Returning to the sponsorship industry after a pretty long absence, I was curious to see what had changed. Some of the old faces were familiar, many of the old chestnuts were still being debated. But beneath the surface I discovered a different undercurrent: rights owners and sponsors are keen to explore new ways of using sponsorship, traditional models are being challenged, while the digital era and public sector spending cuts are creating new opportunities.

This is what I hope to cover in Platform. As a monthly we won’t be writing about news as it happens, but we will be monitoring trends within current affairs and looking at the implications for sponsorship. We will look at sectors where it has rarely, if ever, been used until now and discuss what that means for the industry. This issue covers a range of topics, from the Olympics to neuroscience, the arts to football. The aim is to do so in a way that provides ‘added value’ to readers, something that they won’t be able to get anywhere else.