Bob Lynch

Take the time to really learn about the company, the people that work there and the industry they operate in. What does that mean? Read articles on them, what they're quoted in, what they're saying on Linkedin. If they're publicly-traded, read their quarterly reports. When you start to understand the pulse of the org, what they're interested in and what they're talking about, you'll feel much more comfortable filling out the application. There are 3 benefits here: Most others won't do this, and it'll eventually come through, you'll actually learn a lot and you'll be that much more knowledgable whether you move through the process at your target company or with their competitor.

Beyond team contracts, which may get signed every 3-4 years, endorsements may be signed 10-20 times over that same period. Incremental compensation can have a transformative financial impact, so it's important to understand how and why to negotiate better endorsement deals. It starts with authenticity and an willingness learn, while being true to your own values and beliefs. Marketers love when someone is willing to show up, lean in, learn and show out. Those that think through the lens of their fans and the brand, as well as how they can get better, will thrive. Keeping an eye on growing your audience and measuring social performance is a great way to benchmark to drive continued improvement. Next, comes learning, expanding your

There are some methods to ROI that apply across sports, but more unique to Soccer is it's potential global reach, audience diversity, target-ability through distributed dynamic signage or other marketing (e.g. tourneys) and merc. That said, I'll focus on one: Club Loyalty & Culture: The intensity in how a fan identifies with a club means that assessing how your brand attributes match the club’s culture is an important first step. You have to identify the potential lift in product adoption (e.g. you find that your brand is actively consumed by a club’s fans, so calculating the potential lift in different parts of the marketing funnel, as well as the loss potential if a competitor were to partner with the club.

It's critical to have multiple lines of communication as well. Relying on one source to share information means that you're not triangulating other insights and perspectives that get lost in translation. As these are multi-pronged efforts with multiple stakeholders and individuals helping to execute these partnerships, it's important to maintain strong relationships and fluid dialogue so you can evaluate and pivot in the most optimal way possible. Especially if you have never done a partnership in the space (or team/category) before.

I absolutely believe in this quote in so many areas of business: "If you can't measure it, you can't manage it" as someone mentioned below, but too often, people try to measure the success against one metric - like a golden metric - and these partnerships are often quite comprehensive and diverse in terms of areas to be impacted. Defining metrics across the entire scope and lifecycle of the partnership is critical and leveraging other sponsors, the team and other resources to help identify and refine the metrics that matter is important. These partnerships are in many ways a relationship that have many components to them that should not be discounted.

Setting objectives is a key step in measuring the performance and impact of sports partnerships, but there's an underlying necessity to educate and comprehend the competitive landscape, tactics and platforms. Establishing objectives without context can lead to a narrow view of potential impacts and opportunities. If you first understand how others have navigated this space, what strategies others have employed, lessons learned from failures and successes, it'll inform more realistic objectives and unveil opportunities that may otherwise go unrecognized. If you have historical context in how these partnerships are done, it'll allow for a strategic approach that's innovative and informed, so I would try not to set objectives in isolation.