Sports Sponsorship Insider has published video interviews with some of the key panelists at last month’s ESA Sponsorship Summit, including leading brand-side figures Paul Meulendijk, former head of sponsorship for MasterCard Europe and David Wheldon, managing director of brand, reputation, citizenship and marketing for Barclays.
The interviews can be viewed here.
Organised by the European Sponsorship Association, the ESA Summit debated the main challenges facing the sponsorship industry today and considered the future for sponsorship over the next decade.
Meulendijk, who was responsible for MasterCard’s Uefa Champions League and Euro 2008 partnerships, spoke about the need for sponsorship practitioners to talk the language of market share, revenue and earnings at board room level to prove sponsorship’s value.
On a similar theme of return on investment, Wheldon affirmed how the Barclays Premier League sponsorship was working better as a brand engagement platform this season via the “Thank You” campaign that has run in the UK and globally.
Other interviewees included David Peters, managing director at Dentsu Aegis Network Sports & Entertainment, on the scarcity of creative broadcast sponsorships in sports; Dominic Curran, managing director of Synergy, on changes in sponsorship metrics; and Richard Masters, director of sales and marketing for the Premier League, on how the top division of English football adds value to its sponsors.
Looking to the long-term health of the sponsorship industry, Sally Hancock, consultant and former director of Olympic marketing at Lloyds Banking Group, said that 2014 could be a pivotal year for sport and sponsorship due to the controversies surrounding events like Sochi 2014 and the Fifa World Cup in Brazil.
Hancock believes that the default position of silence by sponsors on social issues in host countries should change.
West Nally chief executive Patrick Nally called for a multi-stakeholder forum to debate sports and sponsorship’s role in a changing world.
SportBusiness Group, the parent company of Sports Sponsorship Insider, was a partner of the 2014 ESA Summit.