If you read this blog, you know two things about me: I really love sponsorship and I’m an idealist. That’s why I put so much effort into providing skill-building tools to the industry – most of them free.
You would probably also imagine that the idea of an active sponsorship industry association would appeal to me, and you’d be right. I believe that industry associations are uniquely placed, as their primary duty is to advance the industry, with a large component of that to being the provision of the best possible information and skills to their members. I can’t see how an industry association can justify compromising that critically important mission, and when they do, it just kills me.
I know… I shouldn’t care this much, but I really do. With that in mind, I’m going to tell you a sad story of a mission and an industry sold out by an association that I used to love.
Way back in 1993, I was one of about 30 people left at the end of a truly appalling two-day sponsorship conference in Melbourne. With only one notable exception, it featured speakers from all the biggest sponsors talking a lot about how great they were, but providing no insight as to their strategies, methods, or results. Frustrated and cranky, when the host thanked us all at the end of it, I spoke up, then so did the rest of the people in attendance. It was a free-for-all and the host slunk away as the young woman from the conference company tried to calm the situation. Ignoring her, we gathered at the back of the room, and in the space of 30 minutes, decided that the only way we were going to get best practice information about our industry is if we started an association and sourced it ourselves.
The Australasian Sponsorship Marketing Association was born, right there in that room.
I was honoured to serve as the President for the first four years, and was particularly honoured to have worked so hard alongside the other Board members to achieve the vision of elevating the industry. We ran four conferences, three of them with attendance well over 200. We attracted international keynote speakers of exceptional standard. We started credible, peer-reviewed industry awards. We had an 8-12 page newsletter full of news and how-to that was offset printed and mailed (remember mail?) to the membership every month. We grew the membership from an angry 30 to over 400 in four years. We shared a vision and were uncompromising on it, and we really did advance the industry in our region. I loved what we were doing so much that my own business was suffering, so I decided to step away. It was time.
ASMA has recently undergone a name change to Sponsorship Australasia. That’s probably a good thing, as it now bears little resemblance to the idealistic organisation with an ambitious mission that it started out to be.
You could say that change is part and parcel of a maturing organisation, which is true, except that the membership base isn’t any bigger than it was way back when. The conference has fewer attendees. There are no awards. The newsletter is just news. In reality, the association isn’t any more mature, it’s just older.
The change has been obvious for some time, but my enduring fondness for the association overrode what I knew to be true: Sponsorship Australia has sold out the industry. And nothing could have punctuated that fact any more than the conference coming up at the end of the month.
While it’s true that some of the speakers are really outstanding, it strikes me that a 16 year old association should have enough credibility and reach to attract a broad variety of high quality speakers, and that stacking a one-day program with six board members would be unnecessary and more than a little self-serving – especially given most of them spoke last year, as well.
You’d think that the implicit mission of an industry association to elevate the industry would preclude them from taking sponsorship from Repucom, a company whose bread and butter is counting logo exposures and providing clients with media equivalencies – their quote, “if the human eye can see it, the system will pick it up”. Good grief. And given that technique was cutting edge 20-odd years ago, you’d think it would be remiss to put them on stage talking about how to measure sponsorship, year after year, in front of an audience that’s trying to learn something new.
Still on the subject of measurement, you’d think that if they were going to fly in an international keynote to speak on how to measure your sponsorships, they would choose someone at the vanguard of measurement, not an organisation that has barely changed their rhetoric around the subject for a decade. Apparently you can see Jim Andrews of IEG keynote about measurement for a half hour. They’re calling it Part 1. I’m not sure what Part 2 is supposed to be, unless it’s the session run by Repucom that will set you back an extra $110. [Breaking news: IEG has apparently pulled out of the conference]
It’s clear to me that Sponsorship Australasia has now gone full circle, from its birth at a terrible conference to this. It is so incredibly disappointing. Seriously, I’m gutted.
Want to check for yourself?
For the record, Sponsorship Australasia did invite me to participate in a panel discussion about social media when they were planning the program. For a number of reasons, I wasn’t interested.
I’ve been wrestling with whether to put my views out there or not – I cared so much about the association for so long, it’s a hard habit to break. But that vanished when I received this letter last week, a piece of revisionist history that would be pretty hard to top. Apparently, SA is prepared to lay claim to a 16 year history, but not acknowledge the hard work and accomplishments of the people who were involved from the beginning.
I’m not recommending that you do or don’t attend this conference (or any conference). It depends on your expectations and what you want to get out of it. I wrote a white paper a couple of years ago entitled “Don’t Go to Another Sponsorship Conference until You Read This”. It outlines some of the questions you should ask of the organiser and yourself before you consider investing the time and money.
As for me, I’m going to do two things. First, I’m going to throw down the gauntlet. IEG, Repucom, board members… prove me wrong. Please, please, please, prove me wrong. Get out there and put truly best practice techniques on the table. Give concrete strategies. Tell your secrets. These people are paying for your advice – this is their time, money, and trust on the line. Don’t waste it.
Second, because I think that getting sponsorship measurement right is such a critical factor to the advancement of this industry, I’m doing something I’ve never done before: Offering a free webinar.
The best case scenario for conference-goers is that the conference will rock and the webinar will reinforce what the conference speakers have to say. If not, you’ll still have some proven strategies for best practice measurement.
My colleague, Nicholas Cameron of SponsorMap (and another Australian working globally), is also concerned about the quality of measurement advice that the conference offers and is inviting industry professionals to a complimentary webinar on sponsorship measurement.
Free Webinar #1: Best Practice Sponsorship Measurement with Kim Skildum-Reid
This webinar is offered at no charge to all sponsorship industry professionals, globally.
- 26 October 2009, 11:00 AM (Sydney-time)
- Normal price: AU $154 or US $125
See our special event registration page for more details and to register
Free Webinar #2: Sponsorship ROI Webinar with Nicholas Cameron
This webinar is offered at no charge to all sponsorship industry professionals, globally.
We take quite a different approach. Nicholas is a specialist researcher, with a philosophy that is essentially, if it can be measured through research, it should be. I am more the brand strategist, concerned with measurement against overall business and marketing objectives through many channels, including research, and ignoring some of the stuff Nicholas measures. I’m not budging from my position, and he’s not budging from his – making for some spirited discussions – but he’s a very smart guy and has some interesting ideas, particularly around sponsorship research techniques and cross-analysis of data. I recommend you take up the offer to see both.
With all sincerity, I hope that the conference belies the signs and is a wonderful, positive experience for all involved. For all of you on Twitter, if you use the hashtag #SponAust during the conference, you can provide your colleagues with your real time feedback on insights gained during the conference and whether it has been worth your while.
As for Sponsorship Australasia, I hope that they remember and honour the people who started it all, the people who worked so hard to bring best practice to the industry, and the people who believed in and joined the association when all we had was a mission. I hope they remember what we did accomplish, because the history and the benchmarks go all the way back to 1993. More than anything, though, I hope they remember the mission, because I think it’s been lost somewhere along the way.
