Negotiating successful sponsorship deals is something of a Holy Grail, argues Catherine Hawkins.
There can be no argument that the sponsorship industry has experienced phenomenal growth over the past few years. Marketing strategies have evolved and are incorporating sponsorship ideas and initiatives, and companies are becoming more aware that sponsorship provides a perfect platform for creating affinity and loyalty with consumers.
In an era where traditional marketing programmes such as advertising remain costly, have less audience penetration and increased fragmentation in terms of delivery platforms, you can see that sponsorship has a real opportunity to deliver what brands need; passion, penetration and brand loyalty. Despite this vibrancy, there do remain a number of issues that arts and other sponsor-seeking organisations face, and one example of this is the perceived gap in marketing knowledge and understanding that exists between sponsors and properties. Pippa Collett, Chief Executive Officer at Spectrum Strategy and former European Sponsorship Manager at Shell made the following comment in a recent interview in The World Sponsorship Monitor, ?Overall, I believe there are still too many people who work for rights-holders because they love the organisation or activity, and not enough who have a true understanding of brand marketing. Subsequently, they don?t have a rounded view of how to attract and keep sponsors. I think, while this may be changing, it will take a long time before we see rights-holders across the board with the appropriate experience in-house.?
This presents something of a dilemma for arts organisations, which would, and should see their passion and drama as a key component of the sales pitch. The main challenge for arts organisations is to harness this passion, but make it quantifiable and business focused to appeal to major brands and sponsors alike, thereby delivering strategic yet exciting inventory for purchase. So, how does an arts organisation actually go about doing this? At the point of deciding to seek sponsorship, it is critical that rights holders establish what their brand is, and moreover, what it means to others. Sponsors seek to identify with organisations that they believe represent values desirable to their own brand, so understanding your own audience is a key component in successfully selling and delivering a sponsorship package. Any sponsorship seeker also needs to know what they are seeking to gain from the relationship and be very clear as to what they are prepared to leverage in return. If you are looking simply for a financial return from a sponsor, assess carefully that you can deliver what you are offering, and understand their objectives in return. Given that many sponsors are cynical about whether arts organisations understand their objectives and question the feasibility of creating effective partnerships, the easiest way to counteract this is to make it clear immediately that you have planned the campaign and are clear on who and how you will deliver a return on investment.
Catherine Hawkins is Managing Director of Think!Sponsorship. Sponsorship negotiation and best practice will be on discussion at the next Think!Sponsorship event on 21 September. w: http://www.thinksponsorship.com