Critical Start hosted their Sales Kickoff event last year at the Embassy Suites By HIlton Dallas Frisco Hotel & Convention Center in Frisco, TX. They provided branded foam fingers to attendees encouraging them to “Raise Their Game.” Courtesy of Nicole Chattin

There is no shortage of avenues for all types of advertising, and the same rule applies to sponsorships. From association conferences to sports teams to community events, sponsorships are an ever-present marketing opportunity. Some planners go further and say it is the ultimate social media for businesses of all sizes. Sponsorships offer a powerful platform for people to meet, connect and be part of something extraordinary, and offers planners a unique revenue opportunity to offset the costs of events.

Steps to Take, Considerations to Make

Walk into any conference center or tradeshow where an association’s event is being held and you’re bound to see company logos printed on t-shirts, banners, placards or brochures. These themed events rely on sponsors to contribute money or other assets to event organizers in exchange for advertising and other honorable mentions.

Karen Hill, MBA, DES, director of meetings, events and engagement at Barcami Lane, Inc., says sponsorships provide meetings and events with the additional revenue needed to continue to offer top-tier events, but also some of the extras (i.e., lanyards, gift bags, charging stations) that may have not been budgeted for.

“Sponsorships improve the overlook, feel and experience for the attendees,” Hill says. “It provides an opportunity for a company to showcase their product or service to attendees during a dedicated time and a single space — giving the opportunity to build those connections with decision-makers.”

Gail Bower, president at Bower & Co. Consulting, agrees that sponsorships provide meetings and events with a source of funding that converts what could be a lackluster activity into a profitable asset. Without corporate sponsors, few events are profitable.

“Besides revenue, if designed well, sponsorships bring a marketing windfall to an event. Both the meeting or event and sponsor share a common audience and a goal to expand that audience,” Bower says. “Corporate sponsorship is only successful when these partnerships are a win-win-win, meaning in the best interests of the event or meeting, the audience of that event or meeting and the corporate partner.”

As a marketing medium, companies invest to have access to the in-person and marketing audiences of that event. In return, sponsors provide a valuable activity and experience at the event, enabling them to interact face-to-face with the audience and building brand equity at the same time.

In her meeting planning role, Hill is seeing more companies looking for a unique way to showcase their products and services to the decision-makers.

“They are looking beyond just purchasing an exhibit table, consideration to sponsoring a specific meal, reception,” Hill says. “We’ve seen that sponsors are gravitating towards opportunities that may provide them access to a monthly newsletter or social media post.”

Today’s sponsors also are choosing opportunities that may go beyond the actual event, focusing on how they can continue that visibility before, during and after an event.

Agreeing to these types of solicitations also can make sense from a strategic business perspective. Sponsoring businesses recognize that an event may attract current customers, prospects or influencers, making business sense to sponsor those programs. “The sponsorship environment has evolved in recent years in several ways,” Bower says. “First, sponsorship packages now offer a full portfolio of digital assets, addressing companies’ preference for quantitative value through impressions.”

Second, as companies expand their commitment to employee wellness and engagement, to ensuring a social impact, to diversity, equity and inclusion, along with other internal drivers, many more departments and divisions are deploying sponsorship as a marketing medium.

“Third, event and meeting planners face lots of competition, particularly from sports and other categories,” Bower says. “Leaders must ensure that their organization offers significant value and has a high-performing team to initiate and build meaningful relationships.”

Nicole Chattin, CMP, CMM, former strategic events manager at Critical Start in Plano, TX, further pointed out that sponsorships provide meeting planners with financial support, enabling them to enhance the attendee experience. “Sponsorships offer companies the opportunity for brand exposure through advertising and public relations, speaking opportunities, contact with an engaged audience and access to attendee data and insights. For attendees, sponsorships may offer enhanced programming, networking and special amenities.”

Sponsorship Strategies

Meeting planners should take a strategic approach when identifying the best sponsorship opportunities for their meetings and events. As Chattin explains, it is crucial to align sponsorship objectives with event goals and understand audience demographics. “Meeting planners should ensure sponsorship packages deliver tangible value to sponsors while enhancing the attendee experience,” she says.

• When determining if a sponsorship opportunity is right for an association’s event, a meeting planner should consider the following:
• What does the sponsoring company stand for? Is this sponsor a good fit for our organization and its mission?
• Will this person and team be a good partner for us?
• Do we have sufficient value to offer to meet their business goals?
• Do we have organizational competence to launch and grow a sponsorship program?
• What are we doing to grow our events, meetings, marketing and other initiatives to always be a desirable opportunity for the corporate sector?
• Does the sponsorship help the association get their message across to constituencies that are important to you?
• Can it help offset meeting and event expenses?

Hill also recommends planners sit down as a team and go over the previous years’ sponsorship prospectus. Determine what sold quickly, total sold and what opportunities did not sell. A brainstorming session about new ideas that the team has seen or has implemented at other events can be useful.

“In some cases, we’ve also seen the higher-priced options not selling as quickly as lower-priced options,” Hill says. “Offering a wide range of priced options for sponsors to select from is ideal, highlighting that custom sponsorship ideas are welcome, as some sponsors may have had luck with one opportunity at an event and would like to offer for your upcoming event.”

Bower adds that meeting and event planners need to create meaningful sponsorship value from their events, which ideally would always be growing or becoming more resonant for audiences.

“They should not be throwing a bunch of assets together and call it a gold, silver or bronze sponsorship. These generic packages are not valuable,” Bower says. Here’s why:

• Sponsorship packages are undifferentiated and put planners in the position of selling a commodity, which is not a strong position.
• They cause planners to undervalue what they have to offer because they are generic and because they are not focused on what sponsors’ goals are.
• They signal to a sponsor decision maker a potential lack of sophistication.
• They will easily position your competition with a more strategic offering in a better position.
• Because most event planners email these packages out with a form, this process does nothing to build or enhance your relationship and can cause harm.
• Rather, event and meeting planners need to spend time with their sponsors and prospective sponsors, learning about key business goals and how the sponsor will evaluate success.

“With that information, the planner can shape their offering to specifically address what the sponsors need,” Bower says.

When a meeting planner approaches a business for a sponsorship, they typically require a proposal. If it is a serious opportunity, the proposal will explain the target audience, numbers, etc. The proposal should spell out the variety of ways that a company’s brand, logo and message will be delivered to the target audience.

When evaluating sponsorship proposals from meeting planners, many businesses conduct a SWOT analysis of the proposal — looking at the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. They examine each one of these areas carefully, so meeting planners should clearly communicate each of these in the sponsorship proposal.

Also, most businesses don’t see sponsorships as a one-and-done or a stand-alone effort. They recognize the sponsorship needs to be integrated into the overall marketing and public relations efforts of a business. For many businesses, leveraging the sponsorship is the key, and it’s not just writing a check.

Meeting planners also take some responsibility on their part to make the most of the sponsorship. They need to make sure companies meet the deadlines when they need to submit their logo, promotional copy or products.

Ensuring a Return on Investment

In many cases, sponsorships can be great because the promotional benefits and exposure can start before the actual association event and last long after — all of which can enhance the impact of the associations event, while also enhancing the ROI for the sponsor.

Along with that, meeting planners need to help potential sponsors evaluate if there’s enough bang for their buck. A $5,000 contribution to an event when all a sponsor receives is their get their name on a t-shirt along with all the other supporters may not be worth it. If there aren’t opportunities for a business to be recognized in some very visible way — signage, for example — or opportunities to meet prospective customers or vendors, then the potential sponsor may take a pass.

Components meeting planners should look to include in sponsorships include:

• On-sight promotional opportunities (signage, booth space, take-away messaging)
• Off-site promotional opportunities (ways to identify the business as a sponsor in their store or in their advertising)
• Complimentary tickets to the event and/or a sponsor hospitality area (both can be used to incentivize or reward the sponsors’ best customers, vendors and employees)
• An attendee contact list (to follow-up with event participants by using direct marketing to promote the business).

Once it’s decided that a business wants to be a sponsor of an association’s event, meeting planners should help put metrics into place to see if the sponsor is reaching the ROI they desire. This may help solidify future sponsorships.

Also be prepared to provide an attendee list to a sponsor so they can touch base with the attendees who were present. And remember that sponsorships are legal contracts, so legal counsel does need to be involved.

Sponsorship mistakes that planners should avoid include not inquiring, or receiving, feedback from previous year’s sponsors. As Hill explains, it’s important to ensure their goals have been met through the opportunity they’ve selected. If the company feels they didn’t receive the return that was projected, you could be looking at a company that may not return or downgrade the upcoming year’s sponsorship.

“This type of feedback will help you develop the upcoming year’s sponsorship opportunities, benefits and ensure each is priced accordingly,” Hill says. Also, another common mistake as it relates to sponsorship opportunities includes not evaluating the feedback from the key stakeholders on the previous year’s sponsorships and overall events. Also not asking questions about whether the opportunities sold were utilized, beneficial and helped improve the overall event should be avoided.

“Again, gathering more information that can help improve your direction for the upcoming year is important,” Hill says.

Chattin has also seen meeting planners have unclear communication between sponsors and planners, overpromising sponsor benefits without delivering value, and not taking demographics and audience into account.

Currently, Hill is seeing budgets for sponsorship increase and decrease, depending on the market. Continuing to be flexible and creative regarding new ideas is going to be extremely important moving forward.

As Hill explains, companies and associations are looking for alternative ways to connect with the industry. For instance, sponsorship for an emerging professional’s event continues to be a top selected opportunity. “Companies want to get in front of these individuals that are newer to the field, as an opportunity to influence and build that connection for potential future opportunities,” Hill says. “Additionally, you may see more interest in annual sponsorships opportunities, rather than focusing solely on single events. Consider offering an opportunity to capture the sponsor for the entire year, with the benefits of attending individual events as well.”

What’s more, Chattin expects the sponsorship space will evolve with continued technological advances, like virtual reality and data analytics and with more personalized and interactive experiential moments.

“And the future sponsorship space will feature more competition from other sponsorship-seeking entities and more selectivity from corporations,” Bower says. Also, more creativity will be demanded to integrate a compelling story for the sponsor that flows across channels and through the in-person experience.

“Entrepreneurial sponsorship sellers will be the biggest winners, while planners who are afraid to invest in their events and their marketing will be lagging behind,” Bower says. “There will also be more opportunity through many more doors of a corporation. Sponsorship is a tremendously powerful medium. I like to call it the ‘ultimate social media.’ As long as we humans like to gather, connect, play and meet companies, we will want to be part of the mix.” | AC&F |