The growing cost of advertising has forced many smaller enterprises to look towards sponsorships as a means of getting their brand across, especially for local businesses who view sponsorship as a contribution to their community as well as an avenue of promotion.
The worth of a sponsorship isn’t always easy to determine. You can get a good feeling seeing your company’s logo circulating around a car racing circuit or on the backs of a junior football team, but are you really getting your money’s worth? If so, what’s the real return you’re getting on your investment?
Because it’s a part of your total marketing effort every sponsorship needs to be evaluated and its contribution to the business identified. Perhaps the money could be better utilized elsewhere. Maybe there are better sponsorship opportunities you should consider.
It’s not always easy to do but as much as possible you need to apply the same sort of criteria to sponsorships that you do to other marketing activities like advertising. This will mean using different systems of evaluation for different businesses; usually each business will have to set its own criteria for evaluation.
These are some of the aspects that need to be considered when evaluating sponsorship opportunities and getting the most from them.
The Total Audience
Your exposure is naturally limited to the number of people who attend an event. If you sponsor a one-off event like a concert or community picnic you can get a head count from the organizers, preferably supported by ticket sales.
If you sponsor an activity that has additional flow-on exposure — perhaps an event that’s televised for example, the audience figures will grow. This doesn’t mean that your sponsorship will have as great an impact on the television audience as it did on those attending the event, but it will add to the overall value.
The Percentage of Impact
It’s also necessary to calculate just how much of the total impact you’ve had. Let’s say you have your logo on the uniforms of a football team. There are two teams on the field and the members of the team you sponsor have four logos on their uniforms. In very simple terms you’re getting around 1/8th of the action.
If you sponsor a race car with four sponsors’ identification and there are twenty cars in the event you’ve got about 1/80th of the action. This is a rough way of looking at it but your sponsorship isn’t the only one vying for attention.
Of course, if you manage to sponsor the winner of an event your recognition factor increases significantly. That’s why sponsors of champions always pay a lot more than those who sponsor the “wannabes”.
The Frequency of Exposure
Repetition will give any sponsorship greater value. Many exposures over a number of events build awareness and have longer-lasting value than a single exposure. If you’re going to get into sporting sponsorships putting your support behind a team for the full season is a good way to go.
The Multiplier Effect
A combination of sponsorship and advertising can give you a “multiplier” effect where one builds on the other. Sponsor a presentation by a local theater group and support it with an advertisement in the program and you’ll be consolidating the impact of your expenditure.
Sponsoring the team on the field with logos on its uniforms can be supported by advertising signage at the ground. This kind of synergy can multiply the impact on the audience that attends.
Activating the Sponsorship
There’s a general rule-of-thumb that for every amount spent on sponsorship an equivalent amount needs to be spent to activate it. This can mean using funds to pay for your customers to attend an event you sponsor, PR activities to highlight your association with the event, and any other efforts that will call attention to the event and your sponsorship of it.
Reciprocal Benefits to the Sponsor
If you sponsor an event that’s put on by a group with a mailing list, be sure to negotiate the chance to send everyone on the list a message about your sponsorship. Perhaps make them a special offer or just have an awareness-building prize drawing at the event. Most sponsorships offer this kind of benefit, and it has real value so don’t fail to make use of it.
And Finally, Research
Most sponsorships are conducted to raise awareness and create or improve the image of a business. Conducting market research to get a benchmark before the event, then following up with further research after the event will tell how effective your sponsorship has been. This is the best way to obtain metrics that can answer the question of whether your sponsorship is having the impact you want — and pay for.
Copyright 2005, RAN ONE Inc. All rights reserved. Reprinted with permission from www.ranone.com,
Chris’ combination of academic credentials, career experience and temperament ideally suit his calling as a business development advisor. Clients say he has a mind for business and a heart for service.