Speaking at AO Matters, Tennis Australia’s brand and partnerships forum held concurrently with the Australian Open, Ricardo Fort — one of the world’s most respected global sports sponsorship strategists — shared lessons from more than three decades shaping partnerships for companies including Coca-Cola, Visa, Danone and other multinational giants, as well as negotiating Olympic and FIFA World Cup agreements.
Interviewing him was Roddy Campbell from Tennis Australia, part of the leadership team overseeing the commercial and partnership strategy behind the Australian Open — one of the world’s largest annual sporting events. At peak, the AO draws more than 100,000 fans a day on site, hundreds of millions of global broadcast viewers, and operates a brand ecosystem that spans sport, music, food, culture and entertainment. The tournament has evolved into a festival-scale platform, with dozens of global and local brands activating across the precinct and throughout the wider tennis calendar.
Fort opened with a blunt truth about sponsorship.
“One of the biggest mistakes brands make is thinking the job is done once the contract is signed. That’s actually when the real work begins,” he said. “Before you ever sign, you need to know what you want to do, what stories you want to tell, and whether you actually have the rights to do those things.”
At events like the Australian Open — where multiple major partners share the same stage — differentiation falls heavily on the sponsor. “Everyone wants to be special. But you have to know who you are and what you want to achieve — then execute.”
Fort urged marketers to think beyond marketing.
“Most of us see sponsorship through a marketing lens. CEOs don’t. You have to ask: what business problems can sponsorship solve?” His first question to clients is always: what problem are you trying to solve? “Too often I hear, ‘We signed this deal — what do we do with it?’ That’s backwards, but very common, even in multi-billion-dollar companies.”
Awareness remains fundamental for many brands. “Look at Emirates,” he said. “Today everyone knows them. Twenty-five years ago, almost nobody did. Sponsorships with football and FIFA helped build that awareness. First people need to know who you are; only then will they care about your stories.”
Sponsorship can also simplify complex offerings. “If your technology works for McLaren in Formula One, people assume it can work for their business. A difficult technical story becomes credible and memorable.”
Fort also highlighted client development. At Coca-Cola, a McLaren partnership was leveraged to support Amazon. “Coca-Cola paid for and managed the sponsorship but activated it to benefit a key customer. That deepened the commercial relationship.”
Strategic influence, sustainability storytelling and stakeholder relationships also sit on his checklist. “I have 17 different objectives sponsorship can support. If you’re only ticking one, you’re under-using it.”
The message, reinforced by Campbell’s perspective from inside one of the world’s most commercially advanced sporting events: the healthiest partnerships are those solving multiple business challenges — not just delivering logos and hospitality.
