Maximizing Event Sponsorships

Over the years most of us have been asked to have our firms sponsor different events or parts of events.  It is easy to sponsor when times are good and little real thought is given to its expediency.  As things have tightened up over the last few years it has become ever more important to get a Return On Investment (ROI).  How do we do that?  We need to consider the following 6 items when looking at sponsorships.

What does the company receive for sponsoring?  Okay, this is obvious or it should be.  Basically we need to know what our sponsorship money entitles us too.  When we run sponsoring up the flag pole to the decision makers, if we have to do so, then we better know the answer to this question.  The answer to this is usually easily found and pretty generic.  Normally there will be levels of sponsorships on the brochure for the event.  These features may range from a free attendance to name in event publications and announcement or many other possible things. 

What is my purpose?  Knowing the answer to the purpose for sponsoring, may be the most critical piece.  Most of the other decision questions are built on it.  If we do not know why we are sponsoring how can we know if features of being a sponsor are of benefit to us?  How can we know what our audience truly is or if it would be wise to use the budget available on this pursuit?  Our purpose may be simply to expand our influence within a particular industry or it may be to support a very important existing client which is heavily invested in the event.   Maybe by sponsoring we are just showing that existing client our desire to continue to be involved in the same things they are involved in. This can be particularly true with sponsoring a speaker’s session at a conference or a local associational function.  If we are not sure why we are doing it, then it is probably best choice.

 

Does this give me the correct Audience?  Just like anything else we do from associational membership to writing a white paper, we need to consider audience.  This entails more than it seems.  Certainly, we would like to develop name recognition with those who can give us work in the future.   If that is our audience, are they going to be there?  As a sub consultant, my company rarely works directly for an owner.  So, if we are looking to get in front of those for whom we work, we would not be necessarily well served to be at an event attended only by owners. Rarely is there an event that is only owners, since those who we would work for them will be there courting the owners.  Therefore, our target audience could still be present. 

 We may be just as well served by getting in front of those who are influencers.  These are the people who may not give us work but could well have sway over those who do.  So the audience picture gets very complicated.  The best way to find out if the audience is a good fit is to ask for last years attendance list and see if the owner, clients and influencers we need to be in front of attended the previous year.  Maybe they will attend this time around, but if we wait for the final registration list for the current event the best sponsorships and uses of those sponsorships may be gone.

What is my available budget?  This question really requires no serious explanation.  We all our budgets.  Sometimes having a smaller budget may cause us to have to pursue some of the smaller sponsorships but these can also have impact. 

How can I get the most name recognition out of my expenditure?  As noted we have a budget and we want to get the most impact with it.  So how do we get the most out of that budget?  Just because we cannot afford that triple platinum level sponsorship with all of the bells and whistles doesn’t mean that we cannot have the impact we want. 

 Getting that upper level sponsorship or the highly sought after gold level can certainly be a great way to get the company’s name/brand in front of the target audience.  If these are purchased, the features need to be clearly understood and a plan of action to utilize each of these needs to be established.  If the sponsorship provides distribution of leave behind printed materials, make them good; if it allows for a short speaking opportunity, practice; and if it allows for inclusion of name and/or logo in materials being sent out by the event organizers, get the materials to them in a timely manner. 

 Another really good strategy is to use the limited budget to purchase smaller meal or break sponsorship(s).  These typically are less expensive, and can get the company some name recognition. It may be possible depending on budget to do one of each, thereby getting some really repeat name recognition. 

 

Have I missed the best time table to get the most out of the sponsorship?  Most major sponsorships include having the company name and logo on materials and email distributed during the time leading up to the event.  In addition some of them will only release the names of the registered attendees to sponsors and exhibitors.  So getting the most out of a sponsorship can be time sensitive.  In order to get the most out of these opportunities there deadlines which once past reduce the effectiveness of the sponsorship.  In deciding what to do about a sponsorship or going to those above us for approval, it is necessary to know when and if e-blast containing sponsors names will go out, when printed materials for the event will be published, and when we would be time to make use of an available attendees list.  Much like scheduling a project, we must look at these dates and determine if we can meet the event planners schedule for the sponsors to be included in those releases and publications.  If the answer is no, we have missed the best window for maximum benefit. We should probably consider utilizing or dollars in a better way such as meal and break sponsorship, exhibiting, or another conference which provides us access to our target audience.

Market Intelligence Gathering, A Usable Approach

Over the years I have sat through numerous sessions on how to find market intelligence.  They have provided me with many ideas and ways of finding leads and information about the A/E/C(Architectural/Engineering/Construction) industry.  Since that beginning, the way information is available has changed.  One thing that has not changed is that gathering this information for our firms is not a one person job.  No matter how hard any of us work on it, no matter how much time we have to devote to it, there will always be more out there than one or even a team of people can gather for a firm.  So we have to decide what things best suit our purposes.  There are many ways to find information, below we address a few of the most successful and useful ones.

 

One of the oldest forms of learning things is from those we come in contact with.  Even before people learned to write, we were sharing information about everything from what others were doing that they shouldn’t be to events in distant communities and their governments.  We come in contact with people daily.  Most of us have come to call this sharing of information “networking” and the people we share information with our “network”.  While, this is not a totally accurate description of networking, it is one component.  Overtime those in our network come to know the things that will interest us and if we have taken care to fill the right relational “bank accounts” then they will share the information with us. 

 

An extension of the networking is to create a specific group or groups within the network where leads, information or industrial concerns are shared.  Over the years I have come to call these “tips” groups, but it may actually have nothing to do with tips.  The purpose could be the sharing of any of the types of information about our businesses.  Whatever the purpose, these groups work best when competition is minimized.  With associations we expect to have our competition involved and we try not to let it become an issue of concern.  We just do not talk about things that could be of strategic concern with them.  But in a “tips” group, since the purpose is or could be gathering information of strategic importance, it is necessary to take the competition out of the equation.  By putting together a group or groups where none of the members have competing interest, this allows for the free flow of information and possibly situations where work can be pursued together.

 

Another extension of networking is Social Media.  There is more to know about social media than can be discussed here.  One of the ways in which many of the social media sites are useful is intelligence gathering.  By monitoring groups on different sites such as LinkedIn and Govloop much information about trends, issues and even potential opportunities can be found.  Additionally, Twitter is filled with industry news and trends no matter what the industry.  All we have to do is find the right people/companies to follow.  It is not that likely that many jobs will be won or given to us on social media, but the connections made and the intelligence provided through those connections can be invaluable.   Remember, this requires time and effort so the extent of involvement should be weighed carefully.   

 

Through the years, many of us have come to know the value of trade journals and other print media to find trends, news and even some leads.  We have also come to realize over the years, that digesting all of the things we would need to get the information we want would be next to impossible.  While these journals and other print still have a purpose in print form, much of the same information is available in digital form.  Yet finding it and digesting it still presents the same challenge.  The trick is to have way to smelt it down to a form that won’t occupy all our time.  One way of doing this is through tools such as Google alerts.  Other such tools are available out there but Google alerts works well to get daily feeds on almost any subject that you wish to follow.  By following companies, cities, people, even key words there is much information that can be brought right to our desk top that can then be very easily scanned and digested.  It is important to choose how often to receive the information because it can become overwhelming.

 

There are many sites, from websites to jobs posting sites which contain information that can be useful in understanding our markets.  There are even companies that will boil much of this down for us to help us more easily understand and get to the meat what is on these posting sites and websites.  But these can be expensive and as we all know we do have budgets

 

This has scratched the surface of the ways to gather information and there is already more to do than seems possible.  The real trick is to make sure that whatever we do, we target things that will get the information our companies need.  Gathering the wrong information at the expenditure of time and money is worse than having no information at all.