Too often, I watch brands make sponsorship investments in an ad hoc way. They buy into a gold package because they love the sport, they become a major sponsor of a charity because they know the cause is important, or they invest in a partnership with a municipality to support local access to facilities. These are all very kind and generous reasons to provide money, but not great ideals for investing with a plan for true ROI. If they were buying outdoor advertising, or online/digital or traditional TV, radio or print, they would know their goals. They would be buying on GRPs or CPM. They would measure success based on outcomes such as sales, traffic, increased brand exposure (which is measurable), increased employee satisfaction, etc. But too often, brands throw all this logic out the window when it comes to sponsorship investments.
Over the past five months, we Partnership Group – Sponsorship Specialists® have worked with several brands to assist them in finding the right properties or rights holders with which to make investments. Some have been very localized, others regional or national. But all of these clients were great to work with because they “got it.” They knew what they were trying to achieve. It was from this that we could go to the market and find them the right 5, 10, or 20 potential partners who could meet their specific objectives and unique KPIs. I thought I would share some of the criteria that brands which are successful in sponsorship look for when making such an investment.
- Who are they trying to reach – is it an internal message to staff; external message to the public?
- Is that target audience male/female, 25-49, 54+, or kids?
- Is it B2B or B2C, or both?
- What is their investment ceiling for the rights fee – $10,000; $50,000; $500,000?
- What is their annual budget for activation on this investment – $50,000, $250,000, $500,000?
- What have they invested with in the past? Was it successful? How was success measured?
- What are the timelines for the investment?
- Is there a specific sector (sports, festivals, arts, charities) they have been in/want to be in… and why?
- How will they measure success on this investment?
It is critical to know what you are trying to achieve as a sponsor and how you will measure success for any sponsorship investment to be worth the time, effort, and money! Unless a client can provide us with this type of information and more, we cannot help them to be successful, nor can they do it on their own unless they have answers to questions such as those above.
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