Happy New Year

Happy New Year

Today is New Year’s Eve—the day before the start of a new year—and not just a new year, but a whole new decade!

With each New Year (and decade) comes the usual predictions and resolutions. I could not decide whether to discuss my resolutions or predictions, so have decided to provide a shortened list of both.

Predictions (for the Industry)

  1. We will see a tightened economy with a defeated oil patch in Saskatchewan and Alberta, while the thriving economy of BC will begin to falter. In the east, we will see continued unemployment as more and more manufacturing goes offshore and investment in Canada continues to decline. As a result of all of this, we will see marketing and community investment budgets shrink and the shift to more focused signature investments by sponsors in the non-profit and charitable world. Also, this will shift the shrunken budget to be allocated to even fewer charities and non-profits. As a result, there will be a struggle in the marketplace like we have not seen since the early 2000s and the cry for help will increase.
  1. We will continue to see a shift to more and more technology. We will also see an incremental rise of online applications for funding and measuring success with products such as Optimy and others, and increased utilization of big data for marketing purposes by properties as well as for prospect development. This means that sponsors and properties will use technology to dive deeper into analytics than ever before. They need to measure proposals and outcomes with greater analytics for a smaller margin of error. All this will mean that properties can focus on the “right” prospects versus the “toss the spaghetti at the wall and see what sticks” approach that so many continue to use. Those who fail to embrace technology in this manner will truly be left in the dust.
  1. The two largest growth sectors of sponsorship will continue to be municipalities and e-sports. Municipalities will continue on their incredible trajectory of growth in the areas of sponsorship and naming rights, not only for facilities, but also programming and events. For many small and medium-sized cities, this will mean a shift from ad-hoc sponsorship sales and third-party sponsorship, naming rights, and advertising sales to professional in-house staff and departments. E-sports will continue its growth and become much more mainstream in its sponsorship portfolios as brands gradually become aware not only of the value, but also the ROI offered through e-sport sponsorship investments.

Resolutions (personal)

Though I seldom make New Year’s resolutions, I want to share three goals or resolutions that I have made for 2020 and beyond.

  1. Just prior to the Christmas holidays in 2017, I proposed the following: “I hope to deliver at least two acts of kindness as well as just give a smile to at least three people each day. My goal through this is to provide joy, happiness, and goodwill to at least five people each day.” I have (not 100%, but a valiant attempt) continued this through 2018 and 2019 and my resolution is that I will continue to try each day to make at least five people smile or enhance their day.
  1. As a company, we have selected a single client each year for 18 years (a charity or non-profit) and substantially reduced its fee for our services. Those reductions in investment have varied from 30% to 40% off what we would normally charge for the services they have received. Beginning in 2020, my goal is to offer a substantial discount hopefully to three non-profit or charitable clients each year as opposed to one.
  1. To increase the time that I spend with my family. Because I travel so much, I want to look at ensuring the time I spend in Nanaimo is more focused on family and less on work. This may mean being more selective in the work we accept or bid on to ensure they are the projects we really want to work on and the fact that we may do fewer projects to ensure I have more time with family at home.

Thank you for your continued support of the Tuesday Morning Commentary (TMC) over the past year. May 2020 bring you and yours health, happiness, and prosperity.

© 2019 All rights reserved.

6 Comments

  1. Good observations Brent. Happy New Year and let’s hope most of 2020 is positive.

    Reply
    • Thanks Jim! All the best to you and Dana and the whole family here and abroad for 2020 and beyond. Brent

      Reply
  2. Happy New Year to everyone at the Partnership Group. Do you have any resources that you might suggest us to read that might apply to our different type of company? We work with over 75 charities and give them 1/2 of our gross profit on energy products (electricty & natural gas)
    Thanks
    Dan

    Reply
  3. Hi Brent!
    In your experience with The Partnership Group, what do the demographics of e-sports look like?
    Also, great to hear about TPG helping out with reduced fees for charities/non-profits! Kudos and thank you to you and your organization for doing that. I’m sure your clients appreciate it.
    Happy New Year and Holiday Sponsorship Cheer!

    Reply
    • Josh,

      Thanks for the kind works about our commitment to the non profits and charities. We too are excited about it.

      The most recent demographics I have seen is a male skew of about 72:28 but the female audience and participation are both growing. The female viewing audience skews higher than participation. The core age demo is 18-34 with disposable income indexing high for this age demo.

      Reply

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