Accourt works internationally with its Rights Holders and concentrates primarily in the following sectors:

• Retail: High street, Supermarkets, Online
• Travel: Airlines, Hotels, Travel Companies
• Sport: Motorsport, Football clubs, National bodies, Stadia & Arenas
• Educations: Universities, Schools, the student market
• Charity: Individual charities or the development of a collective umbrella for a number of related causes
• Corporate–SME payment solutions

The range of services for the Rights Holders includes:

Analysis: Diagnostic assessment of existing card programmes including revenue audit, consumer value proposition review and partner relationships / contractual obligations

Partnership Development: Evaluation of a current partnership against market competitors and other products such as prepaid, virtual cards, mobile payments etc

Strategy Delivery: Delivery of a robust card & payments strategy to incorporate quantified projected earnings, customer value proposition (higher usage & retention), marketing channel optimisation (including social media and mobile) and preferred partner assessment

Project Management: Ongoing management of the partnership portfolio to ensure: optimal revenue returns; compelling, relevant and attainable consumer benefits propositions; and management of all processes, procedures and regulatory obligations

Accourt’s sponsorship practice focuses on building valuable sponsorship properties predominantly across the cards, payments, and financial services sector. We develop these opportunities with rights-holders in sport, the arts, music, culture and entertainment.

Accourt works closely alongside our clients (both rights-holders and sponsors) to deliver a comprehensive sponsorship proposition which affords quantifiable and qualifiable returns against company objectives, and a detailed return on investment potential.

We add further value by aligning our expertise in payment systems, cashless stadia, database monetisation and co-brand & affinity programmes.

CHANGING LANDSCAPE

Sponsorship is at the heart of communications strategies for many of the world’s leading and most ambitious brands. However it is no longer an area in which rights-holders can demand unqualified payments.

The sponsors now demand greater visibility of their expenditure to ensure optimal return is achieved against B2B and/or B2C objectives. Furthermore it is not untypical for a sponsor to build with their proposed partner a set of metrics and KPIs to ensure that a quantifiable return on investment is realised.

In addition the advent of social media and its implications across a global audience gives cause for a sponsor to demand a comprehensive sponsorship and marketing strategy mix to ensure all channels, both traditional and new technology confine, are optimised to their full potential.

All of this places greater demand on the rights-holder to deliver a sponsorship property that ticks all of those boxes. The minimum requirement now is all of the above plus a range of qualifiable benefits that are aligned to the sponsors’ objectives and can demonstrate quantifiable contribution to the ROI.

ACCOURT’S USP

In a crowded market place where rights-holders are aggressively competing to secure sponsorship as an integral contributor to their bottom line, the need to engage expertise in this delivery is increasingly more apparent.

With 32% of the world’s sports sponsorship emanating from the financial services sector, Accourt is perfectly placed to offer its clients such support.

We understand the key metrics integral in delivering high value sponsorships supported by robust ROI driven marketing strategies. Furthermore, the experience of our partners and consultants within this industry, and accordingly the key contacts therein, enables us to converse at senior level with many of the major card, payment and financial services organisations around the world.

Therefore, whether you are a rights-holder looking to secure a sponsor, or an organisation predominantly from within the financial services sector who is seeking to identify the most relevant sponsorship property, Accourt can help you with that mission.

We know the market, we know the rights-holders, we know the evaluation model and therefore we are confident that we can secure for our clients highly profitable sponsorship programmes.