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As corporations looking more closely at their spending, planners working to secure event sponsorships say they need to find innovative ways to create meaningful experiences for the attendees and the companies involved. “The days of simply putting a company's logo on a dinner package have gone by the wayside. Sponsorships today need to be related to a return on investment,” said Joel Hock, president and founder of Solutions With Impact, a Toronto-based event management company that has planned events like the Bell Celebrity Gala and the Rally for Kids With Cancer Scavenger Cup.

“If you're looking for $250,000, then you better have a compelling story why that organization should be participating," he said. "It needs to align with their market strategy and their demographic and their positioning. You have to make sure when you make that presentation that you're trying to hit as many of their touch points as possible." MORE >>

Sponsorships, Selling Sponsorships, Telus, 944 Magazine, Self Magazine

EVENT INTELLIGENCE 10.04.06 12:00 AM

5 Tips for Working With Sponsorship Salespeople

FROM NEW YORK 1. Understand the Sales Cycle
Before you can successfully work with sales reps, whether they’re part of your own organization or employed by an agency hired to close sponsorship deals for you, it helps to understand the sales cycle and each step involved in closing a sale. “Knowing this is key to providing the right training, compensating the right behaviors, keeping reps focused on the right priorities, and designing the right communication systems to move the sale from one step to the next,” says Steve McClatchy, president of Alleer Training and Consulting in Malvern, Pennsylvania. McClatchy, who has worked with companies like Ikea and Microsoft, breaks the sales cycle down into six steps: marketing, where the market becomes aware of your product or services; appointment booking, where reps will go out into the marketplace to find appointments with people who have an interest; questioning, where they’ll determine what the potential client’s needs are; presentation, where they’ll present the solutions to those needs; overcoming objections; and delivering solutions. MORE >>

Selling Sponsorships, More Magazine, Billboard

EVENT INTELLIGENCE 10.03.06 12:00 AM

Roundtable: How Sponsors Choose Events

FROM NEW YORK Tom Crawford is director of partner marketing for a business unit of Motorola and was formerly thecompany’s director of corporate sponsorships/sports marketing, where he oversaw corporate sponsorship strategy and management of global programs. “All sponsorship proposals must be submitted to Motorola via our Web site, www.sponsorwise.com/motorola. I realize properties don’t necessarily like these filtering sites, but it is very important to use because the questions we ask are specific and relevant to our business. In general terms, Motorola would only consider sponsorships if they are broad in size and scope, if they demonstrate our product leadership or expertise in association with the property, and if the property represents the values and attributes of our brand. We are a large company with customers virtually in every market. We use programs of perceived value to our customers that can have impact or be replicated in many markets. Therefore, we rarely execute sponsorships that are too narrow—local fairs, festivals, or one-time, local market events.” MORE >>

Selling Sponsorships, Motorola, Sprint, Courvoisier, Kodak, UPS

EVENT INTELLIGENCE 10.03.06 12:00 AM

Selling Sponsorships: How to Craft a Perfect Pitch

FROM NEW YORK Whether you’re looking for a company to completely underwrite a large technology conference, or simply asking for free booze for guests at an upcoming product launch, sponsorships are an increasingly prevalent part of events these days. It’s not hard to figure out why: Done right, sponsorships help all parties involved. They bring in cash for event hosts—offsetting costs for some, earning revenue for others— while serving as effective marketing channels for sponsors looking to target specific demographics in unique ways. So how do you get your hands on those dollars?

Do Your Homework
Before you ever put pen to paper (or fingers to keyboard) to craft a proposal, make sure you know about the company you’re pitching. “There’s a whole list of things to look at,” says Gregg Feistman, who teaches a class at Temple University in Philadelphia on sponsorships and sponsorship marketing. “What kinds of things have they sponsored in the past? What are the interests or causes they support? What are their business goals?”
MORE >>

Selling Sponsorships, Travel & Leisure magazine, More Magazine, Moët Hennessey

ASK AN EXPERT 10.03.06 12:00 AM

Ask an Expert: Which Sponsors Are Spending Now

FROM NEW YORK William Chipps is senior editor of IEG Sponsorship Report, a biweekly monitor of the sponsorship industry published by IEG Inc., in Chicago.

What is the state of the sponsorship industry today?
The sponsorship industry is incredibly healthy. The growing popularity of TiVo, iPods, satellite radio, and other forms of the technology that let people tune out advertising messages has promoted more interest in nontraditional marketing vehicles for corporate marketers.

Companies and advertising agencies have also started to realize that sponsorship can be leveraged in many different ways, including on-site sampling, PR exposure, retail promotions, and customer hospitality. So sponsorship as a marketing medium is becoming increasingly popular. IEG expects North American-based companies to spend $13.39 billion in 2006, a 10.6 percent increase over the $12.1 billion spent in 2005. MORE >>

Selling Sponsorships

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