The Value Xchange Quarterly Newsletter keeps you ahead of the game across Sports, Media and Entertainment, focusing on sponsorships, media rights and more.
What's new at TVX?
TVX x ESA: The Art and Science of Sponsorship
We’re pleased to be teaming up with the European Sponsorship Association (ESA) for a special breakfast event exploring one of the biggest questions facing sponsorship today: how do we balance the growing role of data and insight with the instinct, creativity and emotion that make great partnerships work?
Taking place on Thursday 15th October, the session will bring together senior figures from across brands, rights holders and sponsorship technology for a candid discussion around what intelligent sponsorship looks like in practice.
The panel will explore whether sponsorship can become too data-driven, what role instinct should still play in decision-making, and how brands can balance effectiveness with originality.
Joining the discussion will be Charlie Dewhurst, CCO at SailGP; Matt Riches, European Head of Sponsorship at Lucozade; Damien Gillman, Co-Founder & Chief Strategy Officer at Luscid; Jamileh Tufail, Head of Brand & Creative at Raymond James; and Tara Honeywell, Director of Growth at The Value Xchange.
Interested in joining us? Sign up here.
Partnership Spotlight
Lidl x Katie Taylor: Making Greatness Seen
Katie Taylor’s final fight at Croke Park was one of the biggest moments in Irish sport this year, with more than 83,000 fans in attendance and 1.6 million people tuning in to RTÉ2 at its peak.
As Title Event Partner, Lidl built a presence across broadcast, radio, retail, digital and fan engagement, including its RTÉ media partnership, activations in its Bray and Ballybough stores, and ‘In Katie’s Corner’, with proceeds from limited-edition merchandise going to Family Carers Ireland.
What makes the partnership particularly interesting is the longer-term story behind it. Lidl has spent a decade investing in women’s sport, from its long-running LGFA partnership and the viral ‘Ladyball’ campaign to its ‘Greatness Deserves to Be Seen’ platform. Katie Taylor, who once had to compete as a boy because women’s boxing was not sanctioned in Ireland, was a natural fit for that story.
There was a reminder that sponsorship visibility needs to be carefully judged, with Lidl’s logo becoming part of Taylor’s final emotional moment in the ring dividing opinions, but nevertheless the partnership shows the value of building a sponsorship platform over time.
Read the full article to learn more about why Lidl's approach was so successful.
Open for Partnership
GB Snowsport
The Value Xchange is proud to be supporting GB Snowsport, the national governing body for skiing and snowboarding, in building a new brand partnership programme ahead of the 2030 Winter Olympics.
Every year, Team GB's skiers and snowboarders compete across a 30-week FIS World Cup season, spanning nine Olympic and Paralympic disciplines across Europe and beyond. It's a demanding, high-visibility calendar that delivers 6.2m UK broadcast viewers annually, with coverage in 201 countries.
The team's momentum is real, having recently won their first ever gold model on snow at the 2026 Winter Olympics.
With nearly 11 million people in the UK interested in snow sport, brand partners gain access to a premium, highly engaged fanbase that is affluent and travel-active.
GB Snowsport offers a flexible approach to partnerships built around each partner's objectives, along with direct access to athletes and a multi-year platform running through to the 2030 Winter Olympics.
With TVX leading the search, this is a unique opportunity for brands to get in early on one of Britain's fastest growing Olympic sports.
Keen to find out more? Get in touch.
Industry Intel
Cheers to That: The Next Chapter of Alcohol in Sports Sponsorship
Alcohol and sport have always been closely linked, but the way drinks brands are using sponsorship is becoming much more deliberate.
Our latest analysis looks at how brands are looking past traditional visibility, using audience data, creative activation and zero-alcohol products to build stronger connections with fans. The data shows why the category continues to see value in sport: UK alcohol drinkers are 43% more likely to buy alcohol because live sport is on, while they are also more likely to notice sponsorship and engage with brands around sporting occasions.
One of the biggest shifts is the growing role of No/Lo products. No/Lo drinkers are 2.7x more likely to acknowledge a sponsor than the general population and 81% more likely to visit a website and purchase after seeing one. Brands such as Heineken, Guinness and Thatchers are increasingly using their alcohol-free products to stay visible in sport while reaching a broader audience.
From Heineken’s F1 season ticket to Guinness 0.0’s move into women’s football, the strongest examples are using sponsorship as a platform for experiences, content and brand relevance rather than simply buying exposure.
Read the full article to explore where alcohol sponsorship is heading.
