Most sponsorship proposals fail because they’re sales decks, not stories.

By Paul Whitehead – Founder & CEO at Adored Sports & Entertainment

Too many rightsholders still lead their proposals with what they have to sell — logo placements, hospitality, social media slots. But brands don’t buy assets. They buy outcomes.

• Sponsorship isn’t sold on assets. It’s sold on ideas.

That’s where creative strategy is the missing bridge.

A great sponsorship proposal doesn’t just list rights. It shows how those rights can be activated through stories fans care about, and how those stories ladder up to a brand’s marketing and business objectives.

• Without creative strategy:
  Rights feel generic, interchangeable, and hard to justify.
• With creative strategy:
  Rights become a platform for culture, emotion, and growth.

The difference between a sponsorship that gets signed and one that gets ignored comes down to how well you connect the dots between:

• Rightsholder value (audience, assets, moments)
• Brand ambition (category growth, audience penetration, equity building)
• Creative strategy (the story that makes it irresistible)

In a cluttered market, creative strategy isn’t a nice-to-have — it’s the glue that turns inventory into impact.

Yet, week in week out I still see rightsholder proposals that lack that bridge.

• If you don’t understand how brands grow > work with those who do
• If you don’t have the time to customise for categories > work with those who do
• If you don’t know how to think about creative strategy > work with those who do

Having spent most of my career advising brands how to grow through sponsorship (and having reviewed thousands of proposals for both Coca-Cola & Sky), get in touch if you want your sponsorship proposals to no longer be ignored.