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Despite the challenges of 2020, it was still a great year filled with lots of amazing chats with sponsorship professionals from all over the world. As always, we've wrapped up the year and re-visited the 13 episodes of Inside Sponsorship in 2020. You might have seen on social media that, for each show, we pull out a 30-45 second snippet and turn it into a video to help whet your appetite. As such, we’ve gone back and pulled the full question and answer, for that snippet, and created a best of 2020 show for you. Enjoy.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Passions drive us. Passions define us. Passions connect us. Yet, passions are changing and with the explosion of digital, the democratisation of media, and a plethora of publishing tools available, expression can come in any form and inspiration can come from anywhere. Research from M&C Saatchi Intelligence identified that interest areas that were traditionally considered hobbies, including fashion, food, beauty, health, and wellbeing, have exploded into passion areas and have identified this trend as hyper-passions. It sounds an obvious and simple enough opportunity for brands. However, it also sounds fraught with danger. How do big brands, with big budgets, weave themselves through the hyper-passions and sub-cultures of the world which have long been guarded by the passionate members themselves?  These hyper-passions are highly nuanced, a point that should not be lost on brands, agencies and rights holders. How would, and how will, those with hyper-passions, respond to corporate involvement?  That remains to be seen but what is undeniable is the opportunity in front of brands to connect with their target markets through their hyper-passions.  While it can be lucrative, all involved are looking to help enable and enhance hyper-passions as opposed to simply hijacking them for corporate outcomes. It is an intriguing scenario to say the least and joining the show to discuss M&C Saatchi's work around hyper-passions, is Luke Haynes, Group Account Director at M&C Saatchi Sport & Entertainment - Australia. Also joining the show is Daniel Collier-Hill, KORE’s Commercial Director – APAC, who discusses his latest blog, What Type of Report Will Have the Most Impact on Sponsorship Strategy in 2021. Enjoy and don't forget to subscribe on your favorite podcasting platform!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Data, measurement, and most importantly, the insights and what we do with them, is something that is driving the sponsorship industry. In a world where we are so connected, 24/7, globally, and with so many data capture points, the power that can be unlocked is immense. Interestingly though, what brands ultimately want to achieve through sponsorship, and increasingly data-driven sponsorships, hasn’t changed – they want more sales. That is always the end game. Social media has long been a big player, but this year, with people suddenly restricted in movement, and less sports content to consume, social and other digital platforms suddenly accelerated. Scott Tilton, CEO at Hookit, joins the show to discuss sponsorship data and takes us inside their whitepaper, Chasing Sponsorship Value - An Inside Look At The Top Brands In Sports, How They Got There, And What They Could Do Even Better. Be sure to visit hookit.com to find out more about their work, download the whitepaper here, and connect with Scott on LinkedIn. Also joining the show is Daniel Collier-Hill, KORE’s Commercial Director – APAC, who discusses his latest blog, Unlocking Sponsorship Data And Beginning To Use It More.  Enjoy.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We’ve all seen some great examples of sponsorships adjusting, doing something different, and really creative activations this year because of COVID-19. A lot of those have been driven by necessity. Probably the most talked about activation of 2020, however, has been Burger King’s sponsorship of Stevenage FC, who, at the time of the sponsorship, in 2019, were last in the fourth division of English football. It left many people scratching their heads. It is, of course, the sponsorship that ultimately gave us the hugely successful Stevenage Challenge. This amazing partnerhsip wasn’t driven by COVID-19 or necessity. It was driven through vision and creativity, and, as our guest phrases it later on in the show, “a leap of faith”, to pull off a truly brilliant activation. One of the reasons it was so brilliant was because the opportunity was right under so many people’s noses, yet so many didn’t see it. The activation is both amazing in its boldness yet so jarringly simple. Tap into the already huge, but growing, eSports market, specifically FIFA. Tap into the underdog status and fairytale storyline of them winning. Tap into the desire for people to share their gaming highlights online. Tap into the fact that everyone loves an easily accessible giveaway, especially fast food. The results have been absolutely amazing and driven directly from the 1.2 billion impressions that Burger King’s shirt sponsorship, of Stevenage FC, has produced through the Stevenage Challenge on FIFA. Furthermore, those commercial outcomes and further opportunities are both online and offline. Alex Tunbridge is the Chief Executive at Stevenage FC and he joins us in this episode to take us inside Burger King’s sponsorship of his club. We also hear from Daniel Collier-Hill, KORE’s Commercial Director – APAC, who joins us to discuss the blog which outlines 3 Things That Will Provide Both Short and Long-term Benefits to Sponsorship Managers. Enjoy.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

One thing that sponsorship professional’s fear, mostly those at rights holders, is a crisis; a situation that may see sponsors walking away from the organisation. Let’s be clear, when we say “crisis” we mean an athlete or staff member brings the organisation into disrepute. For those that are high profile rights holders, it almost feels like it is only a matter of time before a crisis will impact their commercial portfolio. How long can a sponsor put up with, or how bad does, a crisis need to be before a sponsor seriously considers whether their values are still aligned? In a commercial world, particularly one where a rights holder may still be providing great ROI on the sponsorship, it can be a cloudy question. It almost feels like it is only a matter of time before today’s, or this week’s, bad news story directly affects you and your sponsorships. That’s why, knowing how to communicate with sponsors during a crisis, and being prepared for the inevitable crisis, is where the focus should be in quiet times. In sports, two of the industry leaders, when it comes to crisis communications, are Jim Rocco and Isaac Benjamin, from PRCG | Sports. PRCG | Sports provides strategic marketing, public relations, and crisis communications services to owners, managers, athletes, and brands.  Jim and Isaac join the show to take us inside crisis communications in sponsorship. We also hear from Daniel Collier-Hill, KORE’s Commercial Director – APAC, who has delivered part three, and his final part, of his part blog series which focuses on hacking sponsorship and he joins us to discuss the blog which looks at Perceived Value and Audience Segmentation.  Enjoy.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

There’s no doubt that the pandemic whacked us all and there was a period where we were so reactive to what was going on, and how it played out in different markets, that it felt like we just couldn’t catch our breath. These days, however, we have mostly started moving forward, some markets differently to others. And in that, we’ve seen some really innovative work. One section of the sponsorship industry that has been a source of great wisdom, guidance, leadership, and innovation, to both rights holders and brands, has been agencies. Of course, brands and rights holders are full of really smart people, lots of our listeners, but, interestingly, the smart people at agencies, combined with their unique views from working with a wide array of rights holders and brands, gives us a much more holistic view of the industry right now and where it is going, especially considering that so many agencies work across multiple geographic regions. In this episode, we continue hearing from inside an agency by welcoming Stephen Hutchison, Managing Director at Fuse, in London, who discusses the industry right now and where it is going. Fuse, who are powered by Omnicom Media Group, provides marketing and commercial services for brands and rights holders specialising in partnerships and experiences across sport, entertainment, causes, and culture. Stephen has experience in leading projects across many of the world's leading platforms including; UEFA Champions League, Olympics, World Cup, F1, and the America's Cup for brands including Nissan, HTC, McDonald's, Vodafone, and Visa. We also hear from Daniel Collier-Hill, KORE’s Commercial Director – APAC, who has delivered part two of his three-part blog series which focuses on hacking sponsorship. Daniel joins us to discuss the blog which looks at 'After the Chaos' and specifically hacking asset management and hacking creative.  Enjoy.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

At Octagon, their purpose is, “to create work that earns attention. Through smart partnerships and generous ideas -- always built around the stuff your audience really loves -- we help you compete for, capture, and ultimately earn the attention of those who matter most to you.” In these current times, it could be argued that that is more important than ever and it aligns very nicely with what we so often talk about on this show, that sponsorship is about brands accessing an audience that they would otherwise not be able to or as easily be able to access. Octagon understands that we live in a world where time is our most precious commodity and that audiences’ patience has never been shorter. As an industry, sponsorship has never had to work harder to gain the attention of the people we are trying to reach. The way Octagon see it, “ … there’s two ways to go about it. Attention is either bought. Or it’s earned”. We all know which one sponsorship truly seeks to achieve! Joining us on the show, to give us a current agency perspective of sponsorship, is Andrew Clarke, Agency Director at Octagon Australia. Andrew is an integrated marketing specialist with 17 fun-filled years of creativity and problem solving under his belt. He’s seen life from both client and agency sides and he always like to present a balanced picture to lead projects and the Octagon Australia team.He believes people’s passions will change the world we live in, and helping brands find a unique role in this equation, whether through sport, entertainment, culture, or causes is what motivates him. Also joining us is Daniel Collier-Hill, KORE’s Commercial Director – APAC, who has kicked of a three-part blog series which focuses on hacking sponsorship and he joins us to discuss part 1, Planning for the Return. Enjoy.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Born in 2008, the Indian Premier League, the IPL, is a professional Twenty20 cricket league in India contested during March or April and May of every year by eight teams representing eight different cities in India. The IPL is the most-attended cricket league in the world and is ranked as the 6th most attended sport in the world, beating out leagues like the MLB, NBA, NHL, and La Liga and, in 2010, the IPL became the first sporting event in the world to be broadcast live on YouTube. The Rajasthan Royals are one of the eight teams in the IPL and, from a sponsorship perspective, they have fairly unique story in that they were the first team Red Bull have sponsored without actually owning the team. The Royals, sometimes considered as the "moneyball" team of the IPL, because they have a reputation of unearthing obscure, high potential talent, have a real focus on evolving into a global brand, leveraging technology in their sponsorships, and building partnerships through education and academies. Joining us on the show, to take us inside the Rajasthan Royals’ commercial program, is their COO, Jake Lush McCrum. You can learn more about the Rajasthan Royals at rajasthanroyals.com as well as connect with Jake on LinkedIn. Also joining us, to discuss KORE’s latest sponsorship focused blog, which looks at some of the global sponsorship trends happening right now, is a team effort of Daniel Collier-Hill, KORE’s Commercial Director – APAC, Derek Stanek, KORE Software's VP, Sales, and also Alex Hay, KORE Software's VP Commercial & Strategy. Enjoy.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

ONE Championship is a celebration of Asia’s greatest cultural treasure and its deep-rooted Asian values of integrity, humility, honor, respect, courage, discipline, and compassion. Their mission is to unleash real-life superheroes who ignite the world with hope, dreams, inspiration, and strength. It has been an impressive rise, to say the least, for the Singapore-based ONE, having launched in 2011 and reaching their 100th event inside eight years. It has seen them grow to be Asia’s largest global sports media property in history with a global broadcast reach of 2.7 billion potential viewers across 150+ countries. As the world’s largest martial arts organisation, ONE has achieved some of the highest TV ratings and social media engagement metrics across Asia. With a focus on both martial arts and esports, ONE Championship is Asia’s largest global producer of live sports content for youth and millennials.  And that success, on a commercial front, attracts a coveted client roster of blue-chip Fortune 500 sponsors and advertisers, including the likes of Disney, Marvel, LG, Sony, Facebook, Haier, Kawasaki, L’Oreal, Casio, Bayer, Shiseido, Grab, Singtel, and more.  Joining this episode, to take us inside ONE Championship’s Commercial program, is their Group Chief Commercial Officer, Hari Vijayarajan. Also joining the show is Daniel Collier-Hill, KORE’s Commercial Director – APAC, to discuss his latest blog What To Consider When Returning To Sell Sponsorship.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Like any crisis, throughout COVID-19, many of you have had to deal with managing events and making decisions on canceling, postponing, or pivoting those events. Further, some of you have events on the horizon where a decision will need to be made soon. Chris Baylis is President and CEO of The Sponsorship Collective but also a founder of the Partnership Conference, held annually in Canada, and which was meant to be held what ended up being right in the middle of the COVID-19 crisis. However, early on, like so many of you, Chris and his business partner for the conference, had to decide whether to cancel, postpone, or pivot. Ultimately, the decision to postpone was made and Chris joins the show to talk, in great detail, about how they came to that decision, worked through all of the elements, and have now gone above and beyond in what they have and will continue to deliver for the partners. Also, joining the show is Daniel Collier-Hill, KORE’s Commercial Director – APAC, who discusses his latest blog, COVID-19: Sponsorship - What's Now And What's Next? Enjoy.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We have contracts for a reason. They set out the rules and expectations for us all to operate in a sponsorship for the good of all and they are set out with all the right intentions – to do good work but also to protect ourselves.What happens, however, when we get blindsided and things change so quickly, through no fault of any of the contracted parties?Sure, we know that the contracts all have force majeure clauses but how does that reconcile with our often-spruiked approach that sponsorships should be a true relationship?Also, how does that reconcile with sponsors, as a collective group, who would want the sport and entertainment industry to return to normal as quickly as possible so that they can activate sponsorships and reach their target audiences? Surely there is a vested interest in working things through?Yet, how does that happen when so many businesses are directly threatened and are dealing with an ever-changing landscape and one where there is no certainty about what the other side looks like? Will in-progress seasons be completed or abandoned? Will one-off events be shifted or simply cancelled? Who knows?Some see it is an amazing opportunity for rights holders and brands to collaborate on innovation (but that innovation still has to be executed within the contract).To help work through all of the big issues, James Earl, Partner and Head of Sport Business Group at Fladgate LLP, in London, joins us on the show to answer lots of questions about how we should all be navigating through this legal space right now.James is regarded as one of the leading experts in the international sports sector because, with over a decade of experience, he has truly unique expertise working with a broad range of national and international governing bodies, funders, teams, clubs, and investors in sport.James is exceptionally well-connected and his pragmatic guidance is consistently sought by senior stakeholders across the international sports industry. James’ deep level of experience in sport comes from working with Manchester City Football Club, the London 2012 Olympics,  2015 Rugby World Cup and also acting as sole legal adviser to the delivery vehicles for the London 2017 World Athletics and ParaAthletic Championships.Also joining us on the show is Mark Thompson, KORE Software’s former Head of International Business, who discusses his latest blog about how, in this very tough time for our industry, it is important for us all to be supporting each other in sponsorship to navigate these unknown times.Enjoy.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Part of the complexity around the conscious consumer is their expectation that brands stand for something, that they believe in something, and that they will actually do something about it. As such, if brands don’t stand, believe in, and do something, around social causes, then, these days, they are at a massive disadvantage. The nagging question is, however, can brands and rights holders truly achieve great, commercially beneficial sponsorships where a cause is positively impacted? One man who thinks they can is John Balkam who has written a great book called, 3-Win Sponsorship, The Next Generation Of Sports & Entertainment Marketing. John joins us to discuss how to create and execute sponsorships that achieve commercial goals for brands and rights holders while not just treating the cause element as an afterthought and, instead, truly integrating it. During the chat, John mentions some great examples including: Hellmann’s® Feeds a Stadium Food Waste – Real Food Rescue. More Dick's Sporting Goods CEO Says Company Destroyed $5 Million Worth of Assault Rifles to Take Them 'Off the Street'. More Lebron James’ I PROMISE School, an Akron Public School dedicated to those students who are already falling behind and in danger of falling through the cracks. More If you would like to connect with John, visit his website or connect with him on LinkedIn or Twitter. Of course, if you'd like to pick up a copy of his book, 3-Win Sponsorship, The Next Generation Of Sports & Entertainment Marketing, you can do that here. Also joining us on the show is KORE’S Sam Irvine, Director - Customer Strategy & Success, Australasia, to discuss his latest blog, which asks, and answers, the question, Governing Body vs Pro-Team - Which Has A Greater Commercial Advantage?  EnjoySee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Data has become such an essential part of the world and doing business that if you aren’t actively collecting your own first-party data, and then utilising third-party data, you really are at a massive disadvantage; especially considering that your competitors and partners are making very good use of it. As such, for those in working in rights holders, where it is often hard to differentiate your sponsorship offering and positioning, in a crowded market, not only is data powerful and essential, it may just be your biggest differentiator. Clearly, big brands and their agencies are using data, first and third-party, and you really aren’t keeping up with best practice if it isn’t an essential part of your proposals, execution and reporting. Joining us on the show, to talk all things data, digital, and analytics, is Eddie Fitzgibbon, VP, Global Solutions at 4FRONT, the global sports agency. You can connect with Eddie on LinkedIn or visit team4front.com. Daniel Collier-Hill also joins us to discuss his latest blog, which tees up our chat with Eddie very nicely, and that blog looks at Quantity vs. Quality – The Fan Segmentation Debate in Sponsorship. Enjoy.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Player appearances can be immensely powerful as part of a sponsorship. And it seems simple enough - put a huge star on stage, in front of a room of people you are trying to impress, or in a marquee as part of an activation, and you’ll engage your audience and there will probably be lots of digital to help spread it all. However, not everyone can afford the superstars and, even if you can, it isn’t always the best play when it comes to appearances. Like all sponsorship assets, it depends so much on what you are wanting to achieve. Add to that that so many sponsorship deals get ‘topped up’ with player appearances, as a bit of an add-on and a feel-good gesture, and a lot of brands, and rights holders for that matter, can miss out on the huge benefits available through appearances. This is an especially important point when you consider that many athletes are on the lookout for more paid opportunities and the chance to broaden their experiences and engage with the community. One man who knows the space well is James Begley. Not only is James the Founder, and CEO, of Pickstar, the most trusted platform for facilitating paid engagements, large and small, but he’s also been on the other side, as an athlete, when he played 61 games of Australian Rules Football with St. Kilda and Adelaide. He was one of those athletes on the lookout for more paid opportunities and the chance to broaden his own experiences and engage with his community. James joins us in this episode to discuss how rights holders and brands can maximise the use of appearances in their sponsorships. You can connect with James on LinkedIn and find out more about Pickstar on the website. Along with James, also joining us on the show is KORE’s Head of International Business, Mark Thompson, who discusses his latest blog which looks at The Changing Face of Broadcast and What This Means For Broadcast Partnerships. Enjoy.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

2019 has been a great year filled with lots of amazing chats with sponsorship professionals from all over the world. As such, we thought we’d wrap up 2019 and visit the other 13 episodes of Inside Sponsorship. You might have seen on social media that, for each show, we pull out a 30-45 second snippet and turn it into a video to help whet your appetite. As such, we’ve gone back and pulled the question and entire answer for that snippet and created a best of 2019 show for you. Along with some great highlights from the 13 episodes of 2019, also joining us is KORE’s Head of International Business, Mark Thompson, who discusses his latest blog which looks at Expanding Competition Geographies And How Sponsorship Needs To Be Approached. Enjoy.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The right look for an event can make or break the impact it has not only those attending but also those watching from afar and definitely on how sponsors, and even potential commercial partners, perceive the event. Rights holders can significantly enhance the experience for fans and corporate partners with the right look, the right environmental branding, whether it is dressing whole cities, a stadium, or an activation space. Obviously, on the partnership front, there are elements of the look of an event that will be assets or inventory that can be sold to sponsors e.g. signage, or, if you are a brand, assets that you can activate as part of your sponsorship. How the overall look is planned and executed, however, can really elevate the prestige and engagement of an event and, without putting to crude a point on it, means that rights holders can command more sponsorship dollars and brands can extract greater ROI and ROO. Interestingly, when we are immersed in an event with a well planned and executed look, it is almost seamless; we don’t really separate it from the activity of the event itself. So, we aren’t often conscious of it. We become very conscious, however, when an event’s look is not up to scratch and we definitely feel its impact on our engagement. Remember, it isn’t just us - sponsors, and potential commercial partners, are also forming perceptions when an event’s look isn’t right. One person who knows well is Sam Goodwin, Managing Director at CSM Sport and Entertainment. Sam’s experiences across events include Olympics, Commonwealth Games, and Rugby World Cups and he joins us on the show to share some great advice on how you can ensure the right look for your events and maximise your commercial revenue. You can connect with Sam on LinkedIn or visit csm.com or csmlive.com. Also, on the show, is Mark Thompson, KORE’s Head of International Business, to discuss his latest blog. Mark recently attended Leaders Week in London and has been mulling over some of the key takeaways which are very heavily focused on how data continues to dominate. Enjoy.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

There are a lot of great minds working in the sponsorship space, across brands, rights holders, and agencies. We often see a lot of movement within the community, with people moving from one rights holder to another or maybe from brand side to the rights holder side or vice versa. Although it does happen, it isn’t common, however, for someone to move from agency side to a brand, especially a large global brand with a wide-ranging sponsorship portfolio. Someone who has made the move from agency land to the brand side is Katherine Butterworth who is Mastercard Australasia’s Director of Sponsorships. Not only does Katherine get to manage amazing, big-ticket sponsorships with rights holders such as the Australian Open, Cricket Australia, and the Opera House, and work with brand ambassadors such as Richie McCaw, Katherine and her team also get the opportunity to work on, and be exposed to, international properties such as the Rugby World Cup and the Grammies. The whole Mastercard business works really hard to connect with each other, globally, and learn from and share experiences with each other. For example, Katherine and the European based team can share learnings and experiences around two of the Opens that Mastercard sponsor; the Australian Open and the French Open. In the chat, Katherine shares some of the amazing Priceless Surpises activation Mastercard undertake. Check them out. Australian Open 2019 Example 1 Example 2 Example 3 Example 4 Plus, there is the Rugby Wolrd Cup activity where a young rugby player from New Zealand received the ultimate Priceless Experience of experiencing Tokyo with Richie McCaw and attending the Rugby If you'd like to keep the conversation going, you can connect with Katherine on LinkedIn. Along with Katherine, also on the show, is Daniel Ferguson-Hill, KORE’s Commercial Manager – Australasia, who joins us to discuss his latest blog ‘Does This Sponsorship Suit My Marketing Strategy?’ which looks at the important things that brands should be considering to help them sift through all the proposals they receive.  EnjoySee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

It’s an age-old question, and challenge – how do we value our sponsorship assets? Unfortunately, there are still large parts of the rights holder section of the industry pedaling pre-determined packages, largely based on the income they are looking to generate and not necessarily the value that they can deliver. Despite some of the best brains in the industry consistently counseling against such approaches, we still see it. Yes, there are many factors that come together in an organisation that means that end up just offering pre-determined packages, but not deeply understanding the value of their sponsorship assets, as stand-alone assets, is always a contributing one. No one pretends there is a simple answer. We’ve had conversations with rights holders where they’ve been convinced there is some magic formula that can be applied that will spit out the market value of their sponsorship assets. They’ve begged us to share it with them. Sadly, there is no secret magic formula. However, led by Rob Mills, Turnstile Group are tackling this issue head-on with valuations based on actual market rates. While the industry spins in circles making subjective assumptions, Turnstile is making definitive valuations. Turnstile uses actual prices being paid for rights globally to determine real-world market values of the three key components of a sponsorship deal - Benefits, Exposure, and Intellectual Property. This unique approach not only provides realistic and quantifiable sponsorship valuations for buyers and sellers, but clear visibility across the three components of value. And, on the show, as always we also look at one of KORE’s latest blogs, and this time around, Mark Thompson KORE Software’s, Head of International Business , joins us to chat about Sponsorship Measurement and Reporting – The Fan Data Way.  Enjoy.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Some brands are just constants in the sponsorship landscape. Sure, they may move properties from time-to-time but they are always part of the experience, somewhere. How do these brands consistently figure out ways to stay relevant, engage audiences, and yet not distract from the experiences that audiences are actually there to experience? How do they keep coming up with new ideas and not go stale, while still working as part of the brands overall marketing, because those brand’s objectives and goals don’t generally experience big shifts in small amounts of time? Plus, how does sponsorship remain an important element of that overall marketing when the brands are household names already; we are highly unlikely to forget who they are? Further, while the highly visible assets are obvious, the naming rights, the signage, the uniform branding, etc. what other assets are they utilising to help achieve their goals? What do they find most valuable? To help answer all these questions, Alison Tyson, Senior Manager, Brand and Sponsorship, at Nissan, joins us on the show and provides some really interesting and insightful views into how Nissan approaches and executes their sponsorships.  As usual, we also look at one of KORE’s latest blogs, so, also joining us on the show is KORE Software’s, Commercial Manager, Australasia, Daniel-Ferguson-Hill, who asks “Is Sponsorship worth it if we don’t need the ‘Branding’ play?” Enjoy                  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We’ve all seen it; the awesome creative execution in a sports sponsorship. Sometimes it is big, bold, and complex, while other times it is so simple, both in idea and execution, that we think to ourselves: “Why didn’t I think of that?”Those executions engage and excite us; not just as consumers but as professionals in the industry (even if you don’t work in the sports sponsorship sector specifically). There is no doubt that the global sports sector is booming. eSports has quickly established itself as an important player with so much potential. That catches the eye of brands. Then there are sports that are venturing out of their homelands more and more as they try to engage with global audiences who can now stream games wherever they are. For sponsorship, it has been recently reported that global brand spend on sports sponsorships will grow to US$65 billion in 2019. That’s an average of 4% growth, per year, since 2014. As a result of this continued growth, this year, Cannes Lions created a new category that focussed exclusively on Sport. The Entertainment Lions for Sport celebrate creativity that taps into fan culture and leverages the power of sports in connecting people to brands with the jury rewarding excellence in breakthrough creativity within the sports marketing ecosystem. This includes the use of effective strategic planning, sponsorship, brand management, media, entertainment, and/or talent. Our guest this episode is Ben Hartman, Managing Director at Octagon who was a judge for the first-ever Entertainment Lions for Sport. Ben’s job was to define what best in class work looks like in the category and ultimately, what was the standard that future work would be measured against? Also joining us on the show, to discuss his latest blog, is KORE Software’s, Commercial Manager,  Australasia, Daniel-Ferguson-Hill, who has also taken a look at awards in asking ‘Is sponsorship keeping up with award trends?’.  EnjoySee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.