Canadian sponsorship just hit $4.22 billion — the highest total ever recorded, with rights fees up 58% in a single year and brands reinvesting in women’s sport, evaluation, and fan experience at historic levels.
SponsorshipX founder Mark Harrison sits down with Dr. Norm O’Reilly, Dean of the College of Business at the University of New England and a foremost authority on sponsorship data, to unpack the most actionable findings from the 19th Annual Canadian Sponsorship Landscape Study.
The conversation turns to where activation dollars are actually going: social media leads at 19.9%, followed by hospitality, ancillary events, and advertising, and which categories represent the biggest opportunity for brands ready to differentiate. With 60.6% of brands planning to increase investment in women’s sport and evaluation spending at a 19-year high, the industry is making smarter, more intentional bets.
The central question: with record investment flowing in, how do brands build activations that truly earn their audience?
Join Norm and Mark at the SponsorshipX Activation Lab, Vancouver, June 16–18, 2026 - https://www.sponsorshipx.com/activationlab.
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