Sponsorship Proposal Writing

🚨 Most sponsorship proposals fail because they’re sales decks, not stories. Too many rightsholders still lead their proposals with what they have to sell — logo placements, hospitality, social media slots. But brands don’t buy assets. They buy outcomes. 🤝 Sponsorship isn’t sold on assets. It’s sold on ideas. That’s where creative strategy is the missing bridge. A great sponsorship proposal doesn’t just list rights. It shows how those rights can be activated through stories fans care about, and how those stories ladder up to a brand’s marketing and business objectives. 💡 Without creative strategy: Rights feel generic, interchangeable, and hard to justify. 💡 With creative strategy: Rights become a platform for culture, emotion, and growth. The difference between a sponsorship that gets signed and one that gets ignored comes down to how well you connect the dots between: • Rightsholder value (audience, assets, moments) • Brand ambition (category growth, audience penetration, equity building) • Creative strategy (the story that makes it irresistible) 👉 In a cluttered market, creative strategy isn’t a nice-to-have — it’s the glue that turns inventory into impact. Yet, week in week out I still see rightsholder proposals that lack that bridge. If you don’t understand how brands grow > work with those who do If you don’t have the time to customise for categories > work with those who do If you don’t know how to think about creative strategy > work with those who do Having spent most of my career advising brands how to grow through sponsorship (and having reviewed thousands of proposals for both Coca-Cola & Sky), get in touch if you want your sponsorship proposals to no longer be ignored. #sponsorship #marketing #brands #creative #strategy #sports #sportsbiz #sportsbusiness #sportsmarketing #sportsindustry

The best sponsorship proposals I received had 3 things in common: 1. They understood and offered solutions to my business challenges. 2. They spoke my language. 3. They use the correct visual cues. This is where you can source each of the above: 1. Business challenges: Start with the "risk factors" section of the company's Form 10-K (the annual overview of the company's financial performance and business activities). Several (publicly traded) companies describe their geographic, market, and competition threats. Interviews with CEOs and CMOs are also excellent sources. 2. Language: Every company has its vocabulary. When you speak their language, you have greater chances of being noticed. The Coca-Cola Company uses "unit cases" to describe sales volume. Visa calls its bank customers "issuers". This is true for every company. Listen to their management's quarterly presentations to analysts on YouTube, their marketing leaders at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, and so on. 3. Visuals: Using the correct logos, brand iconography, campaign taglines, and color palette will not close your next sale, but a mistake here will certainly destroy your chances of getting the next meeting with the company. These references can be easily found online. Good luck with your next pitch deck.

Barcelona just set the blueprint for modern sponsorship. €460M. 12 years. And a stadium that doesn't exist yet. Here's why the Spotify x Barcelona renewal is a masterclass in sports monetization: The Numbers That Demand Attention: €75M per year for shirt rights (front + training kit) €20M annually for stadium naming rights through 2034 64% increase from their original €280M deal Total potential value: €460M by 2034 But the numbers only tell half the story. What Makes This Different: Most shirt sponsors slap a logo on and call it a day. Spotify turned Barcelona's jersey into a rotating billboard for culture. ✅ Drake. Rosalía. Coldplay. Ed Sheeran. Artists featured on match-day kits, connecting music fans with football fans globally. ✅ Travis Scott exclusive concert in Barcelona. ✅ Limited-edition merchandise collections that sell out in hours. This isn't sponsorship. It's a cultural platform with 500M+ reach. Spotify bought the naming rights to a stadium Barcelona couldn't even play in for most of the partnership. Camp Nou has been under renovation since 2023. Capacity will hit 105,000 when complete. Yet Spotify extended anyway. ❗ They're not betting on a building. They're betting on a brand. The Lessons: 1️⃣ Activation > Exposure Static logos are dead. Dynamic content wins. 2️⃣ Think Beyond the Stadium Spotify leveraged Barcelona's global reach to promote artists across 190+ countries. 3️⃣ Long-Term Commitment Builds Value 12-year deals allow for deeper integration and ROI that compounds. 4️⃣ First-Mover Advantage Pays Spotify's first major sports move positioned them as innovators, not followers. 5️⃣ Content Is the New Currency Every match becomes a marketing moment when you control the creative. The Bottom Line: Barcelona secured €994M revenue last season with record commercial income of €259M. This deal locks in their premium assets through 2034. Shirt sponsor. Kit supplier (Nike: €1.7B). Sleeve sponsor (Midea: €12M/year). All secured within 12 months. That's not luck. That's strategy. ❓ If a club can turn their shirt into a cultural movement, what's stopping your brand from thinking bigger about sponsorship? #SportsSponsorship #SportsMarketing #SportsBusiness #DigitalSports P.S. The real genius? Spotify Camp Nou won't be fully operational until late 2025, but they've already extracted 3+ years of global brand value. That's how you play the long game.

Silent partners have their place. Sports sponsorship isn't one of them. A silent partner puts up the money, steps back, and lets others run the show. Too many brands act like silent partners in their sports sponsorship investments. Many brands give their sponsorships little more than basic administrative support. Signage goes up, free tickets get distributed, and leaders show up in the hospitality suite a few times a year. The sponsorship partner may check all the boxes and deliver what's promised, but there is no "whole is greater than the sum of the parts" dynamic. Sponsors in these situations are usually disappointed in the value and impact the relationship generates. The data tells the story. According to a WFA/Lumency study, for every dollar spent on rights fees, brands invest only 81 cents in activating the sponsorship. Nearly half of all sponsors aren't even clear what they're spending on activation. 9% of brands are spending 20 cents or less for every dollar of rights fees. Every CMO with any significant sports sponsorship investment needs to ask themselves: Are you spending beyond the deal itself? The sponsorship fee is the entry ticket, even if it provides some activation as part of the deal. Activation is where the value gets created. Content, experiences, media amplification, and community integration. That's the work. The logo on the Jumbotron is nice, but it's a thin slice of the full value opportunity. Who in your organization owns the sponsorship? Are they actively shaping the relationship or just doing the minimum required to support execution? Relationships don't deepen on autopilot. The best partnerships require continuous attention, and not just mid-level attention. Are you using the full breadth of what the sponsorship can offer? Most brands scratch the surface. Signage. Hospitality. Maybe some social content. Meanwhile, the partnership could be fueling demand generation, building your employer brand, enhancing customer experience, and driving executive visibility. If you're only leveraging what's in the contract, you're leaving enormous potential untouched. If you're not investing in activation, it's a donation, not a sponsorship.

CEO or CFO: “Is this event really worth us spending $20K?” Marketing/Comms/Sales lead: “I really think so… it’s in [insert cool city], so it’ll be great for morale and culture either way!” Yeah. That’s really not gonna cut it anymore. Budgets are tighter. ROI expectations are much higher. And “it’s in Napa” isn’t a business case. Here’s the real decision framework I use with clients to decide whether a conference, symposium, or sponsorship is worth it — before anyone books a single flight or hotel. 1️⃣ Clients and Customers If your current clients expect to see you there, that’s great. But show up with a real plan, not just a lanyard. A 30-minute coffee with a top client > three generic panels combined. 2️⃣ Prospects Will actual decision-makers (not “Business Development Associates”) be there? If not, it’s not a growth event — it’s a vacation in disguise. 3️⃣ Media Value CES, HLTH, Davos, JP Morgan, = tier 1 press magnets. Other have decent value for trade press. Most others? Not so much. If there’s no chance for earned coverage, deskside interviews, or content leverage, rethink the spend. 4️⃣ The $20K Question Flights + hotels + sponsorships add up fast. Ask: “What would this same money buy in paid, owned, or earned media instead?” What would it buy in recruiting and retention? 5️⃣ Location, Location… ROI? There’s a world of difference between Orlando and Singapore. If it’s overseas, it better be because your market or investors are too. 6️⃣ Launchpad or Lull? Announcing a major product, partnership, or data release? Then yes, the stage might be worth it — but only with real prep and a comms plan, not a last-minute deck. 7️⃣ Competitive FOMO If your competitors are sponsoring, don’t reflexively follow. If your customers aren’t there, let the competitors waste their budgets. If they are there, remember my rule: you’re either at the table or on the menu. 8️⃣ Thought Leadership vs. Thought Decoration Being “on a panel” isn’t thought leadership. If it doesn’t build credibility, create content, or advance policy or sales, it’s ego spend. 9️⃣ Life ROI If it means missing your big kid’s recital, sports championship game, or a big nonprofit board meeting, consider skipping it. No award ribbon for most frequent flier. ⸻ The best conference strategies balance impact, influence, budget, and time. Done right, they accelerate relationships and reputation. Done wrong, they just drain both. 👉 What’s your first filter when deciding whether a conference is worth it? (And yes, if you want to build an internal decision matrix or stakeholder map before 2026 conference season, hit me up. Happy Saturday, now time for a workout.

If sport reflects performance and speed, what do art and culture sponsorships offer automotive brands? From early motorsport partnerships to global deals across football, tennis and the Olympics, the logic has always been clear: sport reflects many of the attributes car brands want to project – performance, precision, speed and innovation. 🏎️ But the role sponsorship plays for automotive brands is slightly different from most categories. ↳ Cars have long purchase cycles. ↳ The evaluation process is rational and often takes months. ↳ And the competitive set is relatively defined. Which means sponsorship is rarely about driving immediate sales. Instead, it works higher up the funnel. 📈 It builds brand perception, credibility and emotional affinity over time – the things that influence a buying decision years before someone walks into a dealership. That’s why the biggest automotive names have been consistent investors in sport. But over the last few years, we’ve also seen many new and emerging automotive brands entering sponsorship to claim their share of attention and cultural relevance. 🫡 Sponsorship allows them to: • Build brand awareness at scale • Associate with performance, innovation and prestige • Create experiential moments that bring the product closer to consumers • Embed themselves in communities that already have strong emotional engagement Historically, sport has been the natural home for these partnerships. But increasingly, brands in this space are also looking beyond sport. Arts and culture sponsorship is growing rapidly, offering access to audiences that value creativity, design, craftsmanship and cultural influence. 📝 For automotive brands, especially those positioned around design, luxury and innovation, the alignment is surprisingly strong. It’s less about mass exposure and more about cultural positioning and deeper brand storytelling. 📽️ This is exactly the kind of shift we’re seeing in the data at Luscid. When brands start looking at sponsorship through the lens of audience alignment and strategic objectives, it often opens up partnership opportunities they hadn’t previously considered. 💡 Sport will always be a major pillar for automotive brands. But arts and culture might just be one of the most interesting spaces to watch next. 📌 Mercedes-Benz AG AUDI AG BYD Tesla Renault Group Jeep Stellantis Ford Motor Company Cadillac Porsche AG Tata Motors KIA Motors #sportsmarketing #sportssponsorship #automotivebrands

If you’re a motorsport sponsor executive, you’ve probably felt this: Your sponsorship isn’t delivering the long-term engagement you expected. ❌ After race weekend, engagement drops off a cliff. ❌ Your brand feels like an add-on, not an integral part of the story. ❌ Your activation isn’t translating into meaningful business results. But here’s the thing: sponsorship isn’t just about race-day exposure—it’s about extending the narrative. Most sponsorships fail to capitalize on ongoing storytelling. The most successful brands treat sponsorship like a content flywheel—where every post, story, and activation feeds into the next, keeping their brand top of mind. Think of your sponsorship like a three-act play: 🎭 Act 1: Build anticipation. 🎭 Act 2: Deliver the experience. 🎭 Act 3: Extend the conversation. Here’s how you can make it work: 📌 Pre-race engagement matters Don’t just show up on race day. Tease the partnership, highlight collaborations, and give fans a reason to care before the lights go out. 📌 Your activation needs a story Instead of just showcasing your logo, create a narrative around your brand’s role in the sport—whether it’s creative, performance, or fan experience. 📌 Post-race content isn’t an afterthought Most brands stop posting after race weekend, which is a big mistake. Instead, use behind-the-scenes content, driver insights, and interactive posts to keep engagement alive. So, ask yourself: Is your sponsorship a one-weekend affair, or an ongoing brand story? Sponsorship ROI isn’t just about visibility. It’s about staying relevant, keeping the audience engaged, and driving long-term value. Graphic by Spomotion Analytics, Björn Stenbacka. P.S. Think about it, how many of these sponsors did you hear from consistently on your feeds?

I do NOT think that #sponsorship is the right marketing solution for just any brand. ❌ Which is perhaps surprising given my profession. So, let me give you some context. 𝗜𝗻 𝗼𝗿𝗱𝗲𝗿 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝘀𝗽𝗼𝗻𝘀𝗼𝗿𝘀𝗵𝗶𝗽 (𝙗𝙚 𝙞𝙩 𝙞𝙣 𝙨𝙥𝙤𝙧𝙩𝙨, 𝙜𝙖𝙢𝙞𝙣𝙜, 𝙢𝙚𝙙𝙞𝙖 𝙤𝙧 𝙤𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙧) 𝘁𝗼 𝗯𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗿𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁 𝗺𝗮𝗿𝗸𝗲𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘀𝗼𝗹𝘂𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗮 𝗯𝗿𝗮𝗻𝗱, 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝘆 𝗺𝘂𝘀𝘁 𝗺𝗲𝗲𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗳𝗼𝗹𝗹𝗼𝘄𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗺𝗶𝗻𝗶𝗺𝘂𝗺 𝗰𝗿𝗶𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗮: ✅ Have an executive team who appreciates the intangible values of #brandbuilding ✅ Be willing to invest at least 2-3 years to start realizing full ROI ✅ Have enough capital to invest 1-2x the amount they paid in sponsorship fees to activate properly *𝘕𝘰𝘵𝘦: 𝘚𝘱𝘰𝘯𝘴𝘰𝘳𝘴𝘩𝘪𝘱𝘴 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘢 𝘵𝘺𝘱𝘦 𝘰𝘧 #brandpartnership 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘳𝘦𝘲𝘶𝘪𝘳𝘦 𝘢 𝘤𝘢𝘴𝘩 𝘪𝘯𝘷𝘦𝘴𝘵𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘧𝘳𝘰𝘮 𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘱𝘢𝘳𝘵𝘺 𝘷𝘴 𝘫𝘶𝘴𝘵 𝘢 𝘤𝘰-𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘮𝘰𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘢𝘭 𝘦𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘢𝘷𝘰𝘳. 𝗜𝗱𝗲𝗮𝗹𝗹𝘆, 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝘀𝗲 𝗯𝗿𝗮𝗻𝗱𝘀' 𝗺𝗮𝗿𝗸𝗲𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗼𝗯𝗷𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲𝘀 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝗼𝗻𝗲 𝗼𝗿 𝗺𝗼𝗿𝗲 𝗼𝗳 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗳𝗼𝗹𝗹𝗼𝘄𝗶𝗻𝗴: ✅ Large scale brand awareness, relatively quickly (𝘨𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘵 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘯𝘦𝘸 𝘮𝘢𝘳𝘬𝘦𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘢𝘯𝘥/𝘰𝘳 𝘭𝘢𝘶𝘯𝘤𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘯𝘦𝘸 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘥𝘶𝘤𝘵𝘴) ✅ Improving brand sentiment and/or differentiation, again at scale and quickly ✅ Distinctively increasing customer and/or employee loyalty ✅ Positively impacting their community and/or broader world ❌ Given the intangibles and longer-term outlook, sponsorships are not suited for brands with severely limited budgets or who are 𝘰𝘯𝘭𝘺 looking for immediate impressions/sales 𝗡𝗲𝘁 𝗻𝗲𝘁 If you're selling, make sure you're reaching out to qualified prospects so you're not wasting anyone's time (𝘪𝘯𝘤𝘭𝘶𝘥𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳𝘴). If you're being sold to, make sure you understand the full picture in order to have the best chance of selling the sponsorship opportunity through internally. 𝗜𝗥𝗟 Jennifer Wilson and the team at Lowe's get an A+ for their recent sponsorship with Inter Miami CF, CONMEBOL Copa América 2024 USA™ and #Messi. 👏🏼 Lowe's was looking to build large scale affinity with the US hispanic market. Messi is 𝘵𝘩𝘦 biggest name in 𝘵𝘩𝘦 most popular sport with that demo. 👏🏼 They know how to budget and plan for proper activations which they announced within the initial press release (𝘴𝘩𝘰𝘸𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘢𝘭𝘪𝘵𝘺). 👏🏼 They will be hosting family and kid-friendly activations around matches at local stores to add value to local communities.

Sponsorship without fan alignment is like racing without fuel—it simply won’t go anywhere. Fans are the heartbeat of sports, bringing passion, emotional stakes, unwavering loyalty, the thrill of shared victories or the depression of the lack thereof. But what makes sponsorship truly effective is how it taps into these emotions and cultural values. Ferrari's Tifosi is the perfect example. Ferrari aligns so deeply with Italian fans’ that it’s often said that in Italy, there are two religions: the Christian Church and Scuderia Ferrari. Despite a 17-year championship drought, Ferrari’s century-old existence keeps fans loyal. Sponsorship is so much more than just slapping a logo on a car, a jersey, or a stadium. It’s about creating an emotional connection, embedding a brand into the moments that matter to people. At its core, sponsorship is an investment—not in visibility alone, but in cultural relevance, loyalty, and long-term growth. I had to pick one brand that does it best, it's Red Bull. In 2022, Red Bull invested $1.4 billion in extreme sports events, building an empire of adrenaline-filled moments that translated into $9.8 billion in revenue. Compare that to Pepsi's $2.4 billion ad spend, which relies on traditional campaigns most of us barely remember and never associate any feeling with. Red Bull proves that creating community-driven experiences leads to deeper brand connections. At this point selling drinks is just a side quest for them. Great sponsorship is built on three pillars: 1- Cognitive Connection: Align brand values with the event to establish credibility. 2- Emotional Engagement: Evoke pride, excitement, and trust to build lasting loyalty. 3- Behavioral Impact: Inspire action—whether it’s making a purchase or sharing content. The framework is pretty simple just apply the 4 A’s of Sponsorship - Awareness: Maintain visibility across channels. - Alignment: Reflect brand and audience values. - Activation: Engage audiences with experiential campaigns. - Adaptation: Tailor to cultural and regional specifics. Ferrari, sponsored by Peroni, an alcoholic beverage brand, faced a challenge when racing in Arab Muslim countries. Instead of alienating their sponsor by removing branding entirely, they adapted by promoting it as Tifosi 0.0%, effectively engaging fans while respecting cultural values. Consider this contrast: LeBron James sipping Sprite at a press conference feels mismatched for an athlete promoting peak performance, whereas Franco Colapinto drinking Myprotein, a brand perfectly aligns with the image of an athlete dedicated to fitness. Alignment matters—consumers buy when the messaging feels authentic. A sponsorship announcement is a first impression, and first impressions last—they set the tone for all that follows. A well-crafted message can boost recall by 60% and enhance brand affinity by 20%. What’s your take? #SportsBusiness #FanEngagement #MotorsportMarketing #SponsorshipTrends #SportsMarketing

A multi-million euro sponsorship, yet no one could answer a simple question. That’s when it all clicked for me. Just over a year ago, I was at an RSC Anderlecht game, invited by a sponsor, when I asked a simple question: “You’re spending millions on this partnership, but do you know how many fans are actually a customers? How much revenue they generate for you? And if they are truly spending more?” The response? Silence. Uncertainty. No clear answer. That was the moment I realized that sponsorships have a measurement problem. For years, sponsorships have been judged almost solely on: ❌ Brand awareness instead of real business impact ❌ Brand impact reports instead of actual differences in conversion and loyalty The reality? Most sponsors don’t actually know if their investment is driving sales—or at least, they can’t quantify it. Rights holders, in turn, struggle to prove sponsorship value beyond “we think this many people saw your logo.” It’s an outdated way of thinking. It’s certainly not the full picture. And it makes justifying multi-million-euro sponsorships incredibly difficult. That’s where we changed everything. We built a platform that makes sponsorship metrics measurable—something that was considered impossible in the past. ✅ Match fan data with sponsor data without sharing raw information ✅ Measure actual impact—conversion, revenue generated, spending behavior, and loyalty ✅ Optimize ROI by using combined data to segment, target, and hyper-personalize campaigns A year ago, our data clean room was designed for general marketing purposes. But after that conversation with the sponsor, we shifted our focus. Fast forward one year: We went from exploring the market to working with KAA Gent, RSCA, KV Mechelen, and OH Leuven, with two more major clubs in the pipeline and awesome brands. We’re now expanding into the Netherlands and partnering with international agencies. The biggest lesson? When you turn sponsorships from a brand awareness expense into a measurable channel that drives growth, people take notice. Something big is coming in two weeks. Any guesses? DAZN you got extra sponsorship impressions because of me! #sponsorships #datacleanroom #sportsmarketing