Spread your sponsorship net more widely

By Kim Harrison,

Consultant, Author and Principal of www.cuttingedgepr.com

When times are tough, sponsorship seekers find it tough to obtain sponsorship funding because companies often have other priorities during lean times.

When they tighten the belt, those companies aren’t necessarily being logical in reducing sponsorship funding. Sponsorship commitments shouldn’t be made in the first place without the sponsorship package offering better value for money than alternatives like advertising and direct marketing. It makes more sense to cut advertising rather than cutting a productive sponsorship budget.

However, senior management often accept the high cost of advertising as a given cost of doing business and therefore sponsorship tends to be cut first. In their ignorance, those executives may think sponsorship is largely an indulgence rather than a commercially beneficial commitment.

As a result, sponsorship seekers need to stop and think. How do you give the sponsor a strong return for their investment?

Take a more strategic approach. Don’t just do the standard stuff.

If companies are cutting back their sponsorship budgets, then you should view your sponsorship offer in another light. How can you repackage your offer so it is not merely a sponsorship concept? Look closely at the company you are approaching. Can you restructure your offer so it appeals to other areas within a company? Consider areas whose budgets are healthier than the sponsorship budget, which is usually just a subset of marketing.

Although it is common to approach companies to talk of sponsorships as partnerships, the ensuing agreement usually isn’t really anything like a partnership of equals – in reality the sponsor totally dominates the relationship. The power is almost entirely in their hands. So why bother calling it a partnership?

Call it a business agreement, or something more upmarket than ‘sponsorship’ and not as fake as ‘partnership.’ Don’t call it a package – not very dignified. The terminology of accepting a sponsorship ‘package’ also subtly implies the sponsor is purchasing the offer and the power lies entirely with them.

The key thing is to do your homework! Look carefully into other areas within the company and to be flexible about the offer. Find out what suits them and tailor your proposal tightly to that. For instance, HR may be looking for a deal in which they can find a create way to recognize and reward employees for good work. Your proposal may well suit their needs. What about the wider public relations budget? Or the government relations budget? Senior management may benefit from a proposal you can offer them. Perhaps the marketing department plans to launch a new product and your deal may tie in well with the new product.

A fairly new area for ‘sponsorship’ is Corporate Social Responsibility. CSR is defined in various ways. Ideally, it involves a company making a commitment to behave ethically and contribute to economic development while improving the quality of life of its workforce and their families as well as the local community. Most companies these days accept their moral role to be good corporate citizens. Gone are the days when many in business thought an organization’s sole responsibility was to maximize its profits for shareholders. We have seen what happened with this outlook in the Global Financial Recession.

The broad definition of CSR would fit many sponsorship proposals. Therefore, develop your sponsorship proposals as CSR initiatives. To find out background information on CSR you can do a Google search on the term. Some websites specialize in this area. Try going to www.csrwire.com and read the various company reports and information on the subject.

Then pause to think how you could rework your ‘sponsorship’ into a more politically acceptable CSR agreement that may be much more acceptable to the target company.

And try to construct your offer in a way that creates genuine CSR. Many people are cynical about CSR because they see some of the world’s dirtiest, nastiest industries actively promoting their token CSR programs to try to earn greater respect and acceptance within the community. (A range of these industries is represented, among others, in www.csrwire.) Therefore, think more deeply about how you construct the offer.

 

About the Author

Kim Harrison is a recognized authority in the public relations field. His website, www.cuttingedgepr.com, provides a wealth of informative articles and resources on public relations techniques and management.

 

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