Rodrigo Coelho, SVP and Managing Director at Momentum Canada, says that marketers can do more to maximize the impact of sponsorship.
We all believe that sponsorships present a unique opportunity for brands to get in front of passionate audiences and be part of important life moments. In meaningful ways we can truly engage specific audiences with any type of brand.
With sponsorship, there’s an incredible value exchange that comes with well executed creative alongside clever media placement, delivering significantly enhanced reach. Global sponsorship deals create endless opportunities and can be enhanced significantly when localized with authentically relevant creative.
It’s never been more important that we recognize this potential because ahead of us is a massive sporting moment. Global events will be held here in Canada with the FIFA World Cup 2026 and LA28. The rise of women’s sport viewership is unprecedented, female national leagues are starting in 2025 and the WNBA having a Canadian team in 2026.
But to maximize the impact of these partnerships, we need to work harder to close the gap on sponsorship being mere media placement to seeing viewing them as creative canvasses for driving success. It is vital that we evaluate the opportunities for creative ideas to live with all sponsorships before pressing play.
Change your metrics for success
That’s because we’ve entered a vicious cycle where ROI is superficial, where effectiveness is measured using traditional media metrics to justify spend. For example, impressions, leads, awareness and so on, none of which truly measure how fans feel, how sponsorship attribution changed consideration, how it impacted sales, how it changed the organizational culture for employees, or how it created opportunities to establish lasting legacies.
I’m not claiming traditional metrics don’t give us directional pointers, I’m simply saying it’s a limited view that sets brands up for comparison against advertising, which is usually created to meet top-of-the-funnel objectives while sponsorships can impact the full funnel.
Truly effective sponsorships are win-win-win relationships between brands, rights holders and people (including fans, participants, athletes, communities, and employees). When done well they become company-wide platforms.
Be creative across all audiences
Beyond this, I believe that sponsorships must be multi-dimensional, an opportunity to use powerful creative chops to develop original locally relevant work that will connect with brands entire ecosystem of audiences, from factory workers to sales folk, from consumers to retailers, from grass to mass, from press to Government relations, from viewers to participants, and for collaborations with other sponsors and their employees.
In terms of taking action, here’s where I’d start:
- Identify a credible/ownable brand role that can make a difference and keep it consistent.
- Deliver creative for the platform by making it relevant for fans versus trying to force fit functional product attributes.
- Explore the full ecosystem of opportunities by making it a company-wide rally.
Right now, there’s a problem because decisions to buy into sponsorships are taken based on defining metric successes before identifying how they will work for brands and how best to deliver them successfully. Asset negotiations are being held without even having the creative or the brand roles identified. A brand should explore partnerships with a clear vision of what to do with it.
For example, ask the question, is it best that sponsors should explore a more custom consultive approach to negotiations? Is it the creative agencies that should be the neutral party that focus on understanding business problems and audiences to connect the dots?
With those big global events about to arrive in Canada, the marketing industry has the opportunity to change the game at a massive scale. Are we ready?
Momentum Canada is a member of the Institute of Canadian Agencies (ICA). Report on Marketing is where leading Canadian agencies showcase their insights, cutting-edge research and client successes. The Report on Marketing provides a valuable source of thought leadership for Canadian marketers to draw inspiration from. Find more articles like this at the Report on Marketing.
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