Creativity and innovation are critical to any successful sponsorship program. Heck, they are critical to any successful business. At the Partnership Group – Sponsorship Specialists®, we have done our best to be leaders, innovators, and creators for our industry. But I have some concerns!

Through the years, we have a great deal to be proud of. Our creativity and innovation includes examples such as development of an online asset valuation acquisition program for our clients, introduction of the industry’s digital media and social media asset valuation system, product innovation and showcasing of new ideas at the Western Sponsorship Congress®, including the first use (and ground-up development) of a conference app long before it became a standard tool, development of a gaming app to promote sponsors, offering match-making opportunities between sponsors and properties at the Western Sponsorship Congress, and of course, Canada’s famous 5 Minute Pitch® panel discussion.

Over the years, the Partnership Group – Sponsorship Specialists®, has led the industry through the Sponsorship One Day Workshops—a series of one-day sessions focused on specific topics such as proposal development, activation, inventory asset development, fulfilment management, getting meetings, discovery sessions, and asset valuation. We have also published a book called Reality Check – Straight Talk about Sponsorship Marketing with all our experience, valuation formulas, and processes that have brought success to our 150+ clients over the past 15 years.

Our philosophy has always been to share our content. We believe that it is important to make the content available, be that through this TMC (Tuesday Morning Commentary), through our Western Sponsorship Congress, through workshops, or Reality Check so that everyone has access at minimal cost.

Yes, we make a living from consulting, but believe it is important to give back and provide content for free or at minimal investment for organizations that cannot afford to hire us or other consulting agencies. Content such as our formula for sponsorship success through customized proposals from discovery sessions is what has made so many Canadian properties successful. Our proposal format layout, our proposed questions around discovery sessions—they all come from experience and testing and are there for organizations to put to use! We are very proud of all of this because it has helped change the industry for the better. It has provided content where there was none. It has led by example on how to share knowledge to help others.

And most often, we are truly recognized for all we have provided to our industry. Charles Colton once said, “Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.” I believe this is true. Over the years, many people have requested the right to share our content in their presentations or services. Others have used our content and recognized us for it. We are most appreciative of that. But recently, it has been brought to my attention (on six different occasions in the past nine months) that there are folks profiting from our content. When I read their materials, their websites, and their workshops/webinars, a great deal of it comes almost verbatim from our One Day Workshop series documents. This group is a new agency in the last few years and has obviously built its service offerings from our content and the content of others. I remember the principal of the new agency attending sessions and asking lots of specific questions, not around the non-profit they were employed by at the time, but more on the consulting side. I never thought twice about it at the time. But today, I recognize why.

I encourage everyone to be creative. Be innovative and share. Our content is available and is for the use of the industry. Our focus is to help sponsors and properties get better at what they do and deliver better ROI for both sponsors and properties. Feel free to share our content with others as a property or sponsor. Please credit us where credit is due.

But if you are a sponsorship, advertising, PR, or fund raising agency, please develop your own content (or at least recognize the organizations you have plagiarized from)! Please be innovative and creative, and give to the industry instead of just taking. Our content was developed to help sponsors and properties do better. It was not developed for agencies to imitate and profit from. It is flattering, I agree, but in my opinion, it is also unethical.

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