News is breaking today about the extent of state-sponsored doping within Russian sport. The post below is a revised and abbreviated version of an article that first appeared in the March 2016 issue of The Sponsorship Report. Hard-core fans are indifferent to scandal, says Ann Pegoraro, Director of the Institute for Sport Marketing and Associate […]
News
The perils of the guileless YouTube star
There’s a familiar arc to the story of many young YouTube stars. It begins with the discovery of a video camera sometime in early teens. It proceeds to an upload to YouTube of a primitive production, something guileless and genuine cast adrift like a message in a bottle tossed into the sea with no real […]
Kim Skildum-Reid is coming to Toronto
In the sponsorship firmament, no star shines more brightly than Kim Skildum-Reid. From her base in Sydney, Australia, over the 15 years that I have known her Kim has transformed the conversation about corporate sponsorship. So much of what we now understand as best practices can be traced back to her consulting work and her […]
A kind word about Rob Ford
Let me say something good about Rob Ford. Toronto’s most famous Chief Magistrate probably won’t be remembered for his October 2013 junket to Austin, Texas. A month later, he would admit that the rumours about him were true and suddenly nobody cared to write headlines about his plans to learn from Austin’s success as a […]
Canada’s Team? Prove it.
I’m waiting, a bit impatiently, for the opening of the American League Divisional Series October 8 at Rogers Centre in Toronto. Yes, I’m waiting for the game, but I’m also waiting to see how the stadium will be decorated, and I’m preparing to be disappointed. For years now, and likely since the demise of the […]
Storytelling or Compelling Narrative?
Sing in me, Muse, and through me tell the story of that man skilled in all ways of contending, the wanderer, harried for years on end, after he plundered the stronghold on the proud height of Troy. So begins Homer’s Odyssey, or at least the translation of it that sits on my bookshelf. I’ll admit […]
A sport transformed. Thanks, Stacey.
With everyone else, I learned this morning that Stacey Allaster is resigning as Chair and CEO of the Women’s Tennis Association. As someone who covers the sponsorship business, I’m saddened because Stacey is one of the most remarkable people I’ve ever had the pleasure of knowing. But how can you not admire a decision rooted […]
Never let the truth get in the way of a good story
When public sector organizations become involved in sponsorship, they have to prepare for scrutiny from a public and media that really don’t understand what sponsorship is about. Usually, it happens when the public agency is the vendor of sponsorship rights. The story below is about a public agency as purchaser, but it also illustrates the […]
Double Your Revenue
We’ve been running workshops and conferences since 2000, when we acquired The Sponsorship Report. Back then, we ran Selling Sponsorships: Strategies for Success, and it was at the first of those conferences that I met Judy Haber. I was immediately blown away. Judy is the best salesperson I have ever known. She lives and breathes […]
Purposeful Cooperation
There are a few untouchable sponsorship categories. By law, tobacco for instance. If youth may be involved, alcohol brands have made the ethical choice to remain offstage. So what about Big Oil? Though the industry is in a bit of a funk right now and is pulling back on sponsorship spending, I’ve been struck by […]