Slingshot Sponsorship Appoints Alex Howells To Launch Sport Division

Alex Howells will be joining the London office of Slingshot Sponsorship as an account director to head up the agency’s new sport division, as it seeks to drive its ‘creative commercialisation’ concept to rights-owners within the sports industry.

Howells takes up the position at Slingshot with over nine years of experience across the sports marketing and sponsorship sectors, with previous roles at the Football Association and E.ON.  Most recently he has been a member of the partnerships team at Sport England where he was responsible for growing Sport England’s portfolio of partners and providing specialist commercial support to national governing bodies of sport.

Jackie Fast, Managing Director at Slingshot Sponsorship, said: “We have been on the hunt for a new Director of Sport for some time as it is incredibly difficult to find senior people who have a combination of strong creativity and commercial acumen. Combining that with proven account management, Alex’s breadth of experience with both influential brands and sporting bodies was an ideal fit for our agency as we look to bring our sponsorship concept to the sporting industry.”

According to Jackie Fast, sports with smaller audiences are all too often overlooked for their partnership potential because of the lack of television reach, while mass market sports largely sell their sponsorship based on these figures.  Slingshot works with both brands and rights owners to look beyond the logo, aided by the advance of technology which is driving both innovation and speed.  “It is now the perfect opportunity,” says Fast “to maximise the true potential of sport campaigns that drive engagement – rather than just brand awareness.”

Alex Howells, Account Director, Slingshot Sponsorship stated: “Slingshot do things differently and the agency’s accomplishments in such a short space of time are an indication of the commitment, drive and energy of Jackie and her team.” 

Howells will carry on the work with Slingshot’s current sport clients, while creating tailored offerings to the industry as a whole with a focus on maximising both participants and commercial revenue streams through effective marketing partnerships.  He will also be responsible for building the profile of smaller sports and women’s sport within the sponsorship industry as a whole.