At LiSTNR I built brand partnerships for national advertisers. TaylorMade Golf, Mazda, Coles, Racing Victoria, Movember and others. The biggest campaigns ran to around $1M.
The deals that worked had one thing in common. They didn't start with what we had to sell. They started with what the brand was trying to fix.
That sounds obvious. Most sponsorship pitches still get it backwards.
The rate card pitch
The standard pitch goes like this. Here's our audience. Here are the numbers. Here's a package with a logo on it, some mentions and a few social posts. Pick gold, silver or bronze.
It's tidy and easy to produce. It's also about you. The marketing team on the other side of the table has a brief, a target and a boss asking what they got for the money. A package doesn't answer any of that.
They might buy it. But it's the first thing cut when budgets tighten, because it was never tied to anything they needed.
Start with the brief, even if they don't hand you one
The better approach is to find out what the brand is actually working on. Launching a new product. Reaching an audience they keep missing. Shifting how people see them. Getting more people into stores on a particular weekend.
Then you build something that does that job, using whatever you have. Audio, digital, events, talent, content. The assets come second. The problem comes first.
When you walk in with that, the conversation changes. You’re not a vendor asking for budget. You’re someone who understood the brief, sometimes better than the brief itself.
Ask better questions before you write anything
Most of the work happens before the pitch deck. The questions I'd always try to answer:
What does success look like for this marketer this year? Not the brand. The person.
What have they tried that didn't work? That tells you what to avoid and what they're tired of hearing.
Who are they trying to reach that they currently can't?
How will they report on this internally? If you know what goes in their wrap report, design the campaign to fill it.
None of these are clever. They're just rarely asked.
Pitch to the person, not the logo
Big brands feel faceless, but every partnership gets bought by a person. Pitching directly to senior marketing teams taught me that they're busy, sceptical and short on time. They've seen a hundred sponsorship decks.
What lands is specificity. "This helps you hit the launch target you mentioned" beats "this delivers premium brand alignment" every time. Use their words. Show you listened.
This works outside media too
The same rule applies to anyone selling to a business. Agencies, consultants, software, trades quoting on a big job. The proposal that starts with the client's problem wins more often than the one that starts with your capabilities.
It’s how I ran client work at AWD Digital too. The first meeting wasn’t about what we did. It was about what wasn’t working.
A simple test for your next pitch
Read the first page of your proposal. Count how many sentences are about you and how many are about them.
If it's mostly you, rewrite it. Open with their problem in their words, then show how you'll solve it. Your credentials can go at the back. If the idea is right, they'll read that far.
The take
The best sponsorships I worked on weren't sold. They were built around a problem the brand already had.
Start with their brief. The rate card can wait.
Common questions
How do you pitch a brand partnership?
Start with what the brand is trying to achieve, not your audience numbers. Build the idea around their problem, use their words, and put your credentials at the back.
Why do sponsorship packages get cut?
Because they're about the seller, not the buyer. A logo package isn't tied to the brand's goals, so it's easy to drop when budgets tighten.
What should I ask a brand before pitching?
What success looks like for the marketer this year, what they've tried that didn't work, who they can't currently reach, and how they'll report on the result internally.
Got an idea, a question or a guest for Off The Record?
Send me a message. If it's help with your marketing you're after, that happens through Cushy Digital.