Author: Sean Connell

Sean Connell is the Editor of The Sponsor, a magazine dedicated to the business of sponsorship. With a background in brand and asset valuation at Brand Finance and experience advising both sponsors and rights holders, Sean brings industry-leading insight into what makes partnerships valuable, measurable, and impactful.

Why IBM’s Wimbledon renewal is the sponsorship all brands should envy

Why IBM’s Wimbledon renewal is the sponsorship all brands should envy

Jan 7, 2026 |

IBM and Wimbledon have just extended their partnership for another multi-year term, taking one of sport’s most enduring commercial relationships beyond 35 years. In an industry obsessed with novelty, few sponsorships survive a single leadership cycle, let alone three decades. Fewer still are renewed because they continue to do exactly what both sides...
Behind closed doors: What sponsors really think about measurement

Behind closed doors: What sponsors really think about measurement

Dec 4, 2025 |

On 27th November, The Sponsor hosted a Leaders Roundtable debate at the St James’s Club in Mayfair, where senior brand and marketing leaders gathered to tackle one of the industry’s most persistent measurement questions: how do you credibly demonstrate sponsorship returns? The ambition was straightforward. The reality, as anyone in the room will attest, was anything...
Inside Audi F1’s new sponsorship: Exclusive interview with Perk CMO Jada Balster

Inside Audi F1’s new sponsorship: Exclusive interview with Perk CMO Jada Balster

Dec 1, 2025 |

Audi’s future F1 team has added Perk as its second sponsor, agreeing a multi-year partnership that will see the intelligent travel and spend management platform take a prominent place across the car, team kit and driver helmets once Audi joins the grid. Perk, formerly TravelPerk, recently rebranded to reflect its evolution from a business travel specialist into an...
Data driven sposnsorship