Specsavers’ Neil Liddle on why the best sponsorships start with a clear objective
Sponsorship is exciting. Consequently, it is very easy to get drawn in by the idea of your brand being linked to a major sporting moment. That is why so many deals still begin with a cold outreach or a well-placed introduction.
The problem is that the chances of the right opportunity for your brand, one that genuinely delivers against a specific business objective, being the one that lands in your inbox are close to zero.
The most effective sponsorships start with a clear business objective.
That is exactly what happened at Specsavers. The business set out to improve brand consideration. Sponsorship was then tasked with helping deliver that objective.
We spoke to Neil Liddle, Brand Partnerships & Sponsorships Lead at Specsavers, to understand how that process led to a new multi-year partnership with parkrun.
Start with the business problem
Specsavers set out to solve a clear challenge: improving brand consideration.
That clarity did not happen by accident. “At the start of the process, we had a very clear set of objectives,” Liddle says. “It was about understanding exactly what we were trying to do, who we were trying to reach, and how we could bring the brand to life against that.”
Sponsorship isn’t treated as a default starting point. It sits within the broader mix, alongside other channels, all working towards the same goal. As Liddle explains, “When we’re looking at solving marketing challenges, different channels and platforms come together to shape the response. The business then decides which combination will deliver most effectively.”
That framing matters. It forces sponsorship to justify itself against alternatives, rather than being chosen because of habit, legacy or the appeal of a particular property. At Specsavers, sponsorship only moved forward because it was judged to be an effective way of delivering against a defined objective.
From objective to opportunity
Once the role for sponsorship was clear within the broader approach, the focus naturally shifted to finding a partner that could genuinely deliver against the brief. The search was deliberately broad, spanning sport, culture and entertainment, rather than defaulting to familiar categories.
“We weren’t necessarily looking at sport,” Liddle says. “Working alongside Strive Sponsorship, we looked at music, cultural opportunities as well.”
That process was not quick. “This had been brewing for a long time, probably 12 months,” he says. “We went to market with that set of objectives, looked at a broad range of opportunities, and narrowed it down based on what could genuinely deliver against the brief.”
The requirement was specific. Specsavers needed national reach to influence consideration at scale, but it also needed local relevance because of its store network and its role within communities. Most properties could offer one or the other. Very few could offer both.
Parkrun stood out because it solved that exact problem. With more than 1,300 weekly events across the UK, it provides national visibility while remaining deeply embedded in local communities.
“It’s a national organisation, but it’s also rooted in towns and villages across the country,” Liddle explains. “That combination made it a really strong fit for us.”
“We’re a brand that commands national attention, but we also have a network of stores embedded in local communities,” he adds. “parkrun could do both. That’s actually quite rare.”
The audience alignment reinforced the decision. parkrun’s core demographic closely matched the group Specsavers was targeting, while the shared focus on health created a natural platform for the partnership.
“We talk about changing lives through better sight and hearing. parkrun is about helping people live healthier lives. There’s a clear connection there.”
Importantly, parkrun was not the starting point. It was the result of a structured process built around the original objective.
Defining a role within the partnership
Identifying the right partner is only part of the equation. The more difficult challenge is determining how the brand should show up.
Rather than arriving with a pre-defined activation plan, Specsavers took a more considered approach. Early analysis showed that despite parkrun’s accessibility, certain groups remain underrepresented, including people with visual impairments, hearing impairments and those with mobility challenges or who are socially isolated.
Those audiences align directly with the core pillars of Specsavers’ business. But instead of jumping straight to a solution, the team focused on understanding the problem in more detail.
“The key is not to make assumptions,” Liddle says. “It’s to understand the barriers and find out where we can genuinely help.”
That role is not about visibility, it is about credibility. “We know parkrun is accessible, but we also know some groups are underrepresented,” he says. “The opportunity for us is to understand those barriers and play a meaningful role, not just turn up and say we’re doing something.”
To do that, Specsavers has invested in research and focus groups to explore why these audiences are underrepresented and what practical steps could improve accessibility. The aim is to define a role within the partnership that is both credible and useful, rather than simply visible.
This approach has already been recognised by parkrun itself, which has indicated it sees the partnership as a benchmark for how brand partners should engage.
Clarity drives impact
There is a clear structural advantage to building sponsorship in this way. When a partnership is rooted in a specific objective, every decision that follows can be measured against it.
In this case, the question is straightforward: does this improve consideration?
That clarity sharpens execution, aligns stakeholders and makes measurement more meaningful. Instead of trying to justify the existence of the partnership, the focus shifts to evaluating how effectively it is delivering against its intended purpose.
“It wasn’t a quick process,” Liddle says. “But that’s because we were making sure everything linked back to that objective from the start.”
“We now have a platform to get it right,” he adds. “The business understands what sponsorship can do and how it can hit those objectives.”
That internal understanding is significant. It reflects a shift in how sponsorship is viewed, from a peripheral activity to a strategic tool that can directly contribute to business outcomes.
A valuable asset to the business
The Specsavers and parkrun partnership is not defined by its scale, but by its discipline. A clear objective, a structured process to identify the right solution, and a deliberate effort to define a meaningful role within the partnership.
None of those steps are complex in isolation. But together, they create a framework that makes sponsorship more effective, more measurable and more valuable to the business.
