It’s curious that the term sponsorship legacy can either mean a meaningful contribution to the world that outlives a sponsorship – or a sponsorship that’s outlived its purpose.
Legacy’s a funny word – both good and bad. A meaningful leave-behind or meaningless and left behind!
Legacy Sport, which I’ve just read, refers to the first, sport’s ability to change the world.
It was on our list to read for some time but, to be honest, Neill Duffy’s appreciation of our blog post (Sponsorship and ESG) pushed it up the list.
I’m not a big fan of single thesis books, which is the model for most business and self-dev books these days They usually contain one idea which is teased and pulled to death over around 250 pages. So, with the clear premise behind a title like Legacy Sport, I wasn’t really expecting to like it.
But it’s excellent.
It’s a brilliant primer for anyone wanting to champion sport’s potential to deliver social and environmental impact. It identifies the milestones in sport’s relationship with purpose and sets them lightly in their socio-economic context, creating a sense of momentum and even destiny within sport – and draws the reader into that momentum.
And it’s really nicely written. Neill Duffy, Fabien Paget and Jo Ramsay are credited as co-authors, but someone, one person has done a really excellent job in creating a coherent author’s voice. Harmonising the contrasts in style and content that you get when you blend nationalities and ages, whilst giving the narrative enough space to land the message without over-indulging. And establishing a beautifully inclusive tone.
I was delighted to see a mention for Lloyds TSB’s London 2012 activation Local Heroes – which Redmandarin devised and created – as a positive example of a purpose-led campaign, leaving a major sponsorship legacy for British sport.
We have a few minor niggles, which we’ll raise with Neill directly, but in general, I can’t recommend this book highly enough. It should certainly be required reading for any undergrad courses which cover sponsorship.
While sponsorship is an expression of the brand, CSR, ESG and sustainability (however you call them) are fundamental components of brand essence. They can’t be simply bolted on to sponsorship: these areas are all, frankly, of a higher order.