary position. In episode #326 of Unofficial Partner we spoke with Daniel Lambert, COO of Bohemian FC and Harry McCann of Dublin Bus, a main sponsor […]

Sport’s leadership crisis?

One of the points made by ex Coke man James Williams, in his excellent interview for Unofficial Partner Episode #301 was to argue that the IOC should be more pro-active in setting a progressive  framework to enforce improvements in Olympic sustainability in Games delivery. We’ve always recognised huge value in host cities using their bids […]

The sponsorship case for Green Football Weekend

The inaugural Green Football Weekend took place over the first weekend of February 2023 and cemented its fixture on the UK football calendar. Over 80 clubs took part in the inaugural GFW, including all the EPL, an amazing feat in itself – added to which the support of Sky and BT Sport made GFW1 unmissable. If it […]

Sponsorship perception : Coca-Cola & COP

The genie is out the bottle We weren’t alone in calling out the negative implications of Shell’s sponsorship of British Cycling last month – although perhaps in a small minority for taking a purely sponsorship lens to the issue. One reason for our focus on this story was our belief that public perception of sponsorship […]

British Cycling’s shell game

British Cycling and Shell’s announcement of their eight year sponsorship hasn’t landed well.  According to the PR, British Cycling and Shell will share a commitment to ‘supporting Great Britain’s cyclists and para-cyclists through the sharing of world-class innovation and expertise; accelerating British Cycling’s path to net zero; and helping more – and wider groups of […]

Sponsorship’s transition to net zero

2022 was heralded as the year of action in our collective journey to net zero. Enough talking, time for action. And it’s true that we’re beginning to see larger actions from governments and corporates than in previous years, such as Biden’s landmark Inflation Reduction Act. But what will sponsorship’s transition to net zero look like? […]

Getting your sponsorship to net zero

So, just to dispense with the pun, this isn’t about netting zero revenue. Net zero for sponsorship is a fairly simple ambition to describe for rightsholders: no sponsors who are major polluters, zero pollution through activation and ideally, positive environmental impact. This post is a simple kickstart to planning to minimise the carbon impact of […]

A bold vision for club activism

Allen Herschowitz, founder and president of the Green Sports Alliance, was early in identifying the potential of sport to play a leading role in addressing climate change. The ambition conjures up the image of fans across the world adopting more sustainable behaviours with the encouragement and support of their heroes. But is fan action the […]

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 […]

Just do it

‘How to murder your wife’ was released in 1965. It tells the story of cartoonist Stanley Ford, played by Jack Lemmon, who stands wrongly accused of murdering his wife. Lemmon’s character uses the defence of justifiable homicide. The pivotal scene takes place in the courtroom. Ford conducts his own defence, and with his best friend […]

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 […]

In search of community

Community as a marketing term really started buzzing back in the 90s. It was .com days, the world was alight with online content propositions and ‘building community’ was all anyone had to do. Building community was a great phrase for that era, because it had an optimistic ring and easy promise which ‘building a customer-base’ […]

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 […]

LOCOG’s sponsorship mistake

The Greenwash Gold campaign, which seized on Dow Jones and lumped together BP and Rio Tinto to create a rogue’s gallery of London 2012, signally failed to attract consumer support. While LOCOG played the British card of staunch support extremely well, and the campaign has left barely a reputational scuff, one element though, Redmandarin would […]

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 […]