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Five Things That Make a Property “Sponsorship Ready” in the Eyes of a Sponsor

by | February 24, 2020

Why you can trust Sponsorship Collective

  • The Sponsorship Collective has worked with over 1000 clients from every property type all over North America and Europe, working with properties at the $50,000 level to multi-million dollar campaigns, events and multi-year naming rights deals
  • We have published over 300 YouTube videos, written over 500,000 words on the topic and published dozens of research reports covering every topic in the world of sponsorship
  • All of our coaches and consultants have real world experience in sponsorship sales

 

We all know what makes a rights holder ready for sponsorship in their own eyes- they need money! But we all know that the needs of the property are largely irrelevant in the eyes of sponsors. So what makes a property “sponsorship ready” in the eyes of a sponsor?

These five things:

Fully Developed Inventory of Sponsorship Assets

There is nothing more disappointing to a sponsor than receiving a sponsorship package with only two or three types of assets. The inventory itself could have hundreds of assets…but they all fall into a few categories- namely “push marketing assets.” In other words, logo on this, logo on that, e-blasts and signage in hundreds of formats.

Sponsorship is all about bringing together the needs of your audience and your sponsor to create something that your sponsors can’t find anywhere else. Build out an inventory that encompasses all types of sponsorship assets and work with your sponsors to determine their goals, using your assets to accomplish those goals.

Knowing Your Sponsorship Value

Guessing at the value of your assets is a bad idea. Selling sponsorship simply to cover costs (like in kind sponsorship) is a bad idea. Your sponsorship assets have a market value, your brand has a value and so does your audience! It is up to you to determine your value and to be able to justify and explain that value to your sponsors during your negotiations.

Not sure how to value your assets? Check out our epic blog posts “The Essential Guide to Sponsorship Valuations.”

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Well Defined Audience Niches

Do you know which sponsors are targeting the “general population” or “everyone”?

I’ll give you a hint:

None.

But everybody buys groceries, right? Wrong. Babies don’t buy groceries and they’re part of the “general population” aren’t they? In fact, I’m willing to bet that one person does the grocery shopping in your home more often than anyone else. Heck, I went through six years of post secondary education without going grocery shopping once (and had the waistline to show for it).

My point is this: having a broad audience without any specific data makes it impossible to build interesting activation ideas. You need to know exactly who your audiences are. Audiences…with an “s”, plural! Every event, game or program you run attracts multiple audience segments. If you want to be sponsorship ready in the eyes of your sponsors, you need to know your audience very very well.

Your Activations Give Value to Your Audience and You Can Prove it!

Speaking of activations…

Another speech before the gala or big event is NOT what your audience wants! How do we know? We have surveyed close to a million individuals on behalf of our clients and not once did someone tell us that they wish they heard more speeches from sponsors before their event began.

When was the last time you asked your audience why they are involved with your property? What you could do more of? Less of? Once you have this data, then you are in a position to build value-add activations for your audience. Not only will sponsors jump at the opportunity but your audience will appreciate the involvement of your sponsors rather than just enduring it. Guessing at your values is a terrible idea, guessing at what your audience wants is even worse!

You Can Measure Performance and Report On It

Reporting back to your sponsors that you put logos on signs is not what I am referring to here. Sponsors don’t want “awareness”, or at least they don’t JUST want awareness. They want awareness of something that leads to a particular action. The better you are at setting goals, converting customers and measuring those conversions for your sponsors, the more success you will have.