Virtual Film Festivals and Sponsorships
With many of the festivals going virtual and using online platforms to host their celebrations, there have been drastic changes in all areas ranging from films pulling out to the way marketing is executed.
One of the biggest changes is the willingness for sponsors to support festivals the same way they have in other years, which, for some festivals, has been a critical blow. In this article, we are going to the current climate for sponsorships and how festivals can respond.
To view other articles on film festivals, visit our Film Festivals Blog. To test the festival platform, please visit https://distribution.bingewave.com/l/festival.
How Sponsorships Have Changed
At BingeWave, we’ve worked with several festivals and have polled festivals all over the internet on how their sponsorships have changed. The results have come back as such:
Hardly Any/In-Kind
Hardly Any/In-Kind means that the festival did not receive any money, received a negligible amount, or was in-kind, which typically means a bartering relationship. The majority, 63%, fell in this category.
Significantly Less
This range means that a festival was able to receive some compensation for the festival, but it was nowhere near the levels as other years and would not support the festival.
Supportive But Less
In this category, sponsors gave a decent amount of sponsorship that was usable for the festival and could be applied to operation. But this was still less than in other years.
Same Amount As Other Years
This was the minority of festivals, representing only 5% where they were able to get the same amount of sponsorship as other years.
Why Sponsors Are Giving Less
It’s a noticeable trend that sponsors are giving less this year, but the question is, why? There are a few reasons when you jump into the shoes of the sponsors and take their perspective.
Economic Downturn
Sponsors, like many businesses, have been affected by the economic downturn caused by COVID-19. As businesses, they have to cut costs where they are unsure of their ROI (return on investment), and sponsoring festivals is on the chopping block.
For example, one of the festivals we connected with was focused on travel films. They talked about how their primary sponsor, a travel company, went bankrupt, and they were left without any money for this year’s festival. Overall, your sponsors might not have the budgets to support your festival.
Different Business Model
We mentioned above about the ROI (return on investment) that what sponsors are looking for. Traditionally, when festivals were sponsored, there was an in-person touch that festivals had with attendees. This could have been a booth at the festival, materials on flyers being handed out, pre-roll on the screen, and more.
Going online, sponsors lose the ability to continually be in the attendees’ face, 1v1 engagement, or be present on multiple banners in the lobby of the festival. Many festivals have turned to pre-roll advertising that appears around the video content or banner ads. The problem for festivals asking for the same amount of sponsorship using this model falls on CPM (Cost Per Milli) or CPC (Cost Per Click) business model.
When ads are run online, the standard payment model is paying for the impressions, aka how many times an ad is shown to users. This is called CPM, and the standard unit is that every 1000 impressions shown to a user will cost an advertiser/sponsor between $1 to $10 on average. The Cost Per Click model is when someone actually clicks the ad shown, which can cost the advertiser the same price.
A simple example from the perspective of a sponsor: if you have 1000 attendees who are going to watch 20 films, your ad might be shown 20,000 times. If your CPM is $5 then a simple formula can be used:
20,000 impressions / 1,000 units = 20 * $5 CPM = $100.
If a sponsor does that math and comes back with results like that based on industry standards, paying a festival, even $5k for sponsorship, no longer seems like it would be a good return on investment because mathematically, the benefit is only worth $100.
In other words, to get more than standard amount, your festival has to prove to sponsors they will get more value advertising with you than with Facebook.
The Free Event Mistake
A common mistake that some festivals are making is the belief that a free event will get them sponsors in the future. There is no evidence to support this and is likely not valid for a few reasons:
- Free Is Too Easy: Having a free event means no barrier to entry; people just come. When you start to charge people, you will have an unknown amount of churn. You cannot in reliable, good faith, sell the audience size of a paid event to a sponsor based on a free event.
- Not Your Physical Customers: Even if you charge, the people who are your customers online may not be in the future. If your event goes back in-person, there is no guarantee that they will put in the effort to travel across the country or world to your festival.
- Different Business Model: Your online event is still a different business model, and sponsors will likely feel the same about it in the future.
Apologies if this part of the article puts a damper on anyone’s day, but it’s a truthful perspectives festivals should take into consideration.
How Festivals Can Adapt
Now that we understand the trend around sponsorship and why it’s harder for a sponsor to justify spending money, it’s time to adapt Festivals! Below are some offerings that you give sponsors beyond pre-roll advertising and banner ads.
Panel Discussions
Panel discussion with the filmmakers is a great way to engage the audience, and BingeWave has been one of the highlights of many of our festivals. An opportunity you can provide to sponsors is the ability to talk about themselves in a brief intro on panels. Below is an example video on BingeWave’s built in conferencing software where sponsors can pitch the audience prior to a panel beginning.
More Branding Opportunities
Every touchpoint with your audience is a marketing opportunity for sponsorships. This ranges from the RSVPs confirmations sent to attendees to the promotional flyers posted on Facebook.For example, have the sponsors logo on all RSVP confirmations or all a logo on all social posts.
Virtual Swag Bags + Other Virtual Alternatives
The idea of swag bags does not have to go away because they aren’t in-person events. There are several companies that have virtual swag bag options to be considered.
Sponsorship on Merchandise
Festivals still have the ability to sell merchandise such as T-Shirts, mugs, and other items. These physical items also have room for sponsorship. Consider having your festival name and the sponsors names on T-Shirts and other merchandise to create a form of evergreen sponsorship.
Be Creative
We do not have all the answers to providing more value to your sponsors. But we believe the creative thinkers who put together these wonderful festivals will come up with new models of sponsorship.
The Return of Sponsorship
Given the current climate of the pandemic, no one knows when things would go back to normal. They may also never go back to the way they were even after the pandemic ends. Festivals need to be prepared for any outcome and learn how to:
- Create different revenue streams outside of sponsorships
- Create different kinds of sponsorship opportunities for their sponsors
- Lower costs in an effort to raise profit margins
BingeWave is live streaming, community building and revenue generation platform for filmmakers. We serve everyone from web series, documentaries to features, and champion diverse narratives.
For information on hosting your own festival visit https://distribution.bingewave.com/l/festival or obtaining live/cinematic distribution, please visit: https://distribution.bingewave.com/
