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The lead sponsorship executive at Alinta Energy, Alison Keller, says building relationships, being curious and asking lots of questions were key qualities for those aspiring to senior sponsorship roles with major brands.

Keller, the national partnerships manager for the company, told Sponsorship News that nailing the basics – the who, why, what and how questions, were critical. Who are we wanting to connect with? Why are the two brands working together (value exchange, objectives)? What do they want to achieve? And how and what do fans expect from brands?

Her role includes leading the company’s significant sponsorship of Cricket Australia. There she has developed and managed a leveraging program that focuses on her company’s retail business.

Working as part of a lean team on the east and west coasts of Australia, Sydney based Keller brings to life the cricket partnership through Alinta Energy’s above-the-line creative, media, digital, customer communications and fan engagement endeavours.

Recent work has involved leading a review of the company’s brand platform and strategy last year which was rolled out through the cricket partnership activations.

“Our That’s better campaign focuses on how we can make things better for our customers and the Australian Cricketers were brilliant brand ambassadors to help us bring that to life,” Keller said.

 Working in sponsorship for most of her career, Keller started with a marketing role at a global investment bank in London.  From the outset she was drawn to discovering how the right partnerships could bring a brand to life by creating a unique connection between it and fans.

Returning to Australia, she was keen to work with brands with sporting partnerships and cut her teeth in a role with agency Subnine (part of the STW Group) where she managed numerous brands and developed their leverage programs.

After four years with the agency, Keller took on a role with telecommunication giant, Vodafone at the time its major sponsorship was with Cricket Australia. She then moved on to a senior position managing the sponsorship portfolio at Westpac and its regional brands.

“I have been lucky enough to work across all of the major sporting codes in Australia and some amazing cultural and community partnerships as well.”

Keller believes that asking questions, failing fast and being able to quickly solve problems were important skills to have in her role. A strong understanding of objectives and the expectations of stakeholders were also important qualities.

She stressed that working in sponsorships means working with two brands. It was important to be clear on the value exchange and how you can work together to achieve the objectives of both partners. She said it was key to not only produce great work but also set up relationships for success.

Experience and temperament were also important for the role, according to Keller, as was being curious. She said great sponsorship and marketing managers can translate what the business needs into an integrated leverage plan. They understand strategy and can convert that into a pragmatic execution plan. These qualities were learnt through experience, she added.

From a personal viewpoint Keller had found that working in sponsorships meant she gained an understanding of all aspects of marketing. In her current role she is responsible for advertising, media, digital, experiential, customer communications and CSR integration. And that’s not all – she also takes on campaign development, briefings and reporting. These skills are easily transferred forward to strategy, commercial and GM marketing roles.

Keller said the basic understanding of how to connect with fans/customers and building relationships would always be essential skills – but the “how and what” is delivered will change as the industry evolves.  This could be seen in the emergence of Web3 and the variety of content platforms.

“How we deliver experiences will change and evolve, but the fundamental skills of understanding connections will always remain relevant, Keller said.

The pandemic forced the industry to think differently about how it worked and what was produced, she noted. Flexibility in where we work was the most obvious change but Keller felt people’s mindset had also changed. This is seen particularly in how they choose to interact with teams, brands and events. 

Keller said the changes pointed back to “connection” and that the sector needed to think more about how it interacts with colleagues and stakeholders as well as how brands, sports and events are seen and experienced by fans.

Editor note: I hope you enjoyed our first professional development piece.  We plan do more and are keen for your feedback about this new editorial stream and are open to suggestions on who we cover.   I also hope to have Ali at the upcoming Sponsorship News conference at Marvel Stadium on Tuesday October 18.  Save the date. 

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