Sponsorship as a partnership
Sponsorship seems to retain its position as one of the most effective marketing tactics. This is clearly seen by looking at the growing global sponsorship expenditure. According to the report, the amount spent on sponsorship worldwide exceeded 60 billion dollars in 2016 and is projected to rise by 4.5% in 2017. Moreover, the expenditure has been constantly increasing over the last eight years. If companies are prepared to invest such vast amounts of money into this form of marketing the return they expect to receive must be worth it.
Nowadays, the value of the brand is determined by the loyalty of its customers. The focus has shifted from unidirectional advertising to building meaningful relationships. Event sponsorship gives companies an opportunity to achieve their objectives by connecting with their target audience through meaningful experiences. There is no doubt that sponsored workshops that provide learning opportunities or memorable face-to-face encounters are valued more than pop-up ads on a website.
Although the benefits of sponsorship for a brand are immense, very often companies are unable to get the most out of it as they fail to clearly see the range of opportunities available. Often event managers simply consider sponsorship as a way of paying for the event and securing income. While this approach might still work in a lot of cases, it prevents the organisers and sponsors from achieving the optimal results, often leading to unsatisfied attendees and “failed sponsorships”.
The solution might be shifting the priorities and seeing sponsorship as a strategic partnership. In other words, as an event manager, you should see yourself as a mediator between the two parties — the audience and the brand. You need to ensure that the former leave the event having learnt something and made valuable connections and the latter fulfilled their objectives.
The solution might be shifting the priorities and seeing sponsorship as a strategic partnership.
Below we provide some pieces of advice on how event technology can help you and your sponsors achieve a better return on investment and improve the sponsorship experience.
1. Understand the goals
Make sure that you have a clear idea about your sponsor’s’ objectives and your attendees’ goals. It is important to have an in-depth knowledge of your audience and its preferences as event attendees are the greatest source of value for your sponsor. Therefore, try to provide your sponsor with as much information about your audience as possible. This should include the number of participants, their demographics, interests and priorities.
Get to know your sponsor’s objectives and values. It is fundamental that you as an event manager understand what your sponsor is trying to achieve by funding the event. Remember that your sponsor is your partner and that your marketing strategy should fulfil their goals. Align the attendee expectations with the sponsor’s’ objectives and develop a unique strategy that will benefit both.
Here are some questions you might want to ask your event sponsor to better understand its goals and priorities.
- What is your target audience?
- What are your specific objectives for this event?
- How do you measure ROI?
- What ROI do you expect to achieve?
- How do you evaluate the return on engagement (ROE)?
Event tech, and particularly the data it provides, can help you greater understand your audience. Encourage questions through the event app or analyse the post-event feedback. Using a centralised communication tool will make it possible to match the attendees’ goals with the sponsor’s objectives as you will be able to see people’s reactions to sponsored content and workshops.
2. Educate your sponsor
Very often event managers forget about how important it is to explain to sponsors what are the benefits of investing into the event and educate them on how to create a meaningful connection with their target audience. It is essential not just to offer passive sponsorship packages, but to encourage your sponsors to actively participate and create unique event experiences.
Provide them with the information on previous events. Explain what worked best and suggest the strategy that will bring the optimal results. This will not only help increase the value of the event for all those attending but will also position your sponsor as a thought leader instead of an advertiser and improve the long-term return on their investment.
Technology can be a useful tool when gathering information on previous events. Using event management software or an event app with features such as data analytics and polls will give access to valuable insights on the attendees’ interests and popular discussion topics as well as gather targeted feedback.
3. Facilitate communication and networking
Events are all about sharing knowledge and building connections, and it’s your responsibility as an event organiser to make sure that your event sponsor will have the opportunities to interact with the audience during and after the event.
Face-to-face interaction is the gem of any relationship. Therefore, providing your sponsor with space for conversation and collaboration is more effective than placing logos around the venue. It provides the company with the opportunity to build real relationships with the attendees and not just make their brand logo more memorable.
While in-person interaction at the event is a great opportunity for the sponsor to get to know their customers, the relationships must be supported and nurtured after the event is over. Creating an online community around the brand through a sponsored event app is a great way for the sponsor to stay in touch with their customers.
4. Justify the investment
This helps sponsors get a clear understanding of the benefits received for the money they spend.
Depending on their goals, provide your sponsors with data on the event performance, and analyse the main indicators of their success. The return on investment and the return on engagement should be considered when evaluating the results. Remember that evaluating success will help you to justify the investment. At the same time analysing failures will enable you and your sponsors to make better decisions in the future.
CRM and event management software facilitate evaluation of the short-term financial gains. At the same time, it allows you to turn the audience engagement into a tangible metric and get a precise numeric equivalent for your sponsor’s brand reputation (ROE).
A key to a successful sponsorship experience is to look at the sponsorship as a strategic partnership. This approach allows one to consider the sponsor’s goals and objectives when creating a marketing strategy for an event or a conference. Latest event tech solutions help better understand the audience needs, create an effective communication channel and demonstrate both short- and long-term returns on the investment. Consequently, these will increase the event value for the event sponsor and guarantee future successful partnerships for the organisers.
