Rachel Froggatt, 13 March 2024

Since launching Away We Go – Matike Mai in early 2023, I’ve been out and about in market quite a bit and I calculate that I would have spoken to over 150 potential sponsors in the past 12 months.

I thought it might be very useful if I shared some insights from these interactions for all of you out there hunting for new potential sponsors! Click here to read Part One in a series of articles; this looks at the importance of the brand budget cycle and the need to differentiate and personalise pitches.

Last week, I talked about the ‘pinch’ everyone is feeling right now – we are all seeing costs go up (reportedly by 20%+), while available government investment goes down (reportedly by 15%+).

In this tough environment, everyone you can possibly think of is running around seeking investment wherever they can find it – not just sports, but every charity or community organisation in Aotearoa New Zealand is feeling the same pinch and approaching the same business community for assistance.

Its counterintuitive, but this week – I want to chat about slowing the pace in a fast-paced market.

Take the time to get your pre-market planning sorted out:

If you are the income generating Chief Executive of a small sports business, or indeed the Commercial Director or Commercial Manager of a medium or large one – I have no doubt you are under significant pressure right now. For certain, all eyes are on you – from the Chair of the Board down to the very newest of interns – all knowing that your work has a material impact on the delivery of planned programming.

When this is happening, I’ve found it can be very easy to rush – or be pulled – in a million directions. Your Board or CEO is asking for weekly, if not daily, updates on progress. You’re being told constantly that money is needed, fast. Everyone has an opinion on what you should be doing, when and how.

To senior leadership with no, or limited, experience in commercial development: the number of meetings you take and the number of pitches you send out can feel like an accurate measure of your commitment to the task and your potential to be successful.

In my view, more often than not, it’s simply a poor use of scarce resource and a lot of time wastage. Due to the speed you are being required to work at and your reporting demands, approaches to brands become watered down, without the differentiation and personalisation I talked about last week. The two things that, in a tough market, can make or break a pitch.

This is a pitfall called ‘scatter-gunning’ – more about this and how to avoid it, further down.

Added to this, there appears to be a lot of turnover of commercial development personnel across the sport sector right now. If you are new to your role – and need to prove yourself – it can be tempting to jump straight in. It’s also likely your boss is encouraging you to: “start getting runs on the board.”

Now is the time to stop for a moment. Take a breath. In times of economic downturn, quality – not quantity – will win you the race.

Last week, I talked about the importance of understanding the budget cycle and knowing that this process is becoming more and more rigid as time passes. Opportunities to make a pitch for spare cash are few and far between – because brands don’t have spare cash.

Instead, their sponsorships are more often being determined through a careful vetting process that determines what I call the Strategic Fit (the technical alignment with brand strategy); the Functional Fit (the operational alignment with organisational purpose) and the Responsive Fit (the emotional connection provoked).

Make sure that when you go to market, you have pre-planned your sponsor acquisition strategy.

This means:

• Knowing exactly who your fans are (demographics), where they are (physical and digital geographics), how they think (psychographics) and how they engage with you (behavioural characteristics).

• Being able to prove a meaningful relationship with your fans (through events, content and initiatives).

• Being able to demonstrate the bridge you provide to help potential sponsors connect with your fans.

• Potentially adjusting your external programming to make it more ‘saleable’ of potential sponsors.

• Auditing your rights and benefits to make sure you have the right mix of ‘hard rights’ (traditional partner benefits like branding) and ‘soft rights’ (the proactive activities that make you, unique).

• And re-shaping your marketing and communications to tell a more compelling public story.

It also means sorting out your pitch story to show your potential sponsor that you understand their business. Demonstrating how your fans are a desirable group of consumers. That you can add value to their brand strategy (technical fit). That you share a similar vision and values (functional fit). And that you are well regarded, professional, and that a partnership with you will make sense to key stakeholders including shareholders, customers, employees, suppliers and others (responsive fit).

Show them that a partnership with you is a perfect solution to meet their business challenges.

And this brings us to the dreaded pitfall: ‘scatter-gunning.’ Do what you can to avoid this!

‘Scatter-gunning’ is the practice of shooting out approaches all over the place, with no apparent rhyme or reason. It often happens when there is no defined partner acquisition strategy, or when the person leading sponsor acquisition its under pressure to deliver on KPIs urgently.

I’ve talked about how crowded the marketplace is previously, so ‘scatter-gunning’ – and the fact so many organisations are doing it at the moment – simply adds to the clutter and makes it harder than ever to reach key decision-makers.

Unless you are cut-through sports brand like the All Blacks, its unlikely to get a response.

Once you have completed your pre-market planning, you will be in a fantastic position to be strategic about target industry sectors and brands to approach. Especially if you have invested in some excellent market insights from experts like Honoco.

Pre-market planning narrows the field considerably and allows you to focus on differentiation and personalisation of your sponsor approaches. Because you are already looking at organisations that have a strategic or creative interest in the same things you do.

And this, friends, gives you your unique conversation starter. It allows you to lean into a personal introduction to a brand leader, or even indeed – make a dreaded cold call or send a cold email. Because you are starting with something that is actually relevant to them and should catch their attention.

Slowing down - being far more intentional and making sure to prioritise quality over quantity - is how to separate yourself from the clutter. 

===

Team, next week I am away at the SportNXT Summit in Melbourne for a week, so I’ll post whatever I find interesting there up on to my LinkedIn!

When I am back, I’ll carry on posting this series of insights. Hope you are enjoying it!

===

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!