Sometimes the simplest of ideas are the best. How does one create a forum where both buyer and seller can cut through the clutter and actually find a solid partnership? In consumer goods and services it’s pretty easy, but in the world of sponsorship, especially in sports, the layers and the barriers between good deals are often immense, and sometimes the potential partnerships between athletes, teams, leagues and brands sometimes get lost in the mix.
Enter Ishveen Anand and OpenSponsorship. OpenSponsorship is a two-sided marketplace for sports sponsorship. Educated at Oxford with a growing understanding of the global marketplace, Anand came up with a concept that is starting to take hold. The goal is to make sponsorship accessible, efficient and data-driven. Brands save time and energy sifting through opportunities by using a comprehensive search, then connect with the relevant partnerships which are listed directly by the teams, athletes, federation, events or their agencies.
We caught up with Ishveen to talk about where she got the idea, how it’s going, and what’s next for her and the company.
How did you come up with the business plan that you have launched?
In my former life as a sports agent, a client wanted to understand the sports sponsorship landscape in Colombia to plan their marketing strategy. This required a trip to Colombia, hiring of translators, researching the sports properties, meeting with all the teams and agents and then presenting back to the client. As is typical, the client said thanks, but let’s revisit in 6 months. Many things would have changed by then and the whole trip would have to be done again. Here was the Eureka moment – the world needed a platform where brands could see the opportunities available and start a dialogue before taking the costly and timely steps of initiating a meeting. On the flip side, all rights holders needed a place where brands could find them rather than it being driven by chance or relationships.
Is the focus more global. more regional?
Our focus is mostly on the regional, US market. We want to make sure the product and pricing is 100% right at home before planning our global expansion. Having said that, our contacts are very strong in Asia, Latam and Europe and the inbound interest has led to us naturally spending about 15% of our time working on cross-border deals and strategic partnerships in these areas (more to be announced soon).
Thus far what has been the most fruitful partnership you have brokered?
I like to say that every partnership, small or big, is fruitful. A deal between 2nd Skull and NFL player, Brian Quick was great because it proved to a brand that usually engages and agency how quick, efficient and great value our platform was for securing talent for a shoot. In terms of size, one of our Indian brands, Hero MotoCorp executed a naming rights deal through the platform, which was obviously great 🙂
You have spoken to many athletes. How is their ask different from an event or a league or property?
We mostly sign athletes up through their agents, which means that we have a great relationship with agents who can often represent up to 30 players for marketing purposes. We have noticed an increase in product, royalty and even equity deals with athletes, which has not happened with the events, leagues or teams.
What’s the biggest challenge you have right now?
Getting the message out. We are a small team and so its constantly a challenge to make sure we are top of mind when brands are planning their marketing spend.
Who are the people in business you like to follow and why?
I love consuming content so mostly its thanks to blogs like yours and aggregators such as SportsTechie and Hashtag Sports. If I was to focus on individuals – Mark Cuban, Semil Shah and Serena Williams.
Where would you like to see the business at this time next year?
I would like us to be known by all brands and marketing agencies, big or small, as the most efficient and effective method of including sports sponsorship in their marketing mix. We want to ensure that sponsorship stays at the forefront of marketing, despite the lure of other forms such as programmatic, mobile etc. We also plan to be present and established globally with regional hubs across the world so not only do we want to be the marketplace to connect brands and rights holders cross-border, but help make the process efficient in each region as well.
