Rachel Froggatt, 4 March 2024

In my career, I have had the very good fortune to work “on both sides of the fence”, with 15 years in global sports sponsorship across Formula 1, football, rugby, cricket and more, plus 10 years “back home” working for a variety of sports rights-holders including NZ Rugby, the Blues Charitable Trust, Whai Basketball; and social causes including Paralympics NZ and Women in Sport Aotearoa.

This, I think, has given me an excellent grounding to interpret the behaviour of both sponsors and sports rights-holders!

Since launching Away We Go ~ Matike Mai, I’ve been out and about in market quite a bit and calculate I would have spoken to over 150 potential sponsors in the past 12 months: both large and small; national and regional; experienced and not experienced; interested and not interested.

As we all head into another busy year, I thought it might be cool to share a few insights!

The budget cycle is more important than ever:

The days of “striking it lucky” are fading fast.

Those halcyon days where a rights-holder puts forward a pitch at just the right moment to secure funding as the budget cycle ends, when there is money waiting to be spent, or it gets ‘taken away’ from the budget-holder. Or at the start of a cycle, when the budget-holder is feeling ‘flush’ and is open to new opportunities.

Or indeed, simply when budget is available for the right opportunities.

Today, knowing where a potential sponsor is in their budget cycle, and how they plan, is crucial.

For some, budgets roll over with the tax year (30 March). For some it’s the financial year (30 June). For some, it’s the calendar year (31 December). And some work to dates set by the SLT or the board.

You will plan better by knowing that the budgeting process can start anywhere up to 6 months before the budget date. By knowing that draft budgets are often reviewed 2-3 times (or more!), and trimmed continuously, before being finalised – and in this economy, pretty much “set in stone”. And by knowing that sometimes, provisional budgets for the following year are created at the same time.

So, what does all this mean for the sports rights-holder, hopeful of securing a new sponsor?

It means understanding and working to leverage the budget date of your potential sponsor. Remember, it’s not the first question you can ask – securing sponsorship is a bit like dating, and asking how much money your date has and how and when they spend it is certain to be off-putting!

But once you have made a connection with a potential sponsor - you have captured their interest, and you are engaging in a positive conversation about working together in future – quietly finding out what processes they follow around budget will save you a lot of time and heartache.

You’ll know when the next budget cycle starts and quickly determine whether the opportunity for you to be invested into is realistic, or whether you are working toward the following budget year.

You’ll be able to empathise with what pain the budget-holder has to go through to gets funds signed-off, and, with this knowledge, you’ll be able to help them make a case for investment into you. You’ll know that they engage in a fist-fight with their colleagues every year to secure the money they need.

And you’ll be able to create a sponsorship pipeline, connected to real world knowledge of when an opportunity is likely to come about. Making reporting to your own SLT and board that much simpler.

Differentiation and personalisation is key to success:

It’s loud out there. Really, really loud. I mean, really, really, really loud.

As a sports rights-holder, you are now competing for sponsorship against every level of the sports system. Because everyone - from professional sports organisations, to national sports organisations (NSOs), to regional sports trusts (RSTs) to clubs at every level of the community - are seeing costs go up (reportedly by 20%+), while available government investment goes down (reportedly by 15%+).

The pinch is real. And not just limited to sport. Every charity or community organisation in Aotearoa New Zealand is feeling the same pinch and approaching the same business community for assistance.

Potential sponsors are literally getting hundreds of approaches every month; some have now even resorted to having gatekeepers dedicated to blocking approaches and sending out rejection emails.

So, what does all this mean for the sports rights-holder, hopeful of securing a new sponsor?

Differentiation is key. Setting yourself apart from the competition by developing what I like to call a 360-degree commercial proposition. Gone are the days of simply being a great sports team seeking investment to keep performing on the court or the pitch. You have to also be doing great things for your fans, for your community, and for Aotearoa New Zealand. You have mana, how are you using it?

And this ties into personalisation. When you pitch a potential sponsor, ask yourself – am I prioritising the needs of the target partner in my approach, or am I simply talking about what I need from them? Have I analysed their behaviours? Can I see what they are doing? Can I pitch myself as a solution? Can this open conversation that allows creation of a partnership, with benefits flowing both ways?

At the heart of this is a simple fact: sponsors want the fan. Do you know your fan? (demographics). Do you know where they are (digital and physical geographics). How they think? (psychographics). And how they behave in relation to you? (behavioural characteristics). Can you prove that your 360-degree proposition will create an authentic bridge between the potential sponsor and your fan? Do your fans actually fit this brand’s objectives?

The reality is: sports rights-holders now need to work harder than ever to differentiate themselves from market clutter and position themselves as a solution to the needs of the potential sponsor.

Next time, I’ll talk about pre-market planning and how to move away from “scatter-gunning” (shooting approaches out all over the place, with no rhyme or reason – adding to current clutter).

Stay tuned!

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Away We Go ~ Matike Mai is a commercial and marketing consultancy with a difference: we combine extensive global and local commercial sport expertise with broad social impact programming experience. We mainly work with sports organisations, business and government to deliver community, high performance and social development outcomes for women and girls, disabled people, Māori and Pacifica, youth, and those groups less privileged across our society. We do this by designing revenue strategy and supporting income generation to fund key programmes; by creating and delivering tailored social impact initiatives and fan engagement campaigns; and by providing training and capability building services.

Have a look at our work and if we sound like a good fit for you, get in touch today!