kim skildum-reid's
corporate sponsorship blog

I get dozens of emails and social media approaches every week from people looking for sponsorship of their website, business, television show, documentary, education, or whatever. My issue with this isn’t that they are contacting me – I’m happy to hear from any of you! – but that so many seem to have a misguided notion of what sponsorship is.

In the case of website, television, and documentary “sponsorship”, 99% of the examples I see aren’t sponsorship at all. Offering banner ads, product or logo placement, acknowledgements of support, backlinks, etc does not equate to a sponsorship, but a media buy. (And “sponsoring” the telecast of an event is not the same as sponsoring the event – it’s also just a targeted media buy.) I’m not saying these investments don’t have value, but it really is an entirely different animal.

A sponsorship is a collection of benefits and entitlements that provide a brand with an opportunity to get a marketing result. The way they get that result is through leverage – proactively doing things with the benefits to achieve specific objectives. Leverage could include adding value to their target markets’ event or brand experiences, promotions, involving their staff, integrating with other media activities, creating social media platforms, and much much more. Sponsorship is mutual and about nurturing relationships, and has both the emotional weight – people really caring about what is being sponsored – and the critical mass to be a catalyst for other marketing activities.

A media buy is an outbound communication strategy. It is buying time or space in which to showcase a brand or brand message. Media buys are what they are, and are not leverageable. If you can’t imagine a company running an ad or embarking on a PR campaign or developing a staff program or creating a social media hub around what you’re selling, it’s not sponsorship.

As an example, I was recently approached by someone looking for “sponsorship” of their website. They were offering banner advertising, links, branding all over the site, and participation in the e-newsletter. That may well be a valuable investment, for the right brand, but it’s not leverageable. Seriously, can you imagine any brand taking this up and then running a series of magazine ads themed around their activities on that website? Embarking on a social media campaign? Creating a staff program? Me neither.

Of course there are exceptions, but not very many.

And for all you little companies with great ideas, but no cash, again, that’s not sponsorship. You are looking for a financial backer – an investor, silent partner, or white knight – who will provide some cash in return for (probably) an equity position. And people looking for someone to “sponsor” their educations are looking for benefactors.

Before your organisation looks for corporate sponsorship, you need to ensure that what you are offering really is sponsorship, and the easiest way to find out is to ask yourself whether it is leverageable or not. If it’s not leverageable, it’s not sponsorship, and it’s time to take a different approach.

If you’re really selling a media buy, then those are the sales channels you need to use. If what you really need is a backer, your first call should be to your accountant. Don’t seek sponsorship if that’s not what you’re really selling, or you could waste a lot of time and effort going through a very tough process that is destined to fail.

Developing your sponsorship offers and sponsorship sales are two very big subjects - closely linked, and together, the key to increasing your sponsorship revenue. To do these subjects justice, we need more time than the standard 60-90 minute webinar, so have broken it into two webinars that work very well together. You are also welcome to register for just one.

For complete information on both of these webinars, click on the registration link, below, or download the full PDF brochure.

21 July – Best Practice Offer Development: Who to target, what to offer

This 90-minute, live webinar will take you through the mindset and process for developing compelling, value-packed offers that will capture potential sponsors’ attention and differentiate you from the competition. There is no guarantee a potential sponsor will say “yes”, but using these techniques will considerably increase your chances. This is a perfect compliment to Best Practice Sponsorship Sales on 4 August. Topics include:

• Creating a well-targeted hit list
• Prioritising: Who are your most promising prospects
• Getting the background information you need to create a great offer
• When to contact the sponsor and what to say
• The critical importance of getting to the big ideas
• The creative offer development process. Note: This process will be delivered in case-study form, enabling participants to see an offer develop
• Creating a benefits list that works

4 August – Best Practice Sponsorship Sales: Turning your sponsorship vision into revenue

This 90-minute, live webinar will show you how to formalise your offer, get it to the right person, follow up, negotiate, and close the deal. This webinar is the perfect compliment to the Offer Development webinar on 21 July, covering topics such as:

• What must be included in your proposal
• Proposal “extras” that can make a big difference (and what to avoid)
• Structuring your proposal for maximum impact
• Making it easy for the sponsor to sell the offer internally
• Pricing your offer correctly
• Protecting your creative ideas
• Getting your offer to the right person (and who to avoid)
• Must-know negotiation tips, tricks, and what you should never do
• Valuing in-kind sponsorship
• Formalising the agreement

Both webinars are offered twice, to accommodate different time zones. Below are some indicative times. Please be sure to check the time and date in your region. I recommend http://everytimezone.com. Please indicate your preferred session when you register.

It started with a few dozen pretty women in orange mini-dresses with no apparent branding attending the Netherlands’ first round match. “Dutch supporters”, they said. FIFA correctly thought otherwise, then did just about the stupidest thing they could have done.

What FIFA should have done…

• Get their own megalomania under control.
• Roll their eyes at the lame attempt to “ambush” the World Cup with a low-impact, first-generation visibility grab.
• Realise that 36 pretty girls sitting together in orange dresses is not going to harm the sponsor, particularly if they had done a good job of leveraging their massive investment. (It was Budweiser, but how many of you knew that?)
• Inform the broadcaster not to dwell on them.

If they really wanted to be hard, they could also have informed the women that if they returned in that or a similar get-up, they would not be allowed entry to future games.

What FIFA actually did…

• Eject the women, hold and question them for four hours.
• Arrest the ringleaders in contravention of anti-ambush legislation.
• Make Bavaria Beer and their models a global phenomenon.

Good on you, FIFA! You’ve turned an inconsequential, cosmetic ambush into the biggest sponsorship story of the World Cup.

Actually, FIFA’s reaction was so predictable (as are all the various World Cup organisers and the IOC) that Bavaria was probably banking on FIFA to do all the heavy lifting for them! All the while, Nike is running rampant with viral video that actually is creating marketing value for them and reducing the effectiveness of Adidas’ sponsorship.

Wake up, organisers! It’s time to stop dwelling on the inconsequential and start tackling the big issues in ambush marketing. When the ICC (Cricket’s global ruling body) started going through fans’ coolers and dumping out their Coca-Colas, it made Cricket World Cup sponsor, Pepsi, look like a spoil sport. When organisers of major events make fans turn their T-shirts inside out, it makes both the organisers and the sponsors look petty and mean.

Why do organisers do this? Because at least it looks like they’re doing something. What they’re not doing, however, is stopping the kind of ambush that hurts their sponsors. To do that would require them to admit that they can’t control it, tell their sponsors that great leverage is their best defence, and to work and be flexible with those sponsors to find leverage ideas that will work across the entire event experience.

Do I think this will ever happen? No, because being pedantic, sabre-rattlers is easier.

I’ve recently been involved in a lively discussion on LinkedIn about the value of online sponsorship submission forms. The response has been divided, to say the least.

Some people advocate their use, citing two main reasons:

1. It allows for an apples-to-apples comparison of properties.
2. It is a faster way of vetting sponsorships than going through stacks of unsolicited proposals and request letters.

I am not a fan of these forms in any way, although I can understand why they have appeal. On the surface, it absolutely looks like a time-saver and an objective assessment tool. If you look a bit deeper, however, there are some fatal flaws in this premise.

Sponsorships are not apples

As for making apples-to-apples comparisons, every sponsorship is so different, it would be impossible to compare them unless distilled into the most basic of commodities. How much exposure, tickets, hospitality, etc for how much money? Sponsorship simply isn’t a commodity industry, it’s a creative ideas industry. Imagine if ad agencies had to pitch for business using an online form!

Sponsorship comes in all shapes and sizes, all degrees of engagement and creativity. The huge sponsorship will tens of millions of impressions may look good on a form, but offer very little real value against the objectives of a mature brand. They may be totally disengaged. They may be a nightmare to work with. You can also make enormous returns from small sponsorships that are leveraged creatively, but for a sponsor to see that potential, the property needs to be able to showcase the creative leverage ideas that will create that return. Some of the least “sexy” sponsorships could provide the best return, and vice versa. None of that – positive or negative – will come out in a form.

The value isn’t in what you get, it’s what you do with it

When you invest in sponsorship, you are investing in opportunity. It is leverage (aka “activation”) that provides the results. The best sponsorship seekers are providing those creative ideas for leverage in their proposals, making it very easy for a sponsor to see how they can make it work for their brands.

Old school sponsorship seekers tell sponsors what they’re about, list the benefits, and in effect, say “you figure it out”. That “figuring out” of what’s in it for you takes a long time, but that’s exactly what sponsors set themselves up for when they use sponsorship submission forms.

If you really want to figure out which of those proposals submitted through a form will work for your brand, you need to go through the process of idea development. This takes a lot more time than reviewing the ideas that great properties will provide to you, if you give them the chance. And if a sponsor isn’t prepared to go through the process of “how could we make this work for our brand”, then they are making decisions about who to sponsor or further consider and who not to based on least common denominator mechanisms.

My recommendation: Sponsorship guidelines

Rather than creating walls, how about sponsors  just being more open and specific about your needs. And no, including the line “we only select sponsorships which meet out needs” does not count. You have to tell the sponsorship seekers what you need.

• Create a set of sponsorship guidelines and make it really easy for seekers to get them.
• Put them online, but don’t bury them six links deep on your website.
• Ensure your voicemail says, “if you want to submit a proposal, please understand we only consider properties that meet our needs, as outlined in the sponsorship guidelines you can find xyz”.
• Ensure every point of entry for sponsorship requests has access to electronic copy. This includes brand managers, regional managers, sales managers, and senior executives (who often say “yes” just so they don’t have to say “no” – this gives them an out).
• Ensure your switchboard knows that if someone calls asking to “speak to someone about sponsorship”, they should direct them to your sponsorship guidelines online.
• Finally, make it absolutely clear you’re serious. The first sign a proposal doesn’t comply, send an email telling them that the proposal wasn’t compliant and if they want to be considered, they need to follow your sponsorship guidelines.

Anecdotally, the number of proposals you get will drop by around 60-75% and the quality of those proposals will rise dramatically. They will be more comprehensive, creative, and objective-driven. I get a lot of love letters from sponsors about how sponsorship guidelines have made their lives easier.

Get your free, comprehensive sponsorship guidelines template.

If you use a template as a starting point, creating sponsorship guidelines takes maybe an hour. You will probably have to get sign-off, which can take a bit of time and fine-tuning, but my experience is that you could have them on your website and in the hands of all of your proposal touch points (electronically), such as brand management, local and regional management, senior managements (usually their assistants), and more – within about two weeks.

Even smaller sponsors can benefit from having good sponsorship guidelines. They may not have the massive workload that comes along with hundreds or thousands of proposals a month, but they still want good proposals that are about their needs. I know many smaller and mid-sized companies that are very happy with the reduction in workload, and especially the higher quality of proposals, that they get. I even know of several companies that have guidelines for smaller sponsorships (eg, for investments under $2000) that are not as demanding as their guidelines for larger sponsorships, but still require a degree of strategic benefits and ideas.

What about sponsorship seekers?

My strong advice to sponsorship seekers is to ignore those forms and go straight to the brand manager. Don’t pitch. Contact them having done your homework and seek to fill in the blanks so you can create a customised, creative proposal with great ideas for them to leverage. If they tell you that you have to submit via the form, they have just told you “no” and basically didn’t want to do it themselves. Go ahead and submit, but the ultimate decision will rest with the brand manager, and if s/he’s just given you the flick, it’s highly unlikely to be “yes”.

For more on reading the signs, I recommend my blog, “Six Signs a Sponsor Is Just Not That into You”.

For the whole process of offer development and sales, I suggest my book, The Sponsorship Seeker’s Toolkit 3rd Edition.

The upshot

The upshot for all concerned is that sponsorship submission forms are a false economy. They work only in an environment that rewards old school thinking and constrain the creative process that is part and parcel with gaining the best returns at the least possible spend.

By very, very popular demand, I’ve created a ten-minute tutorial about how to create a sponsorship proposal that will make your offer stand out, increase your value to potential sponsors, and dramatically shorten your odds for a “yes”.

This is actually tutorial #3 for the Power Sponsorship YouTube Channel. Check it out for:

• Sponsorship Proposal Basics in About 10 Minutes
• Ambush Marketing Basics in About 10 Minutes
• Sponsorship Measurement Basics in About 10 Minutes

(Noticing a theme, here?)

I hope you enjoy them all. To kick you off, here is Sponsorship Proposal Basics in About 10 Minutes.