Make It Sponsorship Savvy BACK

As corporate Canada continues to shift dollars out of traditional advertising channels and into event marketing opportunities, planners are increasingly being called upon to extend their relationship-building expertise to encompass the art of the sponsorship deal.

Sponsorships are business agreements built on specific objectives and brand enhancement opportunities. For insider info that will help prep your event packaging and sponsor courtship, we tapped the experts at The Brown Group, authors of Achieving Sponsorship Success: Advice and Tools for Association Executives:

Survey The Field
Research and develop a prospect list by identifying corporate sectors that sell to your event attendees and what’s important to them:

• Target companies with specialized products and services that your attendees use, but also include businesses with more generic offerings such as banking, accounting and insurance.
• Look at what companies are sponsoring and the types of events they are aligning with. Add them (or their competitors) to your list if appropriate.
• Take note of who isn’t sponsoring and add them in too. Chances are they haven’t been approached or haven’t found the right opportunity.
• Media outlets are important sources since the advertising exposure they provide is an attractive benefit for other sponsors.
• Read corporate marketing materials, annual reports, websites, newspapers, business and trade magazines for clues that may signal a ripe sponsorship opportunity such as a new product launch, a strategic change or a good or bad sales year.
• Watch for changes in senior level personnel, such as a new CEO or marketing director who, in putting their stamp on the organization, may be willing to explore fresh opportunities.

Develop the Program
Package different levels of sponsorship opportunities with attractive benefits and pricing structures that target a good range of sponsor prospects:

• Companies are generally interested in programs that offer in-person time with attendees, information about what influences their purchases, promotional exposure and prestige.
• Category exclusivity, access to mailing list/databases, weblinks and name and logo recognition on communication vehicles top corporate sponsor wish lists.
• Benefits could also include the opportunity to speak at the event, conduct a seminar, host a reception or conduct an attendee survey.
• The rule of thumb in pricing sponsorship values is two for one: the sponsor receives double the value of exposure they paid for.

Prime the Pitch
Once the program foundation is in place, customize each proposal by connecting the dots to what a company’s support of your event can do for the company:

• Describe the event. For annual events, detail what it has achieved in the past.
• Do your homework on a company’s profile, target market and products/services and align the info with your event demographics.
• Highlight key points as to what the sponsorship will do for the company such as increase sales, enhance reputation with clients and increase market visibility.
• If you have the info, share marketing results that other sponsors achieved.

Time the Approach
Be aware of a company’s corporate budget cycle; these tend to vary greatly:

• Budget setting occurs before the beginning of a new fiscal year. Take note of what companies are on a calendar-year budget and which ones have a year-end that occurs throughout the year.
• The earlier you can put your event in front of a potential sponsor in their budgeting cycle, the better.
• Missed this year’s opportunity? Re-approach them in lots of time next year.

Make Contact
Find out the key person or department in charge of sponsorship decisions:

• Check a company’s website to see if it offers sponsorship guidelines and contacts.

• Responsibility varies by company but is most often located in the marketing, communications, sales or product departments. When in doubt, start at the top with the president and CEO’s office.

• Don’t send a proposal in cold: telephone first. Use a written script that sounds professional and friendly with key messages around the nature of your call, your affiliation and contact information.

• Use every contact opportunity to demonstrate your knowledge of a company by directly linking its product and your event goers as users of that product.

Pump Up The Partnership
Don’t lose valuable relationship- and trust-building opportunities by simply endorsing the sponsor cheque and disappearing into the logistical demands of the event:

• Communicate, communicate, communicate. Provide frequent update reports that let sponsors know how the planning progress is going.
• Make yourself accessible (or designate someone) to field possible sponsor questions and concerns quickly and accurately throughout the process.
• Present a post-event report that recaps the event, delivery on benefits, media coverage and promotes the merits of participating in the next event.

With input from and thanks to Lisa and Gary Brown, The Brown Group, browngroup@sympatico.ca