Chris Baylis is the Founder and Editor-in-Chief of The Sponsorship Collective.
After spending several years in the field as a sponsorship professional and consultant, Chris now spends his time working with clients to help them understand their audiences, build activations that sponsors want, apply market values to their assets and build strategies that drive sales.
Chris studied at Trent University and Mohawk College before he began his sales career in high tech and insurance. After several years in the sales industry, Chris decided to make the move to sponsorship.
The reason for Chris was simple:
“Sponsorship means you have to be an expert in sales, marketing, experiential, lead generation, account management and strategy. This challenging blend of skills is what makes sponsorship so fascinating but also incredibly complicated.”
Chris has been active in the sponsorship industry since 2007 selling sponsorship for a variety of organisations and every type of sponsorship opportunity as an employee, department leader, board member, consultant and volunteer.
After five years as a consultant with international consulting firm IFC out of London, England Chris decided to launch what is now The Sponsorship Collective. And the rest is history.
And it all began with a blog.
The problem, according to Chris, is that there was simply no information about best practice sponsorship when he began in the industry. Everyone was guarding their secrets and there was nothing by way of blogs, publications, or networking groups. And this is exactly what Chris decided to change.
When it was first launched, the goal of the blog was simple: to share sponsorship best practice with the world. Today, The Sponsorship Collective has been featured in countless publications, podcasts, websites, blogs, magazines, webinars and books. The Sponsorship Collective has also produced hundreds of YouTube videos, webinars and hundreds of thousands of words on the blog (at last count, enough to fill five business books on the topic).
In addition to speaking at conferences and stages across North America, a sample of publications featuring Chris Baylis include in Hopin, Blackbaud, several articles and references in Eventbrite, Inside Sponsorship, Cause Talk Radio, CSAE, The Partnership Conference and The Selling Show to name only a few.
Sponsorship is, at its heart, a marketing practice and marketing is nothing without audience experience as the main focus.
This is exactly how Chris thinks of sponsorship.
“Everything has to start with audience data and experiences focused on creating value for audiences. Most people think of sponsorship as simple logo placement, which could not be further from the truth” says Chris.
Because of Chris’ focus, The Sponsorship Collective takes an “audience first” approach to sponsorship. Starting with audience data, then moving to creating engaging activations before moving to valuation, sales material and then a “discovery based” approach to sales.
Here is a sample of the most recent articles written by Chris:
Before you dive in, if you are interested in conference sponsorship, check out these titles in our “sponsorship for conferences” series: Resource Page for Conference Sponsorship How to Plan a Conference: A Step-by-Step Guide How to Market a Conference: Everything You...
As a sponsorship seeker, are you looking to renegotiate with a sponsor for even more money? Perhaps you’ve been dissatisfied with the quality of your sponsor relationships in the past and you want to take things to the next level. In both those scenarios and many...
Before you dive in, if you are interested in conference sponsorship, check out these titles in our “sponsorship for conferences” series: How to Plan a Conference: A Step-by-Step Guide How to Market a Conference: Everything You Need to Fill Your Event How to Plan a...
Your company is trying to add new sponsors left and right, so you’ve begun reading my blog here at the Sponsorship Collective. Perhaps you’ve even joined my exclusive Facebook group where I share sponsorship training modules first. As a result, you’ve learned a lot,...
It’s not enough to have meaningful, customized assets as you’re finalizing your sponsorship proposal. You also need activations. A lot of sponsorship seekers tend to go wrong when planning activations. They assume that an activation has to be epically, unspeakably...
How many times have you issued a prospect a sponsorship package only to get a printed letter in the mail several weeks later telling you that your offer isn’t what they’re looking for? Or much more commonly, how many times have you sent a sponsorship package and just...
A lot of my clients here at the Sponsorship Collective are first-time sponsorship seekers or those who had a sponsorship opportunity sort of drop into their laps but can’t replicate their success. If I asked a group like that what it means to be sponsorship-ready, I’d...
What words have you heard from your sponsorship prospects that have left you feeling dejected and rejected? If I asked you for five of them, they would all probably be variations on the word “no,” right? Like, “no thanks, no more budget” or “well, better luck next...
Stop me if you’ve heard this one before. You find a sponsorship prospect, more than likely through a website or a sponsorship form. You excitedly fill out the form or send an email. Perhaps you even pick up the phone and call. When you get a response, it’s definitely...
Sports fans are some of the best fans in the world, as they’re passionate, loyal, and big spenders. Financial resource MakeMoneyinLife.com notes that in 2020, the average sports fan spent $725 a year. Engaging with sports fans is critical, as it can hold their...