Awards Season
Spoiler Alert: Announcing a New Awards Program
I used to detest attending award shows until the first time I won!
Yes, we are in award season, my friends. It's a marketing leader's dream and nightmare all rolled into one. Which competitions to enter? Which categories? Which clients to showcase? What if we don’t have anything award-worthy?
Award entries take time, resources, money, and self-confidence. I am sure there have been times when you were surprised you won and many more when you felt genuinely injured by not. What emotion is more significant? The high of winning or the low of losing? I will let you be the judge.
I have also noticed a massive surge in “I am Judging” posts on social media.
Judging offers many benefits, including networking, learning, and credibility-building. Many people jump on the judging track locally with ambitions to become national or global judges, and I applaud that. I also applaud the amount of time and energy they are committing to the process.
Recently, my collaborator Neill Duffy, of 17 Sport, came to me with a new awards idea.
The concept is the Purpose League 17, a list of 17 individuals who exemplify best practices at the intersection of sponsorship x sport x purpose to recognize and inspire excellence in our space.
To be recognized as a member of The Purpose League, 17 individuals were evaluated and chosen based on several key parameters. Our objective was to identify people who are leading with purpose as a key strategic business driver in their work and addressing the following:
a. Systemic Change / Problem Solving - addressing a social or environmental problem through their work.
b. Strategic Integration - embedding Purpose into their core business model as a central organizing principle
c. Commercial Viability- delivering measurable business outcomes (e.g., revenue growth, fan retention, partnership value)?
d. Measurable Impact - tracking social or environmental outcomes with clear, verified metrics?
To kick-start the process, we as Founders handpicked the winners. This Founder (me) relied on the other Founder (Neill) for his leadership, as this is his area of expertise, and he delivered an incredible list.
The SPX Purpose League, powered by 17 Sport, was created to accelerate the adoption of purpose as a key strategic business driver across the sponsorship industry. We know that the work these recognized leaders do will inspire thousands of marketers seeking a better way to do sponsorship marketing to embrace a more purpose-led approach.
We plan to recognize these leaders at the 2026 Purpose League Summit in London (October 15-16), which brings together visionary changemakers to champion sponsorship as a powerful vehicle for good - good for society and good for business. Over two days, Summit delegates will explore the business case for Purpose in a very hands-on manner and leave better equipped to lead with Purpose through their work. This will include spending much of our summit time undertaking a Strategic Challenge with local sports charities on Day 1 and experiencing an immersive Community Experience on Day 2.
Given the nature of the Summit, our award recognition will be very different than what you may expect: no podium, stage, speeches. Instead, we will have a facilitated networking dinner so our attendees can meet and learn firsthand from our winners, their partners, and representatives.
Learning from winners has always been my favourite part of the best award programs (think Cannes Lions), which is true to the purpose we at 17 Sport and SPX are striving to create.
A sponsorship community of purposeful learners.