The power of partnerships: the entertainment principle

By Francis Coady, CEO of Grand Pacific Entertainment & Advisory

I hope by the end of this little article, you can see how the principles of entertainment can unlock a new era of partnership across sport, culture and CSR.

"I made mistakes in drama. I thought drama was when actors cried. But drama is when the audience cries." - Frank Capra

There is a moment in every great film, every live concert, every sporting contest that turns on a single play, where time does something very strange: it slows down. The audience stops being an audience and morphs into witnesses and actual participants. As humans, we remember exactly where we were and who we were with when it happened.

That moment in time is not a random accident; it is the whole point, and the foundation of unique and powerful partnerships, and the people behind iconic partnerships in history understood this instinctively.

We can't chase audiences; rather, we create conditions for that moment to occur, then stand close enough to be part of the memory. 

Coca-Cola did not buy the Olympics; they joined a human ritual in 1928 and quietly wrote themselves into the story of what it means to gather together. Beyond Blue did not simply advertise during the AFL; they stood beside Hawthorn Football Club for nearly two decades and put the conversation about men's mental health into rooms it had never been able to enter on its own. They understood that a football club is not a media channel. It is a community with its own mythology, its own grief, its own pride. We know that if you earn a place inside that community authentically, you earn something no media buy can replicate.

I think we can all agree that many brands ask for attention; however, the best ones make it inevitable.

The evidence of the principle is very personal for me. As an ex-band manager, writer, executive producer, festival founder, and agency builder, I found that budget rarely decided whether the partnership would come alive. What decided it was whether the brand understood the emotional territory it was entering and had the humility to serve it rather than own it.

With Gillette and Cricket Australia, we understood that an Australian summer is not a season. It is a state of mind. It arrives with its own mythology, its own rituals, its own cast of characters, and a brand's only job is not to get in the way of it. So we built a barber shop under the scoreboard. We put four seats inside the fence, on the field, so close to the players you could hear them breathe, literally. We called them the Close Matters seats, because in cricket, as in life, everything turns on the small moments you almost miss. Gillette didn't sponsor the summer; they literally and physically became part of what the summer felt like for those die-hard fans.

During my time working with NRMA, we found something rarer still. A brand willing to stand beside a cause without trying to own it. Our partnership with The Port Macquarie Koala Foundation gave us not just a statistic but a set of characters to engage with. A koala in a rescue centre, blinking in the light, is not a data point about environmental degradation; it is a living thing that needs real help from all of us. In culture and in CSR, the moment a brand stops serving the story and starts serving itself, the audience feels that too.

I think maybe what people get wrong about CSR partnerships is that they believe sincerity requires solemnity. To be taken seriously, a cause must be presented seriously, stripped of joy, drained of life, delivered in the tones of a boardroom apology. The greatest entertainment has never worked that way; it has always understood that empathy is not a duty; it is an inherent feeling and feelings, unlike arguments, stay with us for life.

That principle extends beyond sport. Destination NSW's The Long Road was a content series I created and executive-produced, sending artists across New South Wales to find the landscapes and people that make this state extraordinary. 

Guy Sebastian down south, Amy Shark underground in a mining town hotel, Troy Cassar-Daley on country that has held his family's story for generations. 

There was no script that felt like a homogenised, marketing-produced one, just artists moved by places and audiences moved by artists. It won a truckload of awards, and more importantly, millions of people watched it, shared it, and then got in their cars and drove towards it, putting real money into regional economies at a moment when those communities needed it most. That is what entertainment does when it is truly working well; it connects and can create real change.

Grand Pacific has been working on a partnership strategy for ICC Sydney Theatre, now the TikTok Entertainment Centre, and helped initiate and broker the naming rights for the recently announced Afterpay Arena (Qudos Bank Arena). A brand that steps into a precinct of 21,000 people isn't buying signage. It's choosing a seat in the ongoing story of this city's cultural life, building a long-lasting partnership embedded in the true essence of entertainment.

Grand Pacific is also advising The Anxiety Project, a K-6 schools programme developed in partnership with the Principals Association of NSW. Mental health in primary schools is one of the most important conversations this country is not yet having loudly enough. Those stories do not need embellishment. They just need brands with the courage to sit inside them, that are trusted, and that can continue to build more trust in school communities across the country.

Because here is what every great filmmaker, every musician who has ever walked onto a stage in front of thousands of people, every sporting director who has watched a game turn on a single moment, knows in their bones. You cannot manufacture the feeling; you can only create the conditions for it to arise, then have the discipline and the courage to stay the hell out of its way.

We really must give people something true. Something that reaches the heart before the head has time to intervene. Something that is still with them long after the lights have come up and the crowd has gone home. That is the only principle that has ever mattered. Entertainment has always known it. The best partnerships are just the ones that have finally listened.

Francis Coady is CEO of Grand Pacific Entertainment & Advisory. His career spans band management of platinum-selling rock group Thirsty Merc (Warner Music) and global children's group Hi-5 (Nickelodeon), founding and executive producing the Bondi Short Film Festival for thirteen years, before going on to found Havas Sports & Entertainment under Havas Media Group, where he rose to Chief Marketing & Content Officer. Grand Pacific creates powerful partnerships and original content across sport, entertainment, culture and corporate social responsibility. www.thegrandpacificgroup.com