We’ve all seen it; the awesome creative execution in a sports sponsorship. Sometimes it is big, bold, and complex, while other times it is so simple, both in idea and execution, that we think to ourselves: “Why didn’t I think of that?” Those executions engage and excite us; not just as consumers but as professionals in the industry (even if you don’t work in the sports sponsorship sector specifically). There is no doubt that the global sports sector is booming. eSports has quickly established itself as an important player with so much potential. That catches the eye of brands. Then there are sports that are venturing out of their homelands more and more as they try to engage with global audiences who can now stream games wherever they are. For sponsorship, it has been recently reported that global brand spend on sports sponsorships will grow to US$65 billion in 2019. That’s an average of 4% growth, per year, since 2014. As a result of this continued growth, this year, Cannes Lions created a new category that focussed exclusively on Sport. The Entertainment Lions for Sport celebrate creativity that taps into fan culture and leverages the power of sports in connecting people to brands with the jury rewarding excellence in breakthrough creativity within the sports marketing ecosystem. This includes the use of effective strategic planning, sponsorship, brand management, media, entertainment, and/or talent. Our guest this episode is Ben Hartman, Managing Director at Octagon who was a judge for the first-ever Entertainment Lions for Sport. Ben’s job was to define what best in class work looks like in the category and ultimately, what was the standard that future work would be measured against? Also joining us on the show, to discuss his latest blog, is KORE Software’s, Commercial Manager, Australasia, Daniel-Ferguson-Hill, who has also taken a look at awards in asking ‘Is sponsorship keeping up with award trends?’. Enjoy

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