This partnership highlights Canadian Tire's commitment to community and sport, resonating with their longstanding support for sports initiatives across Canada.

Mark Harrison, the founder of SponsorshipX, expressed his gratitude for Canadian Tire's support. He remarked, "Having Canadian Tire's backing for this incredible forum is a testament to our shared belief in the power of sport to unite and inspire. Their involvement elevates our platform focused on the future of sports marketing.“

Ashley Curran from Canadian Tire also shared her thoughts, stating, "SponsorshipX plays a pivotal role in shaping the Canadian partnership community. We admire their dedication to innovation and their influence in driving meaningful conversations in the sports world.“

This partnership is more than just a corporate sponsorship; it's a collaboration that underscores the importance of sport in building communities and shaping futures. The event, set in Toronto, promises to be a melting pot of ideas and inspiration, fostering growth and innovation in sports marketing.

For more information on Canadian Tire's community initiatives, you can visit their website (corp.canadiantire.ca/community), and for details about SponsorshipX Toronto, visit (sponsorshipx.com/toronto2024). To learn more about Mark Harrison and his work, visit his personal website (https://www.markharrison3.com), and for insights from Ashley Curran, her LinkedIn profile is available (linkedin.com/in/ashleycurran).

We are thrilled to welcome Trajektory as the Navigator Partner of SponsorshipX Toronto, Presented by Canadian Tire at Rogers NHL® All-Star. 

“We are so excited to be partnering with SponsorshipX Toronto at Rogers NHL All-Star. To be doing it in Toronto, a location that’s special to our company, during an event with a league where over two-thirds of the teams depend on our platform for their sponsorship reporting needs, there’s really no better fit for us.” - Alex Kerr, CEO & Founder of Trajektory. 

Alex invites all conference attendees to look for the Trajektory Crew at SponsorshipX Toronto to talk about how you might be able to leverage data and AI processes in sponsorship reporting and valuation. Watch for Alex on stage sharing data insights throughout the forum and connect with the Trajektory at either our registration desk or through the user-friendly conference app. 

Company Description

Brands spend nearly $100B a year in sponsorship. However, the average sponsorship report accounts for less than 10% of what brands actually activate on, leaving billions of dollars unaccounted for.

Trajektory provides access to accurate and integrity-driven sponsorship data across digital and non-digital assets by aggregating and analyzing more sources than any other sponsorship platform. By evaluating sponsorships comprehensively in real-time, our customers can retire over $100K on legacy vendor spend, save over 1,200 hours a year on data preparation, and report on nearly 100% of their sponsorship portfolio.

Built by industry professionals who have sat in your seats, our commitment to integrity and innovation ensures that you stay ahead in the game, transforming your sponsorship strategies into success stories that resonate. With better insights, Trajektory customers optimize their sponsorship decision-making and maximize revenue.

With the most accurate and integrity-driven data in the industry, our platform has been adopted by two-thirds of the NHL and is utilized by teams, brands and agencies such as Verizon, Paragon, Continental Tire, Top Golf, MLSE, Montreal Canadiens, Seattle Seahawks, Toronto Blue Jays and over 50 more. 

“Hoping” a sponsorship works is not a strategy. Trajektory allows you to go from hoping your sponsorship works to knowing it will work. 

He has been at the organization's helm since 2014, steering it through significant growth. A champion for community-led initiatives, he currently serves on the Board of Directors of the Stephen Lewis Foundation, which funds grassroots efforts to fight HIV and AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa.

A former Chair of Volunteer Toronto, Canada’s largest volunteer centre, Colin is committed to public service. In 2020, he was named a DiverseCity Fellow by CivicAction, a recognition that underscores his dedication to inclusive civic engagement.

Originally from Cole Harbour, Nova Scotia, Colin earned his Bachelor of Fine Arts in painting from NSCAD University in Halifax. He supplemented his skills through executive education programs at the Rotman School of Management and Cornell University. In 2020, he completed the Strategic Perspectives in Nonprofit Management program at Harvard Business School.

At 16, he and his brother founded a tree planting company that sold carbon credits to businesses, a venture that saw over $1 million dollars in contracts, and planted 150,000 trees. This venture helped pave the way to the founding of tentree in 2012, where Derrick operates as the CEO, guiding the Company's vision and strategy.

tentree is a lifestyle brand that plants ten trees for every product sold. In just under a decade, tentree has set new standards in the sustainable apparel world while also leading to the planting of almost 100 million trees.

In 2021, after identifying a need for more transparency in the global reforestation space, Derrick, along with his partners, launched a technology company - veritree - focused on building the tools to monitor, verify, audit, and amplify global reforestation work. In just two short years, veritree has supported over 100 businesses to invest in nature in a transparent, auditable, and impactful way.

Your company will benefit from the unique insights you will gain from hearing about new partnership opportunities ranging from high-tech to high-impact. 

Your programs will benefit from meeting new partners, collaborators, sponsors, and supporters. 

You will benefit from being inspired by spending forty-eight hours eating, cheering, workshopping, and hanging with some of the most enthusiastic people the sports marketing community offers. 

So bring a colleague and buy two passes for just $ 1095 and get your 2024 energized!

MH3

By Ian Malcolm

The Evolution of Sponsorship: A WFA Report in Partnership with Lumency

Sponsorship as a form of marketing pressure, once largely emotionally driven and lacking strategic depth, has undergone a revolutionary transformation in recent years. The Lumency report, The Evolution of Sponsorship, published in partnership with the World Federation of Advertisers (WFA), aims to unravel the current state of sponsorship, drawing insights from research drawn from by participating WFA members in Q2 of 2023.  Respondents represented brand, procurement, and sponsorship-specific roles within their organizations. These organizations boast a combined estimated annual sponsorship spend of USD $6.9 billion, approximately 7% of the estimated global sponsorship spend. 

What follows is a summary of the report, published in late 2023. 

CURRENT STATE

Navigating the current consumer landscape, especially with the challenges posed by engaging Generation Z and Alpha cohorts, has become more complex. Global sponsorship spending by brands reached USD $97.4 billion in 2022 and is expected to soar to USD $189.5 billion by 2030, representing a compounded annual growth rate of 8.7%. Aligning with these projections, 34% of brands anticipate increasing their sponsorship budgets in the next two to three years.

With a surge in spending through this decade, sponsorship is poised to become an increasingly vital form of marketing pressure. It provides a unique opportunity for brands to forge emotional connections by engaging target audiences through shared passion points, enriching their experiences as fans, patrons, guests, or attendees. Moreover, sponsorship serves as a powerful platform for brands to showcase their values, drive attribution and impact marketing/sales funnel activity through strategic activations around sponsored properties.

Brands foresee refining their sponsorship approach in three key areas over the next three to five years:

• Improved Process: A shift towards more data-driven analysis, robust evaluation, and enhanced measurement tools

• Enhanced Strategy: Adoption of a more evidence-based approach to decision-making regarding sponsorships

• More Choiceful: Prioritizing fewer, larger, and more impactful sponsorships with enhanced activation strategies

Despite this positive outlook, a mere 5% of brands express high confidence in the efficacy of their sponsorship portfolio investments in 2023. In contrast, 51% of brands report being neutral, not so confident, or not at all confident. This is concerning since, on average, sponsorship constitutes 12% of a brand’s marketing budget, second only to media spend.

PAIN POINTS

Measurement

Chief among the challenges faced by brands in their sponsorship activities is measurement. The majority identify measuring the return on investment (ROI) as a top-three challenge. Yet, post-evaluation and impact measurement receive only 1% of the sponsorship budget, with 21% of brands allocating nothing to this critical aspect. The dissatisfaction with their organizations’ measurement approaches is clear, with brands expressing a need for more robust and category-specific measurement models.

Governance

Effective governance, encompassing the process and frameworks used to manage sponsorship investments, is essential. Although 58% of brands report having a sponsorship strategy, 45% lack a governance framework. This gap poses challenges in managing renewal cycles, ensuring organizational alignment, and committing to effective activation design.

Property Selection and Evaluation

Proper evaluation of sponsorship opportunities emerges as one of the critical functions for success. Surprisingly, only 31% of brands use a model or framework to determine the commercial value of rights and entitlements. This misses on the importance of a comprehensive evaluation that factors in rights valuation, brand fit, target efficiency, activation opportunity, reputational risk, and negotiation strategy.

Activation

Activation, functioning as the bridge between sponsorship value and measurable impact, faces hurdles. A significant 41% of sponsors report being unsure or not tracking their activation spending. This misses against the best practice and the importance of maintaining balanced activation-to-rights fee ratios to optimize return on investment.

Sourcing/Procurement/Funding

The management of sponsorship budgets varies, with 47% of brands having dedicated procurement resources. Procurement can be more than just negotiators, emphasizing their potential to bring structure, governance, and added value. Establishing organizational stakeholder funding formulas that guide how sponsorship investments are funded is crucial for organizational alignment and effective utilization of resources.

THE ROAD AHEAD

With sponsorship spending set to grow at an 8.7% compounded annual rate from 2023 to the end of the decade, brands grapple with short and mid-term macro-economic uncertainty, impacting marketing budgets and complicating long-term sponsorship commitments.

Brands are increasingly adopting a data-driven approach to access, activate, and measure sponsorships. They seek heightened accountability from property/rights-holder partners, demanding proof of capabilities tailored to their unique needs. Customized asset packages and deeper engagement by properties in the brand’s business are becoming essential for successful partnerships.

As brands balance their expected investment levels, with 35% anticipating an increase, 31% expecting no change, and 29% expecting a decrease in sponsorship spend over the next two to three years, the need for strategic decision-making, effective measurement, and value-driven activations becomes more apparent.

CONCLUSION

The Evolution of Sponsorship provides valuable insights into the dynamic landscape of sponsorship, unraveling the challenges faced by brands, outlining the trajectory of this potent form of marketing pressure and providing advice for change. While short-term uncertainties persist, sponsorship spending is poised for significant growth, emphasizing its increasing importance in establishing emotional connections with consumers through shared passions and values. Despite the existing pain points related to measurement, governance, property selection, and activation, brands are positioning to better leverage sponsorship’s potential for creating meaningful connections and delivering measurable impact on brand and commercial objectives.

For a copy of the full report, reach out to Ian Malcolm, President and CEO at Lumency; [email protected]

Act fast! Don't miss out on the Two Pass offer that ends on January 26th

Score Two (2) Xperience passes for just $ 1095 and get access for you and a colleague to the SPX Global Reception presented by Sportsnet & Rogers Sports & Media, NHL® All-Star Thursday, and the Hyundai Fan Fair. Plus, networking events, engaging forum sessions, and live podcasts.

VENUE ANNOUNCEMENT!

Team SPX is excited to announce that SponsorshipX Toronto will be held at the Fairmont Royal York Hotel - from January 31st to February 2nd.

This landmark hotel will be filled with the perfect place to network, have an all-star gaze, and be at the center of it all. Will you? If you sign up for SponsorshipX, you will!

Sign up today and get ready to enjoy one of the best hotel lobbies in the world.