Stoic Structure for Sponsorship

I’ve been noticing more and more references to Stoic philosophy lately.  Rory McIlroy recently credited part of his progress toward his historic win at the Masters to his study of the Stoics.  Beyond Rory, I seem to hear more and more athletes, actors, musicians and business leaders publicly professing their praise for this ancient philosophy. 

I’m not sure if this is because Stoicism is becoming more popular, or just that I’m simply more aware of it due to my own personal interest.  Perhaps it’s a bit like what happens when you get a new car.  My mother-in-law bought a classic VW Beetle recently and now I can’t stop seeing them on the road.

Much of stoicism is about self-control, and learning not to worry about what you can't control. That can be good for all of us, but I was recently reminded of another aspect in the quote by 1st century Roman Stoic Seneca that says, “Life without design is erratic.” Modern stoic guru Ryan Holiday elaborated on Seneca’s words by adding “We must create order.  We must design routines and systems.  When we do, chaos, uncertainty, disorder, complacency and confusion is boxed out – by the order and clarity you built.”

Another stoic, Epictetus, wrote in Discourses (3.23) “First say to yourself what you would be; and then do what you have to do.” In other words, make a plan and stick to it. 

These takes on the value of order in life are equally applicable to sponsorship.  Most sponsorships happen around events and properties that are very exciting and often frenetic or chaotic.  This is what makes them sponsorable – there is a lot going on that interests a lot of people. 

As in life, with a big sponsorship it’s then easy to get caught up in the chaos, become very busy and active, but thereby lose sight of your core purpose and objectives.  With all of the excitement, activity and opportunity around many of the biggest and best sponsorships, it’s often hard to stay focused on the activity that really matters – on the stuff that directly drives your meaningful business results.

That is, unless you have a good system.  A sponsorship without a good system or framework for plotting purpose and targets and monitoring progress is much like Seneca’s ‘life without design’ – it’s chaotic. 

What makes it even harder in sponsorship, is that the chaos can often look good on the surface.  It shows up as highly visible branding, or huge reach numbers, or a celebrity appearance or content share.  But that doesn’t mean this activity is necessarily driving the results you want.

We must create order. We must design routines and systems. When we do, chaos, uncertainty, disorder, complacency and confusion is boxed out - by the order and clarity you built.

Sponsorship activity should not be viewed through the same lens as publicity.  It has been said (not proven) that “all publicity is good publicity.”  That is far from the case in sponsorship.  Sponsorship activity is only good activity if it is furthering your objectives as defined by your KPIs.  If it moves the right needle in the right direction, the activity probably good.

But how do you know?  As Holiday says, we must create order.  We must design routines and systems.

I know ours isn’t the only sponsorship performance framework out there, but make sure yours delivers the order and structure you need to keep out the chaos and keep you focused on the activity that really matters.  Your system must:

• Require clear prioritised objectives/goals

• Define success with measurable metrics/KPIs/OKRs

• Establish an honest scoring system based on actual results

• Prompt ongoing engagement with the core purpose

• Drive collaboration across stakeholder groups

• Be simple, usable and repeatable

These are just a few of the things that a good sponsorship performance framework can and should do to help guide you and your team toward optimal sponsorship performance and impact. 

Sponsorship activity is only good activity if it is furthering your objectives as defined by your KPIs.

I think Rory’s benefit from stoicism was more about resilience and acceptance, but Seneca’s belief in order and structure wins him my vote as the ancient stoic mostly likely to succeed in 21st century sponsorship.  And perhaps it’s no surprise that Ryan Holiday started his career in Marketing.

Whatever your rationale or motivation, don’t let the joy of sponsorship turn into distraction or chaos that knocks you off course.  With the right performance framework, you can make sure that doesn’t happen.

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