The Buy Side: Why TSB doesn't do sport sponsorship

Most - 95%? - of the conversation around sport sponsorship involves people with skin in the game: they're either selling it, have bought sports rights and so have to justify themselves or work for an agency whose existence relies on it.

We talked to TSB CMO Pete Markey for the simple reason is that he doesn't fit in to any of the above categories. The bank doesn't have sport in its portfolio, preferring to campaign around its Pride of Britain relationship.
So he's free to judge the efficacy of sport and sponsorship without pulling punches. And the honest truth is it can work brilliantly for a brand, but it can come with considerable downsides too. The Buy Side is our series with CMOs like Pete, and other senior brand side decision makers talking about how sport is really viewed as a marketing platform for major companies. And there's more on the way...

For episode 1 of The Buy Side, we spoke to Ben Carter from Just Eat about how the food delivery category uses sports rights and how the battle for Saturday night now extends to Tuesday breakfast.

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