My Next Big Idea

After taking almost a year off following the sale of my last business Slingshot Sponsorship to The Marketing Group, I am excited to announce that I will be launching something very different before the end of September this year. I have been working in the sponsorship industry for most of my career, and thoroughly loved it – particularly being challenged …

Diversity & Inclusion Are Not Optional

“To work in football, you need to know football.” “We’ve already addressed diversity; we have 30 per cent of women on our Board.” “We can’t purchase that, we’ve only ever sponsored cricket and polo in the last 50 years so let’s stick to that.” These are just a handful of the eye-rolling quotes I have heard from C-suite professionals this …

The Callum Murray Interview – Jackie Fast

Jackie Fast recently left the UK-based Slingshot Sponsorship agency, having sold it to TMG. She’s just written a book on sponsorship, Pinpoint. She tells Sportcal Insight all she knows. Jackie Fast starts her interview with me with a bombshell: having finally departed late last year from Slingshot a year after selling it and seven years after its launch, she’s leaving …

the strategy behind sport

The Strategy Behind Sport

Sports teams are built and developed – crafted over years of training, coaching, and trading.  Ironically the same strategic perspective is not invested off the pitch.  Although sport sponsorship is responsible for over 70% of the total industry, it still lacks the necessary expertise to execute a sustainable and robust rights holder commercial strategy.  With so much sponsor churn, the …

stop disruption

Disruption? Stop it.

hose who know me well know that I am easily swayed out of the office with the promise of good wine and sponsorship chat.  Not only am I geeky like that (I could quite literally talk about sponsorship for days), I think it’s a crucial part of working in an industry that is shifting so quickly – you really need …

My Sponsorship Predictions 2017

My Sponsorship Predictions 2017

I predict a big year for sponsorship. It’s been steadily gaining a bigger seat at the big boy table, but this year I anticipate it will accelerate at great speed. We have seen big brands slowly start to pull away from badging and into more integrated experiential campaigns – lead by partnerships, whether in a traditional rights holder/sponsor sense or …

necker island

5 Things I Learned On Necker Island

If like me, you spent Sunday morning and much of the afternoon sat on the sofa with leftover pizza and a chocolate bar saying to yourself (for the fourth year in a row), “this is going to be the year I do the London Marathon” then you know exactly how influential ‘being in the moment’ is for making decisions.  If …