Auditioning New Partners
By Mark Harrison
The 49th edition of the Toronto International Film Festival is in the books, and there was much to cheer about. The stars were back. The weather was great. The parties sparkled.
After a seemingly endless series of body shots - the pandemic, executive turnover, actors strike, directors strike, and the loss of their entitlement partner; the Festival showed up and showed out in a sparkling manner.
Now that the lights are down and the producers of Life of Chuck have captured the TIFF People's Choice award, the countdown has begun for the TIFF's 50th-anniversary edition in 2025.
The 50th provides an essential opportunity for the Festival to honour its roots and can be a launchpad for the future. TIFF has already announced that in 2026, they will bring an official content market to the event, but what big plans are in store for the corporate partnership stage for next year? The Rogers Presenting Sponsorship deal for 2024 is apparently for this Festival. Literally just September. Hence, this creates a dramatic opportunity and challenge for festival organizers.
While TIFF could have surrendered ground after losing Bell, their leadership apparently decided to pull out all the stops to find new partners for 2024. Reportedly, they added 37 new brands to an existing roster of 57, headlined by long-time collaborators RBC & Visa. Internally, TIFF has recruited new talent to their partnership team and reunited with some talented leaders who had previously left the organization.
The addition of high-profile brands such as Campari (red carpet partner) and relatively unknown Invert (sustainability partner) were just two new partners added to the corporate supporters club, along with many more. The opportunity for them and a new entitlement partner in the future is to see how they can genuinely and impactfully build on their first-year success.
If the Rogers relationship is genuinely just a one-month partnership, it must be TIFF's starting point. A partner with as many outlets, brands, platforms, and tentacles as Rogers is an ideal lead partner. They have a business imperative to help support content development in this country. All of their services are integral to an in-home or out-of-home movie-watching experience. Their music, diversity, and sports partnerships can be leveraged to create new activations for TIFF attendees, volunteers, and other partners. Rogers' outlets can be utilized to amplify the entire alchemy of magic.
The challenge of demonstrating impact for a one-month partner is not lost on me. Typically, a partnership of this magnitude would take three to five years to illustrate the ROI a major brand seeks. Perhaps that timeline is no longer realistic with the accelerated opportunities social media, influencers, and community platforms provide. Given the omnipresence of platforms, you don't have to look much farther than the U.S. election to observe that the timeline to launch anything, even a presidential campaign, is now at lightspeed. Ideally, TIFF had the bandwidth to allocate resources to monitor the benefits and sentiment Rogers may have been accruing during this Festival. Combining that with modelling around future impact for their business should build a compelling case to build a long-term partnership to convince the telco giant to Paint the Town Red.
TIFF is all about magic. The magic that movies create is undeniable. Sponsorship is also the most magical part of marketing. Movies and sponsorship can provide extraordinary powers for TIFF as it approaches its Golden Anniversary.