How to attract sponsorship to your events. Part 1 of 4.

Getting sponsorship for any events may not be an easy process, however, if you apply some basic principles and understanding, you will find it a lot easier to reach your target partners.

Years ago, when I first started organising events, I would create the event concept, then print out loads of booklets, post as many as possible to companies using the big ‘yellow pages’.  Yeah, this was years before the internet. I never got any responses; therefore I would cancel the event as I had no funds to make it happen.

Event sponsorship has evolved over the years from just being about brand awareness and association to brand interactions and engagement with consumers and stakeholders. The more your event hits these three essential points, the better your chances are of getting the right sponsorship that fits your event.

From our previous article, we talked about the strategy of building your event to attract your sponsors.  Sponsors always lookout for what is good for their brand. One thing that we often overlook is, what is the character of the organiser? Using social media, we can find out comments and activities of event organisers and how well their character influences others. So, if your social media contents are against the values and ethics of a brand, this may affect your opportunities.

On the surface however, sponsors what to know your target market. We will discuss marketing/promoting events on a later topic. Nevertheless, the question you must ask yourself is, are the guests attending my event the same demography with the market that patronises the sponsor’s product or services?  For example, you are hosting an event that attracts young mothers, you can then approach companies that provide a service to this segment of the market.  However, this is just one benefit. It does not mean, that just because you fit their market, they would buy your event, they get 100’s of similar proposals each day. Again, what is your competitive advantage?

In part 2 of 4 will discuss Brand awareness and using a conceptualising approach.