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:
Are you familiar with Seth Godin? He’s a business executive and author who’s written nearly 20 books, many of which have been New York Times bestsellers. He’s also the one who inspired today’s article with his quote: “he who fails the most wins.” I know, I know,...
Love is blind. The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree. Actions speak louder than words. Clichés are sometimes true, but more often than that, they’re tired and what’s worse, tiring. Sponsorship companies have been around the block so many times that your clichés...
If you could go back in time three months ago, what would you tell your old self? I’m sure you’ve learned a lot more about the ins and outs of sponsorship since then, so you’d probably have some valuable information to share. Now imagine what the future you three...
I get asked all the time what I think the worst sponsorship advice is or what kinds of misconceptions people have about sponsorship. Another question I get a lot is what the biggest sponsorship problem is. What is that one gaffe that’s so significant it can seriously...
Your boss has asked you and a small team of colleagues to find a sponsor for your upcoming event. Easy-peasy, right? Until you begin digging into what a sponsorship program is supposed to entail. Now you’re wondering if you’re in over your head. What does your boss...
Your nonprofit or business has pursued sponsorship in the past, but never successfully. If you’ve lacked a strategy that’s part of a greater sponsorship program, that could be why you haven’t landed the sponsors you need for event funding and promotion. You want to...
Did I lock the door before I left for work this morning? What starts as a small question can become a gnawing feeling that’s so distracting you have to rush home and check your locks. You don’t want to go into a sponsorship with that awful feeling of having forgotten...
Is 2021 the year you want to pursue sponsorship for the first time? If so, then you might have been voraciously reading my posts on what not to do, such as this one or this one. As I’ve discussed on the blog, it doesn’t matter if you’re hosting a virtual event or one...
Have you ever been guided by advice in your life? I certainly have, and I’m sure you have as well. Yet the thing about advice is that despite its intentions, not all of it as well-meaning as you’d wish. Even in sponsorship, you can get some pretty bum advice. What do...
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...