Stuart Wareman on what sponsors wish rights holders understood
There has long been a disconnect between the people selling sponsorship and the brands buying it. For Stuart Wareman, who has spent much of his career on the brand side managing major global partnerships, including most recently for the hotel group Accor, closing that gap requires more than better proposals or more sophisticated sales techniques. It requires rights holders to better understand the businesses they are trying to partner with.
Wareman was today appointed Chair of the European Sponsorship Association, succeeding Sophie Morris, having served on the organisation’s board since 2017.
“I passionately believe that there’s still a disconnect between the marketing industry and the sponsorship industry,” says Wareman. “Both can learn quite a lot from each other.”
On the rights holder side, he believes the focus can too often be on getting the deal done, rather than developing a deeper understanding of how marketing works, what brands are trying to achieve and ultimately why they invest in the first place.
So, what does Wareman wish more rights holders understood about their sponsors?
Understand how the sponsor actually makes money
For Wareman, understanding a prospective partner’s sponsorship objectives is not enough. Rights holders need to understand the underlying business.
That distinction matters because what sounds like an attractive sponsorship outcome does not necessarily create value for the company.
“So many rights holders will approach with a revenue sales perspective,” he explains. “‘We can drive sales to your business.’ Well, actually, unless they’re profitable, it’s not helpful.”
The real question is how the company makes money. Where does its profit come from? What is it trying to grow? What business challenge is its marketing designed to address?
“Understanding that business, how companies actually make money, is really important.”
Wareman accepts that commercial teams face a difficult balance. Research takes time and rights holders often need to approach a significant number of prospective partners to find those in a position to invest.
But he believes advances in AI have substantially weakened that excuse. Business models, financial statements and CEO commentary can now be researched and summarised quickly, giving commercial teams a much better understanding of a prospective partner before making contact.
“With the advancement of AI, I don’t think that excuse exists anymore,” he says.
At the very least, a rights holder approaching a company should understand how that company makes its money.
Understand where the money has to come from
There is another commercial reality rights holders need to understand: brands are not sitting around waiting for sponsorship proposals.
Their marketing plans have already been developed. Budgets have been allocated. Campaigns and channels have been approved.
“Brands are not waiting for sponsorships to land on their table,” says Wareman. “They’ve already got their plans.”
That means a new sponsorship investment often has to displace something that has already been approved and budgeted, unless the brand can find incremental money elsewhere.
For rights holders, that means they are not simply competing against another sports team, event or sponsorship property. They may be competing against an entirely different use of the same marketing budget.
The challenge becomes even greater when proposals arrive outside the brand’s normal budget cycle with little appreciation of what the company is already trying to achieve through the rest of its marketing communications.
It also helps explain why volume alone is a dangerous sales strategy.
Wareman has seen the “spray and pray” approach work, but describes that success as more accidental than strategic: reaching the right person, at the right moment, with the right message.
He recalls meeting a football club's new sleeve sponsor that had signed within four weeks of receiving a letter from the club's CEO. There had been no research or benchmarking behind the decision. The sponsor didn't renew.
“They didn't really realise why they were doing it. They didn't realise what to do with it.”
A cold approach might occasionally land at exactly the right moment. Without understanding why the investment makes sense for the sponsor, Wareman's experience suggests it is much harder to make that relationship last.
Understand that the whole organisation is part of the partnership
Some of Wareman’s clearest examples of the difference between a transactional sponsorship and a genuine partnership come after the contract has been signed.
“The best partnerships I’ve found have been deeply ingrained within the organisation on both sides. Not just the commercial, not just the sponsorship.”
He recalls one occasion when an executive was attending a partner hospitality event but had been booked into a competitor hotel. The sponsorship team understood the relationship. The wider organisation did not.
Procurement's priority was securing the lowest price. Finance had its own priorities. Travel continued operating as it always had. The commercial partnership never permeated through the organisation. And the sponsorship did not renew.
Wareman contrasts that with another rights holder where the CFO, finance director, procurement, travel and partnerships teams were all aligned.
The message from the CFO was simple: “You’re a partner, we push business your way.”
That organisation didn't stop at using the hotel’s brands themselves. It encouraged other sponsors to hold partner events at them, creating what Wareman describes as an entire “ecosystem of value creation”.
“You just knew they had your back and they cared about your business.”
For Wareman, that organisational alignment is fundamental. If a brand is going to invest significantly in a rights holder, the relationship cannot exist solely between the sponsor and the commercial team. Procurement, finance, travel and other relevant departments need to understand the partnership too.
Understand what the sponsor is trying to achieve throughout the partnership
Understanding the sponsor also shouldn't stop when the contract is signed.
Wareman believes strong rights holders create relationships between their sponsors, opening opportunities for joint campaigns and even new business development.
“The deeper you’re involved in that partner network, the more unlikely it is for you to come out of that partner network.”
But maintaining that value also requires rights holders to understand how the partnership is actually performing for the sponsor.
That can mean being flexible with contracted rights. If a sponsor has bought something it isn't using effectively, Wareman believes there should be a willingness to substitute it for something more capable of delivering against its objectives.
His experience, however, is that those conversations are still more likely to be initiated by the brand.
For Wareman, the principle is straightforward: understand what the sponsor is trying to achieve when you sell the partnership, and keep trying to understand it for as long as the partnership lasts.
Ultimately, all four points come back to the same issue. Rights holders don't just need to understand sponsorship. They need to understand the businesses buying it.
