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 sport sponsorship, check out these titles in our “sponsorship for sports" series: 5 Sports Sponsorship Valuation Strategies 5 Examples of Bad Sports Sponsorships that Missed the Mark Sports Sponsorship Measurement and ROI...
Before you dive in, if you are interested in motorsport sponsorship, check out these titles in our “sponsorship for motorsport” series: Resource Page for Motorsport Sponsorship Companies Who Sponsor Motorsport: From NASCAR to Motocross and Everything in Between How to...
Your organization will soon celebrate another anniversary, and this year, you’d like to do something nice. To both share in your successes and generate funding that will get you through to the next year, you want to host a gala. This big party will require big money,...
On this blog, I talk a lot about what’s in it for you from the perspective of your organization or business when you chase sponsorship. You get funding, access to vendors and other parties you need, publicity, promotions, and a whole new audience to potentially...
Companies and organizations seek sponsors for all sorts of reasons, some for financial assistance and others for promotions. If you’re looking for help in the promotional department, should you be searching for a sponsor or maybe an advertiser instead? What’s the...
It’s the day you’ve been waiting for. You’ve agonized over your sponsorship package, edited and re-edited your proposal, and now your target sponsor has agreed to a meeting in person. You’re excited and nervous at the same time. You really want things to go well, so...
Gold, silver, and bronze. The same award tiers used for athletic performance and other forms of excellence may sound like a natural fit for your sponsorship package, but I’m here to tell you that’s just not true. To up your chances of a sponsor accepting your...
We hear this question a lot. “I keep getting sent to the online form…what should I do?” The question refers to those online forms that companies have on their website for you to complete to apply for sponsorship. The question is, should you fill it out. The answer...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uWqLNoU3Lvo&t=3s I have some bad news. Sponsors HATE sponsorship packages with levels. Having worked with brands on sponsorship deals big and small across North America, a few things stand out, specifically related to sponsorship...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wUREct0AbEA “What do you mean you sold the last spot!? We’ve worked together for years and you sold my sponsorship package to my competitors?” My heart sank. I had an irate sponsor on the phone, or former sponsor in this case, who...