Exploring How Partnerships Play a Pivotal Role for Deloitte

In conversation with podcast host Jim Andrews, Suzanne looks across the global professional services company’s vast sponsorship portfolio to discuss supporting the business, helping partners achieve success and impacting external and internal audiences. Below are edited highlights of the conversation.

Jim: All of the listeners to this podcast are familiar with Deloitte, but as with any diversified global business, there are probably some important things they don’t know, so let’s start there: What would you like people in the sports and entertainment sector to know about Deloitte that perhaps they’re not aware of?

Suzanne: Deloitte has a very complex product set, so I would like people to know three things about what our brand promises to our partners, clients and people. The first is that we are always trying to make an impact that matters. That is very important to us. We say, an “impact that matters to our people, our communities and our clients,” and increasingly the planet. That means we really meter what we do through that lens.

The second is we are all about progress. We are about changing where the world is headed, not just fixing existing problems. In that notion we are about bringing the latest technologies, deep industry expertise and the broadest set of capabilities to really set the world in motion.

Last, but not least—particularly in times of uncertainty—we believe it’s very important to have a partner by your side that you trust implicitly and that you believe has your interest at stake and the integrity to help you make judgement calls that are required today.

That is how we are always trying to show up. Not only in a work capacity, but also you’ll see that come through in some of the things I anticipate you will ask me about the way we think about partnerships and sponsorships.

Jim: One thing that this audience does know about is your sponsorship portfolio, which is comprised of longtime as well as relatively new relationships with the global and national Olympic movement, U.S. Open tennis, the USGA, U.S. Soccer, the WNBA, NWSL and others. Suzanne, what’s the business case for these sponsorships? What goals and objectives do they achieve for Deloitte?

Suzanne: We think about it through three lenses. The first is obviously the brand. Are we proud of where the brand would show up and does that get us eyes that we wouldn’t necessarily get in our everyday work?

The second is does it afford us a rich storytelling platform for our clients and through the hospitality angle as well.

Last but not least, which is slightly different than what I hear from other CMOs, is we really take a hard look through the talent lens. Will our people be proud of the work we are doing and the sponsorship we have?

Jim: So you have the internal audience as well as the external. Across the portfolio, are there specific target audiences for each of those properties, or is there a general external stakeholder or prospect that you are trying to reach?

Suzanne: Both are true. We have different audiences we are trying to reach through the different properties. And we have partnerships and sponsorships outside of the sports arena as well for that, which is important to us. The breadth of the work that we do demands that.

But a lot of what we try to do when we evaluate partnerships and sponsorships is think about things we can do that are distinctly Deloitte that others couldn’t do through a partnership and sponsorship lens. That requires us to think deeply about what is the mission of the organization that we are entering into the partnership or sponsorship agreement with and then think about the things that we uniquely could do.

Jim: As a professional services company, Deloitte is in a position to provide its sponsored partners with assistance that often can be more valuable than cash. Is that a key element when you negotiate a partnership with a sports or other rights holder?

Suzanne: That is a significant element for us. We believe deeply that the world will be propelled forward by people coming together to solve the world’s most complex problems. That shows up in the way we think about the relationship we want with our partnerships and sponsorships.

We love to help those organizations achieve their mission by bringing forward things that we can do that other companies can’t do. I talked about the brand, being proud of the work, the client showcase and talent. All of those things come true when we are able to negotiate deals like that because our people then do that work and it showcases the impact that we can make.

Jim: Is there an example of how Deloitte has worked with a partner that you are particularly proud of?

Suzanne: We were privileged to work with the IOC and Paris Olympic Games organizers. They pulled off an amazing Olympic experience this summer. We have incredible stories about the work we are doing for the IOC as we think about them executing the games over the 10-year period of our commitment, which we call a “partnership with purpose.”

The longevity of that commitment is very important to us, but the storytelling around the IOC going out and looking for the partner that they wanted to work with to deliver on some of their most critical business issues gives us the ability to talk about the fact that with half the world watching they chose Deloitte to be the partner to deliver those things that are required to deliver the games in the future. That’s a very powerful client storytelling platform for us that we are very proud of.

But it also allowed us to talk about Team Deloitte and our support of athletes and our support of our talent to pursue multifaceted goals. So it allows us a very rich and dynamic platform.

On the flip side, we have done some very interesting work with the WNBA and the U.S. Open around the fan experience and the digital platform that they are operating on to get more fan data and be able to respond to the fans’ wants and needs. Those are fun stories that give us the opportunity to talk about what we can do in a very relatable way, rather than leading with, “Do you want to hear about Deloitte Cyber Operate services?”

Jim: As the CMO you have lots of marketing levers you can pull to try to achieve your goals. In terms of marketing to prospective clients, how important are those case studies and success stories you generate through your sponsorships?

Suzanne: What we are always trying to do, if you go back to the brand promise I talked about, is to showcase not only what we can do, which is critical, but also our personality and how it feels to show up with Deloitte as well. We try to pull that through with our commitment to the organization to help them achieve their mission—that is part of our promise to all of our clients and to our people—and on the flip side, the way that we host hopefully allows us to showcase what it feels like to work with Deloitte, which we think is very special as well.

Jim: How does Deloitte determine how its sponsorships are performing? Are you looking at return on objectives, or return on investment? With so many components to a sale in the B2B space, is it possible to isolate the impact that sponsorship has?

Suzanne: As you might imagine, it is never easy. But we do have a very robust business case process. We think about it through the lens of a 360-degree relationship. There is brand, and there are a lot of traditional marketing metrics in there around reach, audience and all of those things that you negotiate as part of the deal.

With clients, there are two pieces. We talked about the storytelling platform that is very important to us and then there is the hospitality piece, which is important as well. Is it a place where we can really showcase the work we are doing?

In the talent space, we look at does it make our people proud. We look at some things that maybe people wouldn’t think about. Are our people posting and engaging in their own worlds to show that they are proud of the work we are doing and that they like those associations and that affinity.

Jim: Some of Deloitte’s newer sponsorships are in the women’s sports space, including being a WNBA Changemaker. You also recently launched the Athena Pledge, alongside AT&T, Capital One and Cisco. Can you tell us more about that initiative and the importance of women’s sports to Deloitte overall?

Suzanne: Deloitte has had a longstanding commitment and real belief in the power of diversity and inclusion, and specifically for women. We did some work last year for the WNBA Finals that was about cheering on professional women on and off the court and the notion that girls that play become women who lead—the direct connection between sports and the lessons we learn through them.

We recently signed the Athena Pledge, which we are very proud of. That is really all about capitalizing on a moment and making sure that we as bigger brands are really stepping into the moment of supporting women’s sports. It’s rich storytelling and it provides capital and support that is critically important for athletes, coaches and those ecosystems.

When we were doing the work to figure out the size of the problem, we saw that 78 percent of the “buyers” believed that an increase in industry data and insights would help overcome some of the internal hesitation about putting more money into women’s sports.

That’s really what we are stepping into and encouraging others to step into. It’s a societal good that advantages everybody because the more people we can be inclusive about participation, the better off we are all going to be. We will start with women through the Athena Pledge, but that’s an enduring value that’s important for all of us to be able to prove how we can do that collectively.

Jim: Suzanne, can you tell us a little bit about the structure that supports sponsorships at Deloitte? Can you tell us a little about the team and whether you work with any third parties to execute and activate your partnerships?

Suzanne: We have a very deliberate structure. At the global level we have a structure for our global partnerships and sponsorships. And we have a similar structure at the U.S. level. They obviously work very closely together.

As you might imagine, given that we are trying to deliver on brand, clients and talent, that’s the lens through which we think about providing support. The brand would be all of the traditional kinds of marketing assets, whether those would be digital campaigns or actual commercials. How does the brand show up in those spaces?

We do have a lot of support through the window of client hospitality, but also additional activation, so that even if you are not physically at an event, you can experience the story we are trying to tell at that event. We work with the client part of the organization on who attends the events

Through the talent lens, we have both the hospitality angle—where my team works very closely with the talent part of the organization—as well as working very closely with our chief purpose officer Kwasi Mitchell’s team to make sure the purpose lens is front and center.

We are the orchestrators of the business case and the strategy behind it. To your particular point, I have a great team, so I’m in a privileged spot of not needing to work with third parties, but we absolutely love to work with third parties, particularly in environments where that makes a lot of sense.

If you think about the WNBA spot from a year ago that I mentioned, we did that with Maximum Effort. We couldn’t have done it without them. They were absolutely geniuses behind the scenes with the way that that spot unfolded, from the concept to the way it was delivered. We love to do co-creation like that, but we are very able to execute on our own as well.

Jim: It’s great to hear how you are working across the organization, because we all know sponsorships don’t work well when they are siloed within one department. They need to be connected to all of the different areas where they make an impact.

Suzanne: And one of those that I would add that I haven’t mentioned is the business. It’s probably the most important one for us because of the multi-faceted relationship we have with these organizations, but I would argue that all CMOs should pay attention to it.

We make sure the business is very front and center. They are the ones whose commitment we need to make the deal. They are the ones who are committing to do the work to make these organizations missions happen. That is a critical piece. These are not marketing-only relationships. They require a robust governance process that allows us to really take advantage of them.

That shows up in the way our partners would say they deeply feel that commitment.

Jim: Is there anything coming up as we head into 2025 that you are looking forward to in terms of Deloitte’s partnerships?

Suzanne: So many things, actually. I’m very excited about Athena Pledge and seeing what momentum we can push on that. In the spring we are doing a brand platform refresh, so you will see some new spots through our partnerships and sponsorships, notably the U.S. Opens in both golf and tennis. We have the Winter Olympics coming up and that is always a fun place for us to showcase the work we are doing to support the IOC. SheBelieves through the soccer lens. Lots of good stuff. It’s like saying which one is your favorite child!