Sponsorship Selection for Smart Sponsors

Sponsorship is a lot of work. Getting a sponsorship from go-ahead to delivering measurable results against your objectives requires effort, creativity, money, buy-in, and teamwork, and all of this is happening while the clock is ticking toward the end of the contract. For a good sponsorship, the results are 100% worth it. The right sponsorship is a brand powerhouse.

So my question is, when there is an almost unfathomable number of options – tiny to huge, local to global, in every sector – why do so many sponsors opt for mediocrity?

When I work with corporate sponsors, they invariably start out saying that they only get a return from a fraction of their sponsorships. The Pareto Principle (AKA the 80/20 Rule) is showcased in all its depressing glory across one sponsor after another. 20% of their sponsorships are performing, with the rest languishing unloved and unleveraged, because they don’t have the fit or relevance to be worth the effort.

Maybe they’re choosing investments only from the unsolicited proposals they get, and they’re just picking the best of that bad bunch. Maybe it’s legacy sponsorships or political or chairperson’s choice. Maybe they’re not providing enough direction to rightsholders on what they need from a sponsorship. Maybe it’s inertia or inexperience or laziness. Whatever the underlying issue, they’ve chosen a portfolio full of mediocrity (or downright bad investments), and have been willing to live with it. It’s a field day for someone like me, who does comprehensive portfolio reviews alongside strategy development!

I hope this isn’t you, I really do. But if you are one of these Pareto sponsors, here is a mantra you should adopt:

Either it’s amazing, or it’s a no.

This goes for new sponsorships and your existing portfolio. What you want is a lean, perfectly matched, fully leveraged portfolio, and that isn’t going to happen unless you ruthlessly reject or rationalise every non-amazing sponsorship.

What constitutes an “amazing” sponsorship?

• The property is meaningful to a significant chunk of your target markets (consumer, B2B, enterprise, staff)
• The larger themes around the property are meaningful to an even bigger chunk of your target market
• The rightsholder has demonstrated an understanding of your business, your objectives, and your markets – internal, external, and intermediary – and provided creative leverage ideas for those markets
• The rightsholder has provided a proposal that’s complete and easy to sell-in internally
• You have buy-in and commitment from at least a few other business units to leverage the sponsorship against their objectives and through their channels
• It’s leveragable in multiple ways, for an extended period of time, across multiple markets (ie, it’s a sponsorship multi-tool)
• You’ve either been offered, or able to negotiate, all the benefits you need to make your creative leverage ideas happen
• You have the time, lead time, and resources to implement your leverage plan

Of course, there are other things that go into a great sponsorship, and this blog is chock full of other angles and strategies to make your whole sponsorship portfolio deliver. (Check out my best-of roundup of resources for sponsors.) But being incredibly clear about what you require from an opportunity – from the rightsholder and from your own stakeholders – will get you to a place of probably fewer, certainly better, and fully leveraged investments.

One tool you may want to download is my Sponsorship Guidelines template (Word). This is an external document that tells rightsholders exactly what you need from an opportunity, and the information you need to make a decision.

Need more assistance?

You may also be interested in my white papers,  “Last Generation Sponsorship Redux” and “Disruptive Sponsorship: Like Disruptive Marketing, Only Better“. I’ve also got a self-paced, online sponsorship training course for sponsors, covering the whole process of sponsorship strategy, selection, negotiation, leverage, measurement, and management, with lots of inclusions. Interested? Check out the Corporate Sponsorship Masterclass. I’ve also got Getting to “Yes” for rightsholders.

If you need additional assistance with your sponsorship portfolio, I offer sponsorship consulting and strategy sessions, sponsorship training, and sponsorship coaching. I also offer Sponsorship Systems Design for large and/or diverse organisations. Please feel free to drop me a line to discuss.

© Kim Skildum-Reid. All rights reserved. To enquire about republishing or distribution, please see the blog and white paper reprints page.

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