PRO-ACTIVE SPONSORSHIP SEARCH

A pro-active look at the market

Our pro-active sponsorship search is for brands wanting to action a sponsorship strategy and not wanting to wait for the approach of a sales agent or rights-holder.

It’s also for brands which want to look thoroughly at the market – to support differentiation, to manage risk and to buy intelligently within a crowded landscape. And, increasingly, rights-holder or brand partnerships to deliver or amplify ESG priorities.

The sponsorship marketplace

The sponsorship marketplace is largely defined by rights-holders who have integrated sponsorship revenue within their business model and actively seek sponsors.

Although this marketplace contains the major sponsorship assets within the worlds of sport, culture and entertainment, it does not represent the entire universe of partnership opportunity.

Buying ‘opportunities’ presented by sales agencies can be highly successful but does not guarantee sponsorships that address business objectives.

Our search service reviews the marketplace but also looks beyond for assets which are not officially ‘for sale’, but which offer strong ROI – below the tip or the ‘rights iceberg’.

Sponsorship search

Our sponsorship search service pro-actively identifies opportunities which align with agreed assessment criteria.

Our search platform is extensive:

Redmandarin database of 10,000+ sponsorship properties globally
Nielsen / Kantar databases via third party agencies
US commercial database
APAC commercial database
network of affiliates

These are supplemented by desk research to identify other potential partners and routes.

A shortlisting process gives clients checkpoints in the scoping process.

Assessment criteria

Assessment criteria, scoring parameters and weighting are developed with the client to reflect priorities.

These may include media reach and viewing data – including audience data – as appropriate, but although this data is important, it is one index amongst many which can determine the relative value of a sponsorship.

We can generate a scoring outcome but prefer to use the exercise to broaden understanding and to discuss optimisation options – as no single sponsorship will provide a ready solution. Our approach to assessment frameworks are here – and on single score methodologies, here! Meanwhile, some thoughts on building sponsorship portfolios are here.

Additional data sources

Subject to client needs and budget, we will procure additional data or commission research from a variety of sources.

Additional data is generally used to qualify and validate:

Reach
Audience relevance
Audience interest
Competitor activity

Due diligence

Rights-holders are as different as the sponsorship properties they represent: they range from small unincorporated organisations to the IOC or Unicef. Each brings its own challenges.

Due diligence considers the reputation, organisation and governance structures of potential partners, to anticipate and mitigate risk. As part of our due diligence process, we engage rights-holders in preliminary, in principle discussions about sponsorship. These help us understand:

reputation
their organisational culture and organisational strengths and weaknesses
the robustness of their governance
the rights-holder’s strategic priorities beyond revenue
the potential for collaboration beyond what is officially ‘for sale’
their tolerances around pricing and likely negotiating position

This adds value in three different ways:

it lays a foundation for positive working relationship by ensuring win- win conversations
it enables risk mitigation by understanding weaknesses and identifying likely tension points
it directly supports negotiation

Our pro-active sponsorship search process typically concludes with a full investment case.