Ghosting, Friend Zone, whatever you want to call it…sometimes after a great pitch and initial interest from a partner, we get radio silence.
This is not specific to sports & event sponsorship…this happens in ALL of sales. You will get ghosted in...
I hear this a lot from teams. And it is a bit scary. In fact, I heard this recently from a notable team:
“I think you are overstating the number of times fans are looking at their phones on game day.”
My jaw...
I’m young in this game. I’ve only been doing this for 5 years in the world of sports.
That is selling sponsorship.
I look back at the early days of sports sponsorship…seeing Ebbets Field in the ’20s filled with signs of Chesterfield Cigarettes....
Nothing is worse when you get an ad when there is no way you fit the product.
My favorite is when I get cat offers from a certain pet store (I won’t say which one).
Two issues there:
I own a dog….so you...
Every time I hear Mike Johnston dive into building culture…I’m blown away.
For those of you who don’t know who Mike Johnston is, he is the Vice President, General Manager, and Head Coach of the Portland Winterhawks Hockey Club in the Western...
In an over-saturated attention market standing out is key. Sponsors have Instagram ads to grab that attention…but those are getting pretty oversaturated.
I’ve talked before about how your influence as a team can help with the over-saturation. A logo from a team...
If a sponsorship activation is posted, but no fan engages with it...did it really even happen?
Well, it did, mainly because you as the brand paid for it. But the return on your investment went out the door along with your chances...
You saw the headline, you were thinking “Yes, the perfect email I can copy, paste, & send out to close $1M in deals”.
I know, we’ve seen them all before (many times on platforms just like this). Someone posts the perfect cold...
More inventory doesn’t mean more value. It usually means less.
For years, sports sponsorship has operated under a quiet assumption: if revenue is the goal, inventory is the answer.
Add more signage. Create more assets. Open more...
I’ve been spending a lot of time thinking about what sponsorships in sports have become...and what they were always meant to be.
Not from the perspective of inventory or impressions. Not CPMs, logo counts, or “media...
There’s a temptation in business—especially in sports sponsorships—to believe that reach is everything. The bigger the audience, the bigger the impact. The more logos, the better. The wider the net, the more fish you’ll catch.
But...
“The goal is not to fit in. The goal is to resonate.”— Rick Rubin
The Misconception of Attention
Most sponsorships start from the wrong place.
We assume the audience will care.We assume the logo is enough.We assume that...
In the world of sports sponsorships, creativity is often boxed into a role: something that belongs to the agency, the graphic designer, or the "creative team."
But what if creativity wasn’t a department—it was a mindset?
What...
In sports, perfection is often the illusion.
A perfect record. A flawless play. A pristine image on the jumbotron.
But in the realm of sponsorship, where connection matters more than control, perfection can be a liability. It...
In the high-stakes world of sports sponsorships, where millions are spent on visibility, impressions, and association, a powerful truth often gets lost: fans don't show up for brands.
They show up for the love of the...
I'm always interested in the exact definitions of the words we use. Sometimes, they can be powerful in understanding the meaning behind the everyday language we use.
The definition of the word Resolution is "a firm...
Predicting the future is a seductive pursuit, yet it’s often an exercise in navigating uncertainty with incomplete information.
While patterns and data can provide a glimpse into what might be, the future is shaped by countless...
