How to help your event sponsors gain maximum value from your event
The benefits of sponsoring events for businesses
Would you like to gain exposure for your business, build goodwill in the community, and connect with a specific audience? (Who wouldn’t?) Becoming a sponsor of an event might be the right approach for your business.
Traditional advertising has lost impact, and people often overlook ads.
What does this mean for businesses trying to expose their brand to consumers? It is hard to get cut through unless they use a very targeted and focused approach to the needs of their target markets. It also means that businesses need to look at different ways to expose their products/services to their ideal customers.
Event sponsorship can be a cost effective marketing tactic – your business gets multiple and varied brand exposures over a long period of time (compared with just once or twice for an ad), and directly to your target audience/s.
Event sponsorship can provide a deeper connection with your target audience. You’re not doing a hard sell which people tend to ignore. You’re just there, helping out a good cause … “And by the way, this is what we do. Please let us know if we can ever help you.”
Event sponsorship is a new avenue to get in front of potential new customers. Done well, it can help you
Establish or improve your business’ image as a good corporate citizen that is invested in the community it serves, making people feel good about your business and increase brand loyalty (such businesses are more likely to get support from community members).
Re-engage previous customers or engage new ones by increasing or creating brand awareness with your target market or a new target market
Create awareness of your business and what it sells, by showcasing your product, expertise or services to attendees
Increase sales or usage of your product/services
Launch a new product/service, or introduce existing product/service to a new market, or reposition a struggling product
Deliver specific information to your target market or collect information on them (e.g. customer research or contact details)
Reward your employees and/or offer a fun and enjoyable teambuilding experience e.g. through volunteering together
Charity fundraisers
There’s a wholesome feel-good vibe to being the sponsor of a fundraising event for a charity (and charity events tend to get media attention) - ultimately, it’s a really positive and inexpensive way to market your business while doing a good deed.
Leveraging event marketing
The event organizers are marketing their event to a certain audience. Take advantage of their leg work and sponsor an event that reaches your target audience, leveraging their marketing dollars on advertising, but also on direct marketing to their email database, followers on social media, and stakeholders.
Sponsorships vs donations
When sponsoring an event, you can expect a direct benefit for your business in return. Sponsorship is a commercial investment, part of your business’ marketing plan. However, for a donation, no direct recognition is expected in exchange.
How to maximise your sponsorship investment
Businesses shouldn’t throw their brand (and money) at an event and hope for the best. The idea behind advertising (i.e. behind sponsorship) is being seen – over and over again. For that reason, businesses that get the most value from sponsorship are those that get involved early.
What does your business want from event sponsorship?
Decide what you want to achieve from event sponsorship and build it into your marketing plan. For example, do you want to launch a new product? Do you want to offer a special to attendees to encourage them to visit your business?
Consider developing a sponsorship policy for your business. Determine what it is you would like to get out of your partnerships with events, the type of audiences you are seeking, the lead time you require to make your decision and the criteria that you will access your decision against. A one pager will help you identify which events are the best fit for your business.
Choose the right-fit event
Pick an event you can really get behind or support a charity you truly believe in, an event whose culture represents your brand, that your target markets will attend and engage with, that will be run well so attendees will have a positive experience (and associate that experience with your brand). Associate with events which have a similar target market. Aim for a good fit between your business and what the event is about (its brand, audiences, its personality, etc).
Negotiate sponsorship benefits
Find out from the event organiser the opportunities, marketing and benefits available to sponsors. Be clear about what you will receive from the event organisers in exchange for your sponsorship e.g. a personal story about your business’ involvement in a newsletter, a certain number of posts on social media and what they will be about (personal stories are more engaging than a simple ‘thank you’ to a sponsor), via the PA announcer, with signage and a stall at the event, and so on. Negotiate with the event organisers to ensure you are both clear on costs and what your business will get from the sponsorship. While event organisers will often present you with a “sponsorship package” most will be happy to negotiate and tailor packages to suit your needs, resources, and your budget. Get the deal in writing.
Some benefits your business could receive for its sponsorship include
Hospitality and networking opportunities
Display, demonstration, or sampling during the event
Complimentary tickets e.g. to give away as a prize to your customers or to reward staff
Inclusion in competitions (by providing a prize)
Naming rights to an element of the event (e.g. the stage, the volunteer team, a venue, the PA announcements, the wifi…)
Access to databases or inclusions in newsletters
Sales at the event or providing discount coupon to attendees
Ad or logo in the event program and on its website
Signage at the event
Inclusion in media opportunities
Sponsor with services or products instead of cash
Consider providing equipment, services, products, technology, expertise or people instead of cash, such as prizes, a venue, volunteers (your paid staff), water refills for water bottles, bookkeeping services, or something else associated with your brand.
Prepare for the event
Prepare for the event, such as by ordering branded merchandise to distribute to events attendees or ordering specific inventory to suit the event audience.
Let your community know about your event support
Promote your sponsorship to your networks via your marketing channels: your social media, your email database, your website homepage, a poster on your reception desk or front door, in your email signature, and so on. Create sharable, credible, personable content – such as how your staff are training to be part of the event’s fun run. Ask the event organizer to share your social media post/s.
Be social!
Positively engage on the events social media posts as your business page, though not with a hard sell (after all, social media is about being social!). Like, share and comment on posts that can be related back to you. Being active on social media maximises brand awareness and increases engagement with the audience you’ve spent good money to reach.
Leverage the event’s marketing plan
Is there an opportunity for a collaborative campaign to attract a shared target market? How can you have direct contact with their audience to showcase your products and services? Identify media opportunities (e.g. presenting a prize if that is what your sponsorship involved). (Remember to also use the event’s hashtag and your town’s hashtag in your posts)
Get involved
If there’s a fun run, do the run with your staff as a fun team building exercise wearing your corporate t-shirts or caps, and raising money for the charity as a team. Could you provide a unique experience at the event that truly adds value for attendees? Could you provide a significant prize that prompts attendees to attend your booth to qualify to win? (See Adding value for attendees below for ideas). Be present to network face-to-face, building trust and rapport with customers.
Encourage others to get involved
Encourage your networks to get involved in the event as well. Are any of your clients, customers, suppliers or contractors potential sponsors? If so, why not refer them to the event organiser or vice versa? The stronger the event, the greater the benefits to the entire community.
Add value for attendees
Consider how you could add value for attendees in a way where your target market can engage in an uplifting way with your brand?
Here are some ideas:
Provide useful free giveaways to attendees such as branded sunscreen or hats at an outdoor summer festival.
Host an event or experience as part of the program, such as a workshop or a photo booth with fun dress up items and props.
Host a ticketed VIP networking event such as a cocktail party at the event (if high-income attendees are your target market).
A luxury jewellery brand (and major sponsor of an event) hosted a lounge at the event beside their retail stall on site. It had comfortable seating, was close to the action of the sports event, and also hosted some VIP functions.
A new local solar farm provided a ‘recharge’ station at an event, where attendees could both recharge their phones, but also take a break from the noise and crowds, chill out on a beanbag, and recharge themselves. You could offer a quiet space for relaxing with old-school board games, or host a games lounge with giant versions of Jenga and ping pong.
Host a family tent with a quite comfortable area for breastfeeding mums and a play space for little kids etc. This is ideal for a sponsor who wants to attract new family customers.
Gather customer intel
During the event, see if you can find a way to collect customer information (such as by entering to win a prize with your email address), or place your products or services directly in front of potential customers.
Engage at the event
Do live social media posts and videos from the event – not a hard sell but an invitation to enter your competition, say g’day at the stall, come by for a freebie (if they join your email list), etc.
Review outcomes
After the event review the outcomes of this marketing tactic. What went well? What would you do differently if you sponsored another event or the same event next year?
Case study: Getting maximum value from event sponsorship
Small rural business Cannard Hats had been on the verge of closing due to the struggle of drought. The business sponsored the Adina Polocrosse World Cup because the event’s audience of country people and farmers aligned with its own target markets.
As well as having a trade site at the event where it could introduce attendees to its products, sell hats and take custom orders, it maximised its sponsorship through its marketing channels and innovations.
The event organisers, the Warwick Polocrosse Club, worked together with its sponsor to ensure their posts were shared with the event’s followers, such as in the following examples.
Cannard Hats innovated by designing hat ribbons in each of the competing countries’ colours, ensuring extra appeal to loyal supporters.
Business owner Chris Cannard ensured he had plenty of stock on hand to sell at the event. He shared his story with a behind the scenes video from his workshop. In his video he shared how he handmakes his hats from scratch.
Once at the event, Cannard Hats offered a free hat as a prize for the daily Photo of the Day by attendees. The event organiser organised interviews by the PA team with sponsors, and a chat with Chris was organised to promote this prize.
Personal stories are a great way to engage your target audience, such as this example:
The outcome of sponsoring the event for Chris Cannard was saving his business from collapse, by reaching a whole new market for ongoing relationships and customer loyalty, and making a large number of sales during the event.
“The last six months in business has been tough with the drought. This event has given me the ability to invest the necessary funds back into the business. I am so grateful to the event organisers” - business owner Chris Cannard.
Case study: Talking event sponsorship with Grant from Adina Watches
Adina Watches were the naming rights sponsor of the 2019 Adina Polocrosse World Cup.
Adina was founded in 1971 by Australian watchmaker and current managing director Robert Menzies. A determined businessman, Bob had a dream to create a watch capable of withstanding the rigours of the Australian lifestyle. Today the business has grown from one dedicated man to a staff of twenty, including Bob's son Grant, building the craft of quality Australian watchmaking through the generations. Each year Adina produces over 40,000 artisan watches from its Brisbane factory, available in over 300 retail outlets across the country.
In this podcast, Grant shares about what sponsors expect and look for when sponsoring an event. He provides some great practical tips and insights that will support events of all sizes when they next commence their sponsorship campaign.
Sponsorship resources
Over to you
Do you have a great tip about event sponsorship? Please share it in the comments