If you’re not content with just advertising then sponsorship could give your brand the reach and depth it is looking for.
The background
This is an area that covers magazines, websites, TV programmes, backing a local school or university, right through to sports sponsorship, such as emblazoning your brand on a local team’s kit. The coverage you gain can be highly beneficial as it is a more permanent form of advertising. However, it can also backfire drastically if you choose the wrong entity to back. Sponsoring an organisation that falls in to disrepute or fails in some respect could harm your brand. Corporate sponsorships are also typically quite expensive so it will be a lot of money down the drain if you get it wrong.
What to look for
Audience Does their audience match your target market? Ensure that the demographics match.
Coverage How many people are going to see it. It is especially important to get specific figures on this. So, for instance, if you are sponsoring a section on a website then ensure you know what the traffic is for that particular part. Don’t just accept the figure for the site as a whole, as you might be backing an under-viewed section.
Ownership As a company’s sponsor you can expect to be the sole advertiser for your market. Your competitors should be barred. Values You are effectively backing the business so be thorough on due diligence or you might harm your brand through association.
Standards You don’t want to back someone who is turning out second rate goods. If it is a magazine then check that its editorial is up to scratch. Similarly, with sports sponsorship it’s generally better when they win!
Partnership Are there other areas that you can build on in the future. A corporate sponsorship can often fan out to other areas of partnership
Evaluating sponsorships The right sponsorship strategy should mean an increase in revenue and this rise must justify the money you have spent. You need to separate its impact from other promotions you are running. Build into your deal regular reports on activity and look for ways to measure conversion rates. Information about the reasons for customer purchases and how they initially heard of you are gold dust. This isn’t an easy area but here are some suggestions:
Undertake research If you opt to spend some of your marketing budget on sports sponsorship then speak to the clubs’ fans to see if they are interested in your business and if they have bought from you since you backed their club. Targeted questionnaires should be composed prior to launch and then progress can be monitored throughout the period.
Tracking clicks If you become the corporate sponsor of a website then it should be able to provide very accurate information on traffic.
Customer response forms The simple question of ‘where did you first hear about our company?’ yields valuable information.
Standard of enquiries Your phone lines might be busy but are these people buying and do they understand what you are offering? The right sponsorship strategy means bringing in good customers not just enquiries.
