Trunk launches PartnerAmp sports partnerships advisory

Manchester marketing agency Trunk has launched PartnerAmp, a sports partnerships advisory service for brands, clubs and rights holders. The offer includes a free assessment called the Partnership Health Score.

The service is aimed at organisations seeking a clearer link between sponsorship and partnership activity and broader business and marketing objectives. It follows a year of research and development shaped by discussions with clubs, rights holders and brands.

At the centre of the offer is a short assessment designed to give users an immediate view of how their current partnerships are set up. The report provides an overall score and measures performance across Fan Value, Alignment and Strategic Edge.

Trunk's research points to a market in which sports partnerships still often depend heavily on visibility, with less certainty over how they support wider commercial aims or fit into a season-long strategy. PartnerAmp is intended to address that by giving teams a framework to review partnership activity and identify gaps.

Three tiers

The service is structured in three tiers. Power Play is described as a diagnostic intended to align partnerships with business goals and activation priorities.

Game Changer is positioned as a strategic blueprint for organisations looking to use partnerships more directly within growth and marketing plans. Season Strategy offers ongoing support intended to keep partnerships aligned with business goals over the course of a season.

PartnerAmp has been developed as part of Trunk's wider Consult. Craft. Connect. model. The service also draws on the agency's technology stack and follows the recent launch of Weave, a discoverability system.

The launch comes as agencies and rights holders face greater scrutiny over returns from sports marketing deals. Brands are under pressure to show clearer value from sponsorship spending, while clubs and rights holders are seeking stronger evidence that partnerships can contribute beyond brand exposure.

Adam Britton, Chief Creative Officer at Trunk, outlined the reasoning behind the launch. "Too many sports partnerships are still expected to deliver value simply because the logo is there. The reality is that the real opportunity starts when partnerships are treated as part of the wider business and marketing strategy. PartnerAmp has been created to help brands, clubs and rights holders connect that thinking, so partnerships become more joined-up, more effective and more commercially valuable."

Trunk argues that partnership teams should not work in isolation from wider marketing and commercial planning. Instead, the service is designed to help clients examine what role a partnership plays, how it should be activated and where it can support commercial objectives.

That reflects a broader shift in sports marketing, with brands increasingly expecting partnership activity to tie into customer engagement, sales planning and long-term brand strategy rather than simply secure visibility on matchdays or in campaigns. Agencies in the sector have responded by building more measurement and planning tools around sponsorship work.

For Trunk, PartnerAmp also adds a more defined sports-focused product to its existing agency work. Based in Manchester, the agency said the launch forms part of a broader effort to build connected strategic tools and services for clients.

Britton said the same pattern emerged repeatedly during development. "We kept seeing the same challenge again and again: strong partnerships with real potential, but no clear thread connecting them back to the wider business or marketing plan. PartnerAmp was built to help close that gap and give teams a clearer way to think about what their partnerships are really doing, and where they could be doing more."