How Sponsorship Fits in Your Plan

Here’s How to Determine If Sponsorship Fits Into Your Marketing Plan

Sponsorship Marketing is a powerful tool, when properly used.

It offers a terrific way to cross borders, simplify language barriers and create tremendous emotional connections with consumers.

Here are factors to consider when adding sponsorship to your marketing mix.

Passion: This is the single most important word in sponsorship marketing, because it is the one advantage sponsorship has over other types of marketing. The consumer is passionate about the medium – whether a sports team, entertainer, event, etc.

In order to leverage the power of sponsorship, you must be able to connect and the consumer’s passion for the sponsored property with passion for your product or service.

Honestly assess the potential passion points of your company’s offering. Where could you generate passion? How could those passion points be linked to a sport or other activity?

Only then can you begin to build a strategic sponsorship marketing plan.

If you honestly cannot find a passion point, then sponsorship marketing still may offer the potential to generate visibility and awareness, but only if the price is right.

Budget: Understand that in sponsorship marketing, the “rights fee” represents only a fraction of the money you must spend in an effective program.

Think of the rights fee as equivalent to purchasing a door. Once that door is opened, it’s going to cost more to cross the threshold.

If you don’t have the budget to add in “activation,” you probably shouldn’t go down this road.

There are various “rule of thumb” formulas on how many dollars you should spend on activation compared with the rights fee, but really these decisions should be made based on specific goals and objectives.

Without a quantified strategic plan, spending can quickly spiral out of control. But without activation, a sponsorship alone is unlikely to achieve your goals.

Marketing mix: It’s rare that a company can use sponsorship as its only marketing vehicle. So how do you decide how much budget to devote to sponsorship marketing?

Again, we must return to goals and objectives.

Under a thoughtful Marketing By Objectives program, sponsorship can represent the “tip of the spear” by establishing a high-profile, potentially game-changing flagship element of your marketing program.

The more your company needs to break out of the doldrums, the more impactful sponsorship marketing can be.

Honestly assess your potential to generate passion points, and it’s very likely that you can find a complementary sponsorship around which to build.

The 5 Types of Sponsorships

Which Of The 5 Sponsorship Categories Is Best For You?

Now that we understand the critical difference between a media sponsorship (aka expensive ad purchase) and an active sponsorship, let’s explore the categories of active sponsorships that present the most marketing value:

Sports.  Many consider “sponsorship” synonymous with sports, but this is simply one of the categories. Sub-segments include: sports celebrities, teams, naming rights, events, etc. I believe the sports category is the most significant area of sponsorship abuse today, for these reasons.

1. Pricing is absurd, with no basis in reality, i.e. the value provided to the spo spnsor.

2. Comparative valuations drive over-spending.  If NASCAR can get $10 million in sponsorship for a single driver, then $10 million for branding every shirt of an entire soccer team must be a bargain, right? Not necessarily!

3. Sports entities too often dictate the terms. The franchise has the advantage of knowing the going prices within their sport, while too often the sponsors have little inside knowledge.

4. Machismo. Winning is the foundation of sports, and sponsorship fees are just another mark on the scorecard. Competitive emotions help drive this segment to the far edges of restraint.

5. Demand for iconic player participation raises the fees for everyone, whether it’s guaranteed attendance by a track star or golfer. Someone has to pay for this.

Entertainment. A close cousin to sports, which actually is entertainment, of course. For the purposes of categorization this includes pop music concerts, tours, plays, movies, etc.  This category often is overlooked or overshadowed by sports.

Arts. Defined as museum shows, exhibits, theatrical works and non-pop musical series. Arts can be the most efficient and effective way to reach high-income targets and corporate suites. These activities rarely provide any scale to serve as the foundation of a sponsorship marketing program, and too often the organizers lack measurement sophistication.

Not-for-profits. Defined to include certain altruistic for-profits, as well. These include special interests, disease associations, foundations, etc. These don’t seem to come under the return on investment (ROI) microscope as much as other segments, perhaps because the ROI is emotionally or intrinsically inferred.

Major conventions and business gatherings.  Often relegated to “events” management, this segment is sadly under-utilized. The most common application is the dreaded trade show, where a company displays the obligatory booth and interacts with passers-by who have no buying power. Ideally, “shows” should be a voice to a company’s current and prospective customers, demonstrating dominance in product or knowledge.

Selecting the best category for your marketing program must start with a deep understanding of your goals and objectives. At that point, sponsorship marketing can be incredibly effective.

What is sponsorship?

Sponsorship Marketing: A Specialized Tool

Despite the billions spent annually sponsoring sports teams, entertainers, exhibitions and events, this remains one of the most misunderstood – and misused – forms of marketing.

So what is sponsorship marketing and how should it be used?

In my book, “Sponsorship’s Holy Grail,” I explain that the term is frequently used to describe two types of marketing that are as different as oil and water.

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Media sponsorship can consist of brand and name associations achieved with broadcast, print and Internet advertising. Example: “The Half Time Show brought to you by Big Company.”

Media Sponsorships have little intrinsic emotional connection with the living, breathing person watching the program. They must be supported by additional advertising to deliver a marketing message (or hopefully a call to action).

Think about the massive unaided recall of a company like Coca-Cola. What possible reason would Coke have to associate its famous, iconic brand name with a football half time show?

In actuality, Coke is paying for media broadcast time – not true sponsorship. The relevant questions, then, are how much are they paying for this type of media buy vs. other competitive buys in broadcast or print, and does this medium allow them to deliver a meaningful brand message?

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Active Sponsorship. This is where a company (sponsor) can get into the lives of its customers, connecting their passion for a property/person/foundation, etc., with the rational decision of whether to purchase the company’s products and/or services.

This is the equivalent of the marketer getting on the grungy city bus, able to see, hear and feel consumer sentiment, rather than taking a limo with sound insulation and dark glass. You (metaphorically) sit right next to the real customer and have to deliver a message that will make them love your product or service. 

This is where you win their hearts and minds – but only if you know what it is you are trying to achieve.

Sports marketing pro Steve Madincea explained it this way: “Sponsorship can be one of the most effective marketing tools available to an organization. It connects the passion a consumer has for a team, cause, celebrity, or property with a brand in a way that no other media can.”

The corollary is that the best-intentioned sponsorship program will fail miserably if it is not properly designed to be activated against company objectives.

10 Things Miley Cyrus Can Teach Us About Marketing

10 Things Miley Cyrus Can Teach Us About Marketing

One of the most obvious and visible expressions of Marketing is “celebrity.”

So it stands to reason that today’s celebrities can teach us something about our Marketing craft.

Here are 10 lessons from Miley Cyrus.

1.     Make sure your branding is authentic. Miley Ray Cyrus was born Destiny Hope Cyrus. Miley came from her childhood nickname, “Smiley.” She officially changed it in 2008. Her original name didn’t fit beyond infancy, so it was wisely cast aside. If your product or service doesn’t match the branding, something has to give.

2.     Be open to inspiration. Miley reportedly caught the acting bug at age 9 while watching a musical production of “Mamma Mia!” telling her father, himself an actor, “This is what I want to do, daddy. I want to be an actress.” Whether it’s a market opportunity or a career opportunity, listen to your muse.

3.     Persistently pursue possibilities. Young Miley originally auditioned for the “best friend” role in “Hannah Montana,” but after a favorable reaction, went hard for the lead. Such strategic opportunities don’t come along every day. When they do, seize them.

4.     Measurement drives success. The entertainment industry lives by numbers. Miley achieved the highest ratings in basic cable for her TV show, and her music career took off after her early Disney albums scored in the Billboard charts. When you have the numbers, leverage them with a compelling story.

5.     Reinvent as needed. The child actor turned teen heartthrob turned pop star has a knack of identifying market trends and remaking her image time and again. She jumps from one rising curve to the next – who else saw twerking coming? Don’t wait until your numbers start trending downward to consider implementing phase 2.

6.     Mediocrity doesn’t drive passion. Miley’s core audience is fanatical in part because she is over-the-top, doing what they can’t. If your product is “among the leaders,” don’t expect that kind of rabid following. But if you’re the best of the best, consider being aggressive.

7.     Passion works both ways. Your rabid fans will be part of the reason others hate you with equal fervor. Miley makes this work by implementing number 5 whenever necessary. If you want to go deep with your consumers, be prepared for hate mail from all those who don’t “get it.”

8.     It helps to have a powerhouse behind you. Miley is one of the biggest success stories of the Disney star factory, benefiting from the company’s media empire. Big players in the beverage market use their influence to launch niche sub-brands. The downside is that you sometimes must fight a corporate culture that cannot embrace numbers 6 and 7.

9.     Loyal fans will forgive missteps. Miley’s godmother, Dolly Parton, might be expected to shudder at some of the young pop star’s public antics. Yet Parton recently reiterated her support, saying, “I did it my way, so why shouldn’t she do it her way?” This type of loyalty makes change less risky.

10.   Share the love. Miley was recently voted as being among the most charitable celebrities, supporting more than 40 causes. This helps build the type of loyalty that makes the rest of these 10 points work so well. Causes are a valuable ally. Like Miley, choose those that generate passion in line with your brand and corporate values.

Find the lessons here that can be adapted to work for you, send Miley a thank-you note, and Market like a rock star.