This episode’s featured guest is Paul Joliat – Assistant VP, Sponsorship & Philanthropy at Sun Life. Sun Life is one of the most active brands in Canada from an advertising, sponsorship and cause marketing perspective.
Paul is a veteran of the sponsorship marketing wars, having negotiated deals from both sides of the table, many of them award-winners.
November was Diabetes Awareness Month, and you’d be hard-pressed to find a brand that has done more to advance Diabetes awareness in Canada than Sun Life.
A big focus of our chat is some amazing insights from his 9+ years at Sun Life. Including…
- How Paul helped develop Sun Life’s sponsorship strategy and the challenges of doing so for an insurance brand
- How Paul’s role expanded to include Philanthropy and how he took inspiration from the Purolator Tackle Hunger program when shaping Sun Life’s philanthropic strategy
- Insights into how and why Sun Life selected Diabetes as the core of their corporate social responsibility mandate
- The evolution of Sun Life’s sponsorship portfolio which includes notable properties such as the Toronto Raptors, Montreal Canadiens and the Grey Cup… and how each is used to amplify Sun Life’s CSR platform
- Great example of how Paul sold the Raptor Jersey patch through internally to people with a finance or actuarial background
- Insights into the Sun Life Grey Cup Fan March and the Sun Life Dunk for Diabetes program
- We discuss the intersection between philanthropy and sponsorship and how it has grown across the industry.
- And terrific personal and professional development advice from an executive who has worked on the agency, property and brand side.