Don't Forget Your Tickets
Don' Forget Your Tickets is a podcast devoted to the unsung heroes of the spectator sports and events industries, the Ticketing Managers. We explore who they are, their well-guarded industry secrets, and how they entered the field. Beyond that, we delve into a broader ticketing realm, inviting experts from various fields to share their insights and stories. Our primary aim is to add value and highlight deserving individuals.
(The podcast was originally named TicketingPodcast.com)
Don't Forget Your Tickets
Why your sponsorship strategy needs a human heartbeat: Insights from James Wynne, founder of Playbook Sponsorship
In this episode of Don’t Forget Your Tickets, we’re joined by James Wynne—founder of Playbook Sponsorship and a sponsorship leader whose work has spanned the Caribbean Premier League, Digicel, Guinness under Diageo, and powerhouse football brands like Chelsea and Manchester United.
James shares his personal journey from working with global giants to launching his own consultancy—and along the way, he unpacks the biggest opportunities and challenges in sports sponsorship today.
Key themes you’ll hear about:
✅ The importance of authenticity: Why authentic stories and shared values—not flashy logos—create lasting sponsorship success.
✅ The power of B2H (Business to Human): How smart clubs and brands are moving beyond B2B and B2C mindsets to forge real, emotional connections with fans.
✅ Middle Eastern sponsorship trends: Why legacy and grassroots investment—not just visibility—are driving long-term success in emerging markets.
✅ The role of storytelling: From “Drive to Survive” to small club success stories, hear how narrative can transform your commercial approach and build communities around your club.
Near the end, James offers powerful takeaways for club commercial teams: start with who you are, avoid the short-term money trap, and build sponsorships that last for years. He also shares a real-world example of Bohemians FC’s success—an inspiring case for every club that wants to stand out and win the long game.
If you’re a ticketing manager, commercial manager, or fan engagement leader, this episode is for you.
🎧 Listen now—and get inspired to rethink how your club’s story can become its strongest commercial asset.
Don't Forget Your Tickets is powered by TicketCo and hosted by TicketCo’s CEO, Carl-Erik Michalsen Moberg. The podcast was originally named TicketingPodcast.com
In a sponsorship landscape that is louder, faster and more complex than ever, how do you cut through the noise and create real connection? In this episode of Don't Forget your Tickets, we welcome James Wynn, founder of Playbook Sponsorship and a seasoned advisor to clubs and brands across Ireland, the UK and the Middle East, from B2B to B2C to B2H yeah, h. As in human storytelling as a commercial tool and the involvement of the sponsorship landscape, this conversation is packed with insights from anyone working in ticketing, plan engagement or club commercial strategy. Let's dive in. Hello and welcome to another episode of Don't Forget your Tickets.
Speaker 1:This is the podcast that shines a light on the people shaping the ticketing, commercial and storytelling landscape in sports. Today's guest is no exception. This is a person who brings truly global perspective to sports sponsorships across clubs, brands and continents. Actually, james Wynn is the founder of Playbook Sponsorship. This is a consultancy that helps right holders and brands create high impact sponsorship strategies.
Speaker 1:To give you some background and I'm sure we'll hear more from James directly but he previously led marketing and brand development at the Caribbean Premier League yeah, you heard it right, caribbean Premier League. We'll talk more about that and he also served as group head of sponsorship for Digicel, where he oversaw partnerships with global icons like Usain Bolt, shelly M Fraser, price and the West Indies cricket team, not to mention Chelsea FC. He led sports marketing at Slattery Communications, working with Manchester United, puma and the Irish Rugby Football Union and, most notably, the Guinness brand, and he's sitting in Dublin and we're talking Guinness under Diageo and everyone has been drinking Guinness, and especially the ones who've been in Dublin. So great to meet you, james, and thank you so much for coming on this podcast. Great to meet you, carl. Thanks for the great intro. I hope I got it right.
Speaker 2:There's a lot of brands there. Yeah, I've been lucky. You know, I always say that I was lucky with the brands and organizations that I've got to work with over the last 20 plus years. I just say 20 plus. Now I don't give the exact number anymore.
Speaker 1:I mean it's interesting with sponsorships and these massive brands. This is something that people can relate to, right? These are brands that people are purchasing, they have an emotional relationship to. I mean, can you talk us through your career? I mean, how did you end up where you've ended up today?
Speaker 2:I mean I started out, you know, my first client was Diageo, which was sort of like coming out of college and getting to work with an organization like Diageo. It was a bit like hitting the jackpot, to be honest, because at the time, and probably still now, diageo were really leading the way in terms of sponsorship and marketing strategy. It was like a university really more than a brand organization. We were all kind of schooled in their kind of brand building fundamentals and methods that you know still 100% apply today, all these years later. Those fundamentals are exactly the same and you know I still find myself using a lot of that methodology, no-transcript. It allowed me to sort of really get into sponsorship as a discipline and sort of do a deep dive on that. I was particularly interested in sports and entertainment sponsorships which I got to work on a lot of those, particularly with Slattery's coming through and sort of at a young age, heading up their sponsorship division. Again, it was a brilliant experience.
Speaker 2:Irish rugby was on the crest of a wave at the time. It was the, you know, brian O'Driscoll and Paul O'Connell era, among many other superstars. So it was great to be sort of in the background as all that was happening. Like you mentioned, we did some work briefly with Manchester United as well, which, in terms of the sophistication of their sponsorship approach to be able to kind of look under the hood and see what was going on there that was a real eye opener and again informed a lot of what I did later. I went on.
Speaker 2:Then I was offered a role in the Caribbean, initially as the group had a sponsorship with Digicel group, which had at the time, had 32 markets around the world, mainly, you know, caribbean and Pacific markets, but hugely exciting role that that was. I mean, the sponsorship portfolio was, I think, around 8 million US dollars, which included, as you mentioned, the likes of Usain Bolt, shelly Ann Fraser, price, chelsea Football Club, west Indies Cricket. The kind of experience and exposure that that brought was exceptional and exciting, you know, really intense, of course as well. It was always on, but you know a great part of that. And then, through that, I was also seconded as the head of marketing for a new, brand new cricket tournament that Digicel had invested in called the Caribbean Premier League the CPL as it's known locally, which is still going strong. We launched it in 2013.
Speaker 2:That was a roller coaster. It was almost like joining the circus. We had only a short period of time to get a brand new global cricket tournament up and running in the region. Nothing like it had really been seen before in the region as well. So there was a lot of convincing. But we got there.
Speaker 2:We were filling stadiums and had a massive global audience as well, millions of people in the cricket loving markets, you know, tuning in to see our brand of cricket, which is different to any other, and the Caribbean. You'd have to experience it to believe that it's really quite special because they bring all those sort of carnival elements to the cricket. We called it the biggest party in sport and that was a boast that we could easily claim. It was an awful lot of fun.
Speaker 2:I remember one sponsor who was a guest in Trinidad and he was in the hospitality suite and we were chatting and I said to him I said if you really want to experience the atmosphere in its kind of true sense, you should probably get down into the stands, get into the party stand and see what it's like, and I didn't see him for the rest of the night.
Speaker 2:He arrived back three hours later covered in sweat and I said well, did you enjoy that? He. He said it was incredible. He said it was like cricket in a nightclub. That's something up, but you know a great product and it endures even still and some of the team I worked with are still there and I love checking in with them. Then I obviously came home and started to kind of establish the consultancy business, which led to setting up a playbook sponsorship early this year, and I recently also joined forces with Blocksport, who are a sports tech company based out of Switzerland, who are doing amazing things in terms of fan engagement and data and such, and that's sort of where it's at. It's like taking what I do to the next level, and are certainly helping me do that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean I guess you built an amazing network also over the years, yes, working with these brands, and you've been around for a while, right? So it means that, as you're saying, the people you used to work with, they now have new roles and I guess that opens doors.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think, as someone said to me, your network is your net worth and I definitely subscribe to that idea, like I had some exceptional mentors early in my career, one of whom you know, John Redmond, who's a hugely respected member of the sports community here. He always emphasized, you know, the importance of your book of contacts and how you need to nurture that and look after that and build it over your career, because it is literally what you keep coming back to. It's a people industry, no matter what aspect of it you look at, and there's lots of talk about the mind boggling investments in sponsorship and activation campaigns and all of that, but when you boil it all down, it's about people and people connecting with people, and that's what it's always been about.
Speaker 1:I agree with you. So names like Usain Bolt, right. He is a person, is a human being, is a fast runner, obviously. How do you go from being, I mean, a very good runner, obviously one of the world's best runners, to becoming an icon? Because you see some people in sports they're able to take that position, to become a brand, not only the person, and some people don't. How do you get to that level?
Speaker 2:Well, the key word for me is authenticity. People have to be able to believe what they see and if they believe it and athletes are able to connect with people in that way, that's where it starts and then it sort of develops over time. Obviously, success has a huge amount to do with it, of course, but, like, the first and foremost thing is you know, you have to buy into the personality of the individual and you find yourself rooting for that person and supporting that person, even though you've never met them in your life. Like I was lucky to meet people like you say, and work with them and that's what I found them to be. I found them to be extremely authentic, extremely real, like what you see is what you get. They don't kind of misrepresent or try to be something they're not. They actually stick to who they are and they sort of back themselves and they have that belief that's so compelling.
Speaker 2:As a sports fan, like I found Usain to be, you know, he's from a very rural area in Jamaica. He's a country boy who moved to the big city of Kingston and that was quite overwhelming for him, but he sort of got into his groove and then people like, oh, why didn't you saying, you know, move to Florida and move to where? Because it was enough for him to be in Kingston and and finding his way through there and you know he stuck to that. He's a pure Jamaican guy and like, obviously there's the entertainment factor. He was a lot of fun. He looked like at times that he didn't take himself that seriously, even though underneath he was a fierce competitor. He wanted the absolute best for himself and his team. You know there was no doubt about that. But I saw the way he interacted with people around me I was lucky that I got my family to meet Usain just before we left Jamaica and the way he sort of behaved around them. He was just a really great guy and I think he's a good example of what it takes to transcend your sport, to be more than the performance on track. Like I've heard other athletes talk about that as a goal.
Speaker 2:I want to transcend my sport. It's like you can't really say that it's not for you to decide. Other people decide. If you transcend your sport, you can't just say, oh, I'm going to do that, that's not it. And if you're saying that, you're not being real and if you're not being real, it's never going to happen for you and I'm not going to name names, but like that, for me is it Authenticity. Shelley-anne, the very same, incredibly humble, grateful. She is from one of the toughest neighborhoods, not only in Kingston, one of the toughest neighborhoods in the world, and she wears that and she celebrates that and she's the pride of that neighborhood now and she sort of reframed that whole narrative and that for me is exceptional. That gives people narrative and that for me is exceptional. That gives people, you know, a really strong reason to follow them in the millions that they do and therefore, you know, sponsors follow suit, because that's a great place to play for sponsors, exactly.
Speaker 1:And it's super interesting what you're saying and you're speaking basic narrative, speaking about human beings, right? That's what you're talking about fundamentally, which brings me over to another part in this episode. Today, you've challenged traditional B2B and B2C divide, right, and you're talking about something called B2H. Can you tell us a little bit about that?
Speaker 2:It's something that's been coming up a lot more recently in the last couple of years. That coming up a lot. It was always last couple of years that coming up along. It was always quite siloed there was B2B and there was B2C. You'd even have, like you know, separate kind of specialisms within that as well, and you have to be one or the other. I don't think that exists anymore.
Speaker 2:I think more and more brands and organizations and companies are coming around to the idea that ultimately, you're dealing with human beings and human connection.
Speaker 2:Again, as you probably noticed, something I love to do is sort of like boiling everything down to the fundamental and starting from there and like business to business in itself doesn't really make a lot of sense. It sounds too inanimate and it sounds too transactional, which is what it ends up being if you focus on that too much, whereas it always comes back to who are we trying to reach here? What do they think and do now and what do we want them to think and do in the future? And that's where you begin and that's the human condition. And understanding the human condition and how people react. That's your springboard for campaigning, particularly campaigning through sponsorship. I think that's why we're seeing a lot more brands that would have been kind of traditionally B2B, as it used to be called, moving into sponsorship, because they're seeing that opportunity that, even though they're not necessarily a consumer-facing brand, they understand that they need to connect with people in a very meaningful way and they're using sponsorship to do that, but as a business.
Speaker 1:How do you decide who to sponsor? I mean, you have thousands of opportunities, right. You can choose to sponsor Manchester United. Let's say you don't have any limits of what you sponsor, right? Or you can choose Usain Bolt. I mean, how do you decide who's the right brand for me?
Speaker 2:Yeah Well, again it comes back to finding kind of common ground. You know brands will talk a lot about shared values and that makes a lot of sense to me in terms of what I've seen over the years in terms of what worked and what didn't between the athlete or team or other property and the sponsor themselves. Because when you start with that again it's easier for consumers or your audience to actually buy into it and believe it. It has to kind of make sense for them. If the audience have to think too hard about it, you've already lost them and most people can tell straight away whether it's a good fit or not. You've already lost them and most people can tell straight away whether it's a good fit or not.
Speaker 2:We're all so sophisticated in our consumer choices now that we know what's a good fit and that's essentially what will drive the decision. And that has to be quite instinctive. It's not like there's like a process or an algorithm that will tell you whether it's right or not. You to feel it and as well, like obviously I've been involved in a huge amount of sponsorship negotiations and you just have a sense in the room. You know you're like this is going to work and like people are looking across the table at other people going they're the kind of people I want to work with and it really is that basic and that kind of instinctive sense. I suppose it's an emotional thing. Yeah, well, everything is. You know, yeah, how emotionally connected we are or not to something. So exactly.
Speaker 1:So I mean a lot of these guests we have on this podcast. They tend to travel quite a lot. All right, I've done my fair share, and you are no exception, james. You recently worked on a project in the Middle East. I mean, what type of brands have you been working with there and what are their prime objectives?
Speaker 2:Well, the Middle Eastern market is hugely interesting because, as people would have seen, a lot of kind of Middle Eastern brands which are now have very quickly become household names, and a lot of that is through the medium of sponsorship, the fact that they've started to invest, particularly in sports, in a really big way. And it's interesting to me because it's a relatively new market there compared to others like the US and UK and Ireland, and all of that. So it's almost like finding its own way. Hmm, it's not that the way sponsorship is done in the middle east is dramatically different to other markets, but because it's at a kind of different phase of its evolution, it is kind of finding its feet in its own way and, as you can imagine, like the priorities would be slightly different as well in terms of brands and their goals.
Speaker 2:There's a huge amount of things happening in middle east that you know we're not necessarily hearing about Over here. An awful lot of investment in grassroots and community initiatives. That's really, really interesting to me because I feel like that's sort of the bedrock of really great sponsorship. When the investment is actually trickling back down to the grassroots of the sport or the organization that's propping it up, that means that it's got a much better chance at being there for the long term and actually legacy which sponsorship can achieve. I saw that particularly strongly with working with Chelsea in the Caribbean and the impact that they had when they left.
Speaker 2:That, to me, is quite similar to the trends that we're seeing in the Middle East in terms of sponsorship isn't there just for the brand awareness and the bright lights and the big occasion. It is actually looking at legacy and looking at the impact that it's having in the lower echelons of the sport, which is brilliant because that's good for everybody. So, yeah, that's sort of the main trend I'm seeing. I mean a good example you know the Champions League final, where the team main sponsor is the same for both teams and is also a partner of Champions League, so it's like a triumvirate of sponsorship. That's it in its kind of full flow, where you know, not only are you a tournament sponsor, you're also sponsor of the two teams that made the final. That's saying something about how strong your strategy is. But, like I say, that's brilliant and it's wonderful to see. But what's even better is when that's actually trickling down into the grassroots of the sport, because that means that you're nurturing the next great team or next great player.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I suppose there's a strong strategy behind that that comes to life Really strong strategy.
Speaker 2:Huge investment, obviously, that goes without saying. But great strategy because it's working and it's resonating.
Speaker 1:Can you talk a little bit about how you work with sponsorships from a storytelling perspective, because I know that this is important for you, and the way you work sponsorships from a storytelling perspective, because I know that this is important for you and the way you work? How is storytelling critical and why should everyone think about storytelling in their day-to-day business?
Speaker 2:Well, storytelling has always been a priority. People often say like Ireland is an island of storytellers of varying degrees, but I think, generally speaking, particularly the sponsorship world has sort of embraced that idea. In the last 10 years it's really accelerated. That's mainly through the kind of channels that have been available to people like me in terms of communicating that. So obviously social media had a part to play in it. The emergence of streaming services and all of that meant that storytelling through support and sponsorship came to the fore in a big, big way. Obviously, the biggest kind of smash hit within all of that is the Drive to Survive series that Formula One co-produced, which sort of illustrates it.
Speaker 2:I always look at what's happening at the very top and sort of work your way back from there. That for me is the pinnacle. You see the enormous impact that that series has had for all of the stakeholders within Formula One, not just the governing body itself, their sponsors, their drivers, their teams, their you know, anyone who's any way kind of linked to Formula One has seen the benefit of great storytelling, not that particularly complicated a narrative, but just executed really, really well and like when you look at, particularly in sports, I mean, it's just a treasure trove of stories. There are so many amazing stories behind what we see and we seem to have as fans, as an audience, audience. We have an insatiable appetite for that and you know the brands that see that opportunity and do that well, they really kind of see the benefit and I love to kind of explore, you know what other people are doing and you know kind of celebrate the real kind of successes within that. I do a lecture every year for the master's program in University College Dublin in sports management and as part of that I sort of try and bring some of those great examples to the floor so people can see what I'm talking about.
Speaker 2:Most recently I was showing the example of Budweiser and a couple of years ago they were obviously NBA sponsors and everything else, but what they did with the retirement of basketballer Dwayne Wade and the piece of storytelling and content that they built around that was exceptional and, you know, huge returns for them in terms of how that was received online and where it went, because they just nailed the insight initially, which is where you always start, and that insight being that yes, he was retiring, yes, it was his final season, but they looked at you know, dwayne Wade is bigger than basketball. He is more than his incredible God-given talent. He has done amazing things for people and communities and all of that. And they just told that story in a really compelling way in about two or three minutes and it became an internet sensation. Like that's what I'm talking about when I say great storytelling through sponsorship. That's the type of thing that brands need to aspire to. Yeah, I agree.
Speaker 1:So one thing I wanted to really ask you pick your brain about is that okay, let's say I'm a commercial director, commercial manager of a league, one EFL club in the UK. I've gotten the job. Ceo comes in he says well, hello, carl, welcome to your new job, start bringing in some sponsors. Where do I start? Except, I'll obviously call you, but if I didn't have your phone number, what did I do?
Speaker 2:Yeah, call me, put me on a really generous retainer and then I'll divulge all the information. But you start with you. You start with you and who you are and what your story is, what you stand for, what you represent, and be absolutely crystal clear about that and don't go running after the low hanging fruit which we see a lot of clubs do that there are people who are knocking down the door to sponsor teams and clubs where they're the sort of ethics of it don't necessarily fit Like. Again, I don't want to go after anyone's sector, but the audience will know what I'm talking about. That low hanging fruit is out there. You know you can take their money but in terms of the longer term it's not building your brand, it's not building partnership, it's not building something that can sustain itself over a number of years. And I think if you understand who you are and what you stand for and what your values are and you can communicate that successfully and find a brand that wants to come with you on that journey, it can be hugely lucrative.
Speaker 2:There's a club, a football club based in Dublin which really is a standout example of that. That's Bohemians Football Club and a huge portion of their commercial revenue comes through sponsorship, brand support. Because of the fact that they did that, they went to the trouble of understanding who they are and what they want to stand for. They've done some really clever, innovative things with the club and the club jersey, even the designs, everything. They've looked at all of those aspects in order to leverage their commercial potential so they're less reliant on gate receipts and TV money with that huge chunk of commercial money coming in. So that's a really good example of a team that's gone to that trouble of doing the hard work, doing the hard yards, of establishing who they represent. I think that's what you got to do. That hard work will pay off again and again and again if you're willing to kind of go there.
Speaker 1:I agree, maybe skip the local plumber and look for a brand that hits your club, right? I mean, you understand the challenge these people have. Right, they have budget. They have to prove that they can make some money right, it's very easy to fall into the short-term trap. But I agree with you Think long-term and your work will be much easier in year two three, four, five, six Bohemians a great example.
Speaker 2:Yeah, because they know what makes them unique. That becomes so much easier to sell to prospective sponsors because they can identify with that.
Speaker 1:I was going to ask about the key takeaways, but I think you've summed it up pretty good here. James, thank you so much for joining the Don't Forget your Tickets podcast today. Thanks a million, carl. I appreciate you having me on. You've been listening to Don't Forget your Tickets and today's guest was James Wynn. He is the founder of Playbook Sponsorship and a seasoned voice in global sports marketing, brand activation and storytelling strategy. Quickly, james, let's say I wanted to get in touch. What do I do? Where are you? Where can I find you?
Speaker 2:So, yeah, I'm based in Dublin. If anyone wants to get in touch, all the details are on the website playbooksponsorshipcom, and there's an email phone number everything there.
Speaker 1:Thank you so much, james, and, as always, thank you to TicketCo for powering this podcast. My name is Carl-Erik Moberg and until next time, have an amazing day, thank you.
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