Guest Blog: Maximizing Your Event Sponsorship, by Marissa Taffer
Event sponsorship should be an important part of your sales and marketing efforts. You may be wondering what event sponsorship is and why it might be a good strategy to use.
What is Event Sponsorship?
Event sponsorship is a form of marketing where you pay a fee (or donate products or services) to have your company or brand name associated with an event. The money you pay to sponsor the event can be used to:
Defray the cost of operating the event itself
Decrease the ticket cost for attendees
Benefit the organization hosting the event
Why Should I Sponsor an Event?
There are many reasons why sponsoring an event can be helpful as you are growing or scaling your business.
Getting your brand in front of the right people can:
Solidify your position in the community
By sponsoring events like award ceremonies, fundraisers, clean-up days, food drives or even events that support local journalism you are able to align your brand with your values. By putting your name on a community event, you are saying to the community that this is important enough to you that you support it financially.
2. Introduce your product, service or venue to the right people
If your business is offering a new product, service or venue, you will need to tell people about it and have them experience it! For example, a new restaurant may want to try donating catering to an event for potential customers and a new venue may want to host an event for a professional association or related group where the members are responsible (or have the ability to approve) the booking of a venue! That way people who may buy in the future have seen you in action. If you choose to do this, make sure you can put your very best team members, food and beverages forward as well as investing in some interesting decor. Show people what you can do!
3. Allow you to create a fun, unique activation that people will remember
Sponsoring a photo booth or other interactive stations with creative branding will help people remember your brand. This could include a hot chocolate bar at a 5K or tailgate, a selfie station at a holiday party, movie theatre popcorn before an awards show or movie screening. While these examples have all been done successfully in the past, you can put your own unique twist on one of these or create a brand new experience for event attendees, runners or fans!
4. Align your brand with the right people and create new partnerships
Whether you’re partnering with another corporate partner, a well-known event planner or a hot new venue, the relationships you create before, during and after your event can continue to serve you for years after the event is over. Whether it is because you worked with a new partner and continue to refer each other business after the event or because you’ve expanded your network and made some lifelong friends, the relationships you make with the other sponsors and partners can last way beyond just one event.
Choosing an event to sponsor
How do you know what event to sponsor or how much to spend? There are event sponsorship opportunities everywhere. It can be overwhelming, especially when salespeople start reaching out with packets and pitches. How do you make the best decision for your business?
Define your audience and goals
Before you even think about sponsoring an event, make sure you (and your marketing team if you have one) are very clear on who is your audience and what are your goals. Timing is an important factor from an event sponsorship standpoint. You want to make sure the audience and your message are aligned. If your product won’t launch for at least a year, you may not want to use event sponsorship to build interest pre-launch - unless your demo is incredibly compelling or the sales process is very long and complex building interest a year out might be too far for people to remember. However, if you’re opening a hotel and pre-booking group meetings, it might be exactly the right time to start hitting the trade show circuit or sponsoring events in your target markets! You want to get very clear on who you are trying to reach, and what you want them to know or do. Both of these variables can change from year to year and even quarter to quarter so you want to consistently revisit your audience and goals - especially before writing a big sponsorship check!
2. Research event opportunities where members of your audience will be.
Once you have defined your target audience and your goals, you can start researching event opportunities. If you have the time, you may actually want to attend the event as a guest or participant before coming in as a sponsor. For brand new events, you may want to disregard this advice as first-year events can sometimes come with big discounts or other perks! When it comes to new events, look for signals that it will be successful. These could include other sponsors who have already committed, an organizer with a past track record of success or even that some of your most important targets have already committed to attend.
3. Learn about the events and what opportunities they offer.
Once you’ve started to narrow down the list of events or sponsorship opportunities, you’ll want to learn as much as you can about the events and what they have to offer. Most events offer multiple sponsorships and levels. You want to make sure the event will be well organized and executed and that your message won’t be lost in an overcrowded group of sponsors. Ask questions about the levels of sponsorship, how many sponsors an event will have and who else has participated. For events with a lot of sponsors, you may wish to contact past participants to learn about their experiences.
4. Choose the event that fits best with your business and brand.
In order to select the event that is the best fit, you may want to create a spreadsheet listing the pros and cons of every event you’re considering to see what fits best with your brand.
5. Determine at what level you’ll sponsor (What is your budget?)
Most events offer multiple levels of sponsorship with higher levels of sponsorship offering the most benefits. This does not always mean you should go for the highest level of sponsorship. As you reflect on your audience and goals the next step is to consider your budget. How much money do you have to spend on each event (or on events for the year) and what do you hope to get out of your sponsorship? For some businesses, sponsoring a new event, or even event sponsorship at all can be risky and what might make the most sense is a smaller sponsorship. This allows you to get some experience and see what sponsorship is like without blowing your entire budget.
6. Work with event organizers to maximize the return on your investment.
Once you’ve decided to sponsor an event and written a check, that does not mean your responsibility is over. It is actually just beginning. Make sure you’ve read your agreement and understand what is required (or even highly recommended of you) as a sponsor. This includes sending your logo in the requested size and format, any content, links, photos or advertisements needed to promote your business. Take note of all specs and deadlines and make sure you’ve provided what is needed. After spending all the money on your sponsorship, it would be a shame to lose out on benefits like being included in event promotion or having an ad in the program because you missed a deadline. Even if you don’t have a graphic designer available to you, using a program like Canva to resize logos or create ads is an easy way to make sure you have the necessary materials.
If the event requires you to be onsite to network or staff a table, make sure you’re equipped to handle this request. In addition to putting together a presentable table, you will also need to make sure you have appropriate giveaways or displays to attract people to your table.
7. Participate actively in the event
It is not enough to just write a check and maybe show up to an event you’re sponsoring. To get the most return on your investment you need to actively participate. That means doing as much research on the attendees of the event (and other sponsors) as possible. It also means helping to promote the event and your participation.
During the event, try to meet as many people and experience as much of the event as possible. Look at who is in the audience and try to learn about what is resonating with them.
How you participate, before, during and even after the event will have a big impact on the return you get from the event. After the event you want to be sure to follow up. Connect with people you met at the event. Provide feedback to the organizers about what went well and what you would like to see in future events. If something didn’t go right at the event, see what can be done to make it right.
8. Get data and reflect on your experience
Before you sign your sponsorship agreement, make sure you understand what data about the event will be available to you. Will the organizers tell you how many people saw the event advertising (impressions) or how many people bought tickets. Can you see how many people joined your mailing list or redeemed an offer or coupon?
Just because an event was successful from a data/metrics standpoint, doesn’t mean you should repeat your sponsorship - think about your experience, your goals and how it all fits together - Just like when you’re hiring the best candidates “on paper” aren’t always the best candidates for the job. Just because an event ran smoothly and the data looks good, that doesn’t mean you have to sponsor the same event each year. Think about how each unique event fits into your overall sales and marketing plan as well as where you are in your business growth before you commit to being a repeat sponsor.
Marissa Taffer is the Founder & President of M. Taffer Consulting, a boutique business development & project management consulting practice in Philadelphia, PA. In this role, she has sold sponsorships for events and media companies looking to support themselves and grow their audiences. Her favorite thing to do is help brands, businesses and venues tell their stories and connect them with the right audience. You can find her on her website at https://mtafferconsulting.com or on Twitter & Instagram as Phillyrissa.