Who is actually responsible for ensuring a partnership generates business?

To realize the value, ongoing work is required even after the contract is signed. The partnership needs to be utilized, developed, and constantly linked back to what the company actually wants to achieve. And that brings us to an important question: who is actually responsible for making that happen?
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Responsibility lies with more than one party

The rights holder has a responsibility to understand the company they are partnering with. What does the company want to achieve? What challenges do they face? And which parts of the rights can actually contribute to the business?

At the same time, a company cannot enter into a partnership and expect the rights holder to do all the work. The company needs to know why they chose to invest in the partnership, what they want to get out of it, and be prepared to invest both time and resources into utilizing it. If an agency is involved, they also have a responsibility—partly to understand both sides, and partly to drive the work forward and ensure that ideas are actually implemented.

This might sound obvious. But we quite often see that this is exactly where it gets difficult. The company waits for initiatives from the rights holder, the rights holder waits for the company, and in the end, the partnership is not used as much as either party had intended from the start.
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Start with what the partnership should do for the company

We believe that people sometimes start at the wrong end when talking about sports partnerships. The discussion easily turns to which club, federation, or sport a company should partner with. But before you get there, you need to know what the company actually wants to get out of the investment. Is it about increasing awareness, building relationships with existing customers, finding new business, strengthening the employer brand, or creating internal pride?

Of course, it can be several things at once. But there needs to be a clear idea of what the partnership is intended to contribute. Only then is it possible to determine which rights are relevant and how they should be used. Two companies can have roughly the same opportunities in their agreements and still get completely different results. The difference often lies in what you actually do with them.
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Activation doesn't have to mean doing something big ‍

When talking about activation, it is easy to think of campaigns, productions, and large budgets. But it doesn't have to be particularly complicated. For one company, the most valuable thing might be gathering ten key customers in the right setting. For another, it might be about content that reaches a large audience. It could also be about creating business between partners, engaging employees, or using sports profiles and platforms to reach a target audience in a way the company could not have done on its own.

The important thing is not how much you do. The important thing is that what you do has a clear connection to why the company entered into the partnership in the first place.
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Someone needs to hold it all together ‍

We often see that the best partnerships are those where both the company and the rights holder are active and where there is an ongoing dialogue about what can actually be done together. The rights holder knows their audience, their operations, and their platforms. The company knows their customers, their market, and their business. An agency can provide an outside perspective and help translate opportunities into concrete activities. Everyone, therefore, has a role to play.

So, who is actually responsible for ensuring a partnership generates business? The responsibility is shared. But someone needs to hold the work together and ensure it continues to move forward even after the contract is signed. Because in the end, it is not the agreement itself that creates business. It is what you do with it.

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