I was recently discussing sponsorship with a brand manager, when she said that she didn’t understand why brands would bother with sponsorship anymore, when they can use microtargeting to get their messages to the same people without sponsorship. She contended that unless a brand was using the sponsorship to secure… Read More
How to value contra, otherwise known as in-kind, sponsorship is a question I get almost every day. What is most interesting is how differently sponsors and rightsholders view contra, and they both overcomplicate what is really quite a simple equation. Rightsholders take contra for granted. Well, okay… most rightsholders take… Read More
Over the past few years, I’ve had several consulting jobs where I’ve been the second consultant hired in less than a year. Either the clients didn’t think they got the best advice or, upon implementation, they realised that the advice provided really wasn’t going to get them where they needed… Read More
This is a total rewrite of one of my most popular blogs. For years, this blog has sat squarely in the top five, and according to analytics, virtually everyone gets here because they’ve done a search on something like, “How to create sponsorship levels”. The problem is, sponsors hate levels. Gold-silver-bronze,… Read More
“Can you name any of the sponsors of this event?” If that question is never asked again, our industry would be better for it. It’s nothing but a leading memory test that has nothing to do with the changes in perceptions, behaviours, and alignment that a sponsor needs to see.… Read More
My latest white paper is all about how sponsorship broke the ground that Disruptive Marketing is now claiming, and how we’re going to stay at the forefront by bringing more meaning to the equation than any other marketing media possibly can. It’s full of big trends, bigger ideas, and keys to finding… Read More
With the huge, new focus on developing giant data sets – for analytics, for micro-targeting – some sponsors have lost their way on sponsorship, shifting the focus from people and passion to data acquisition. I can see the appeal. When data drives so much about marketing, more data is better,… Read More
I recently wrote a blog on The New Swear Words of Sponsorship for rightsholders. But rightsholders aren’t alone in this sponsorship swear-word caper. I’ve been in a lot of meetings and training with sponsors, with sponsor swear words fully on display – words that are totally counterproductive to getting good… Read More
Years ago – like, seriously, twenty-five years ago – I did a presentation at a major conference where I called “exposure” and “awareness” the two swear words of sponsorship. After that, I used it in a few workshops and some writing, but somehow the concept stuck. Even now, I still… Read More
I have lost count of the number of sponsorship proposals that feature – even open with – a non-profit’s mission statement. These are the same proposals that usually follow up the mission statement with fifteen pages of why you’re so worthy of sponsorship. I’m really sorry to have to break… Read More
Most sponsorship proposals are total crap. They are all about the rightsholder, not taking the sponsor’s needs or markets into consideration at all. They are totally uncustomised – making full use of the search-and-replace function (hated by sponsors everywhere) – which is inexcusable, given the technology at hand to give… Read More
Back when I started in this business, sponsor servicing was almost non-existent. Properties (usually) delivered the benefits, then the next time a sponsor would hear from them was when the renewal request came through. Then, there was a long period when sponsor servicing was primarily about kissing the arse of… Read More