Canvas Worldwide’s Paul Woolmington: The Science and Religion of Fandom Rests on Community
CANNES, France — Canvas Worldwide’s years-long look at sports marketing’s unique potency implores brands that treat tapping into fandom as a media buy rather than a community relationship will tend to miss the mark.
“The parallel between fandom and, without being blasphemous, religion — this congregation, the notion of entities that can sometimes be the church, but the congregation are really the fans,” Paul Woolmington, CEO of Canvas Worldwide, told Beet.TV contributor David Kaplan at Cannes Lions. “The one thing that can bring people together is being a part of a fan group or feeling a part of a community that goes very deep.”
Woolmington’s comments draw from The Fandom Advantage, Canvas Worldwide’s latest sports marketing report, which examines the science, benefits, and orchestration of fandom across brand, platform, league, and media company perspectives.
Fandom as community
The research frames fandom less as a media context and more as a social infrastructure. It breaks down fandom’s components as multi-generational and simultaneously analog and digital. Those elements are why sports are capable of uniting strangers in stadium stands who share nothing except the game in front of them.
“If you’re in the stands of a Kansas City Royals game or at a World Cup match, you can literally be cheek by jowl with people from other worlds, other experiences, that share one beautiful thing,” Woolmington said.
For brands, that communal power creates both opportunity and obligation. Buying impressions through sport is legitimate. Earning permission to genuinely participate in that community is something else entirely.
Earning permission
Woolmington speaks of a sharp distinction between transactional sports sponsorship and authentic fandom integration. And the behaviors that enhance the fan experience at every level create the credibility that media spend alone cannot manufacture.
“You really have to think about permission. How do you earn this permission in the short, medium, and long term? How do you connect a big anthemic idea, like a big sponsorship, to grassroots?” Woolmington said. “[It comes down to a brand’s] behaviors; what you do is as important as what you say.”
Naturally, some brands carry more permission than others. But the framework applies universally, Woolmington said, from pouring rights for beverage brands to far more nuanced brand-community relationships built over years.
Entry points exist for every budget
The new sports media landscape has expanded well beyond America’s traditional big four leagues around football, basketball, baseball, and hockey, creating viable entry points for brands at every budget level and audience target.
The Fandom Advantage report highlights women’s volleyball as a particular opportunity. It’s growing rapidly across college programs and delivering what Woolmington describes as an exponentially stronger impact when audiences see themselves represented.
“A lot of people are saying, ‘We’ve missed the boat on women’s sport.’ No, you haven’t. Women’s sport has exponentially grown in the last few years and it will continue to grow,” Woolmington said. “You can get even more bang for buck in some of these sports.”
Elsewhere, Formula One, golf, and an NFL now distributed across 12 platforms round out a landscape where, as Woolmington puts it, there is now an entry point for almost every brand.
Long-term strategy beyond the campaign
The brands extracting the most value from sports partnerships are those who have stayed in them longest. Sixteen-year brand-franchise associations are worth exponentially more today than they were at signing.
“Be purposeful. Think about your long-term strategy. Think about it not campaign by campaign,” Woolmington said. “Think of all the techniques you’re going to use — when and how. But the important thing is we’ve got great entry points for almost every brand today.”
You’re watching Beet.TV coverage from Cannes Lions 2026. For more videos from this series, please visit this page.
CANNES, France — Canvas Worldwide’s years-long look at sports marketing’s unique potency implores brands that treat tapping into fandom as a media buy rather than a community relationship will tend to miss the mark.
“The parallel between fandom and, without being blasphemous, religion — this congregation, the notion of entities that can sometimes be the church, but the congregation are really the fans,” Paul Woolmington, CEO of Canvas Worldwide, told Beet.TV contributor David Kaplan at Cannes Lions. “The one thing that can bring people together is being a part of a fan group or feeling a part of a community that goes very deep.”
Woolmington’s comments draw from The Fandom Advantage, Canvas Worldwide’s latest sports marketing report, which examines the science, benefits, and orchestration of fandom across brand, platform, league, and media company perspectives.
Fandom as community
The research frames fandom less as a media context and more as a social infrastructure. It breaks down fandom’s components as multi-generational and simultaneously analog and digital. Those elements are why sports are capable of uniting strangers in stadium stands who share nothing except the game in front of them.
“If you’re in the stands of a Kansas City Royals game or at a World Cup match, you can literally be cheek by jowl with people from other worlds, other experiences, that share one beautiful thing,” Woolmington said.
For brands, that communal power creates both opportunity and obligation. Buying impressions through sport is legitimate. Earning permission to genuinely participate in that community is something else entirely.
Earning permission
Woolmington speaks of a sharp distinction between transactional sports sponsorship and authentic fandom integration. And the behaviors that enhance the fan experience at every level create the credibility that media spend alone cannot manufacture.
“You really have to think about permission. How do you earn this permission in the short, medium, and long term? How do you connect a big anthemic idea, like a big sponsorship, to grassroots?” Woolmington said. “[It comes down to a brand’s] behaviors; what you do is as important as what you say.”
Naturally, some brands carry more permission than others. But the framework applies universally, Woolmington said, from pouring rights for beverage brands to far more nuanced brand-community relationships built over years.
Entry points exist for every budget
The new sports media landscape has expanded well beyond America’s traditional big four leagues around football, basketball, baseball, and hockey, creating viable entry points for brands at every budget level and audience target.
The Fandom Advantage report highlights women’s volleyball as a particular opportunity. It’s growing rapidly across college programs and delivering what Woolmington describes as an exponentially stronger impact when audiences see themselves represented.
“A lot of people are saying, ‘We’ve missed the boat on women’s sport.’ No, you haven’t. Women’s sport has exponentially grown in the last few years and it will continue to grow,” Woolmington said. “You can get even more bang for buck in some of these sports.”
Elsewhere, Formula One, golf, and an NFL now distributed across 12 platforms round out a landscape where, as Woolmington puts it, there is now an entry point for almost every brand.
Long-term strategy beyond the campaign
The brands extracting the most value from sports partnerships are those who have stayed in them longest. Sixteen-year brand-franchise associations are worth exponentially more today than they were at signing.
“Be purposeful. Think about your long-term strategy. Think about it not campaign by campaign,” Woolmington said. “Think of all the techniques you’re going to use — when and how. But the important thing is we’ve got great entry points for almost every brand today.”
You’re watching Beet.TV coverage from Cannes Lions 2026. For more videos from this series, please visit this page.
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