The role of sponsorship in a live, hybrid or virtual setting can equally be a driver for the organization’s success as it is for the sponsors’ gain. When a partnership reaches beyond a financial exchange, sponsor involvement becomes a reinforcement to the overall event purpose. Powerful connections are made when a programs value directly fulfills the need of the sponsor.
We classify three main needs of sponsors: Awareness, Connections and Sales. The creativity of how sponsor needs are addressed is what differentiates organizations and the fees they charge. The more specific and fine tuned the alignment; the deeper the partnership.
In this post, we list Advanced Events’ best practices for eliminating barriers and directly building relevancy in sponsorship programs. Translating best practices into virtual settings is a direct correlation of the content of a particular program and the needs of an organization.
Advanced Events standard process is to follow these 3 steps at the onset of every client program, virtual event or not. If the landscape changes, act accordingly.
#1 Sponsorship Value Best Practice: Connect the Dots
Investigate where the connection exists to eliminate the guessing game to deliver precisely.
What does the sponsor want?
- Awareness
- Connections
- Sales
What are the sponsor’s “core influencers” in decision making?
- Mission Alliance
- Exposure
- Direct Sales
#2 Sponsorship Value Best Practice: Simplify the Buy
Make buying sponsorships easy by simplifying the options
Sometimes more is just more. Simplicity helps potential sponsors navigate quickly to the best individualized option.
Create sponsorship levels with clear delineation
Clearly identify if an offering supports the “core influencer” and where it doesn’t!
Create a reason to for sponsors to level up
Specify how a level either directly addresses what they need or what will be missing from one offering to the next. When appropriate add allure with exclusivity or limited availability features.
Names of levels will influence decisions
Association with a class of sponsor speaks to the “core influencers”.
#3 Sponsorship Value Best Practice: Innovate the Delivery
Innovate the Event Delivery
Virtual events produce content that can be Individualized and segmented for multiple purposes. The ability to digitally customize components of virtual events is the true definition of an evergreen asset. So, make the assets do the work!
Here are some examples of some of the evergreen content that can be created from parts of a virtual event:
- Video Content
- White Paper Content
- Templated Press Releases
- Social Media Postings
- Delayed On-Demand Content
- Future Promotion
Lasting relevancy is achieved when the connection reaches beyond the event into where else the organization aligns with the need of the sponsor.
