Sponsorship Strategist

The Banished 13: Corporate sponsorship practices we could do without in 2013

 

It's a new year and an excellent time to consider your sponsorship operation anew. Here are 13 practices by both corporations and sponsorship sellers that are a good place to start. Time to let these dated, ineffective behaviors or operations go.

Suggestions for corporate sponsors.

1. Online forms. The conundrum is that you receive tons of proposals that don't begin to meet your objectives. I get it. My company receives enough off-the-mark sponsorship proposals to make the extrapolation easy. But here's the thing: you're turning away good opportunities and the potential for meaningful relationships with organizations that won't waste their time.
2. Logo + cash only ≠ sponsorship results. The key characteristic of corporate sponsorship is the experiential opportunity it offers your product, service, and/or brand. Failing to take advantage of this attribute wastes money and will not generate results. It's the equivalent of buying a TV schedule and not sending the station the spot.
3. Poor relationship management. Many factors contribute to successful and enduring sponsorships. Trusting relationships is key among these factors. Participate in these relationships, even when the situation is rocky. Need to make changes? Say so. Facing budget or strategic changes? Say so. Not getting what you need from your partner? Say so. 
4. Devaluing the qualitative. Sponsorship is a qualitative medium. This is old news. Every person writing about sponsorship has written this since the beginning of (sponsorship) time. It's what makes sponsorship valuable. Don't confuse qualitative with no results. How do you put numbers around improving relationships with key clients?
5. Nonprofits don't do your dirty work. While it's true that partnering with a nonprofit can have numerous image-enhancing benefits, turning around your tarnished image is not the sector's job. I'll never forget the look on the face of a young development officer at an organization that preserves Pennsylvania farmland when she asked me whether she should build a relationship with a real estate developer that was persuing her. She was relieved when I recommended she explore the developer's motives and to feel free to say, "No, thank you," if they were not aligned with her organization's.
6. Fads and the faded. Can 2013 please be the year that the gold rush of crowdsourced funding (fad) and every company thinking they'll celebrate their women customers by sticking a pink ribbon on their products (faded) ends? Thanks.

Suggestions for sponsorship sellers.

1. Gold, Silver, Bronze, and other generic levels. Generic sponsorship packages are all about you and not your partner. That means they're not designed to get results, and you're leaving money on the table. Lots of it.
2. Blanket mailings. Blasting an email or letter with a generic sponsorship proposal is the opposite of how to sell sponsorship. Focus on building relationships. Focus on results. You'll see your own results. I promise.
3. Poor sales techniques. Being successful selling sponsorship is about two key areas: (1) being creative and strategic in your recommendations to sponsors and (2) having excellent business development skills. If you're not constantly honing these two areas, others will outperform you and your organization.
4. Entitlement attitude. This suggestion is for the nonprofit sellers. Yes, the nonprofit sector provides immence value to our communities — services that neither the business nor government sector is willing or able to provide. However, this important role does not entitle your organization to expect dollars and donations automatically. You're competing in a marketplace. Provide value. Deliver results. Be a great partner.
5. Plan with enough time. Sponsorship development requires 9 to 12 months and longer for a new event or if you're new to sponsorship. Relieve your stress and build that time into your schedule.
6. Poor structure. As noted above in #3, you need a healthy dose of creativity and strategy to make sponsorship work for your partner's organization and yours. Are your sponsors really engaged in your events? Are they shouting from the rooftops that they're part of your event or initiative? If not, one reason might be that you've not structured your arrangement well for you.

Suggestions for corporations and sponsorship sellers.

1. Conflating corporate sponsorship and philanthropy. Folks, these are two separate functions. If you're contributing dollars to a nonprofit, don't expect marketing and sales results. If a for-profit event is calling you about a sponsorship opportunity, don't forward them to your philanthropy office. Nonprofits, be clear which support you're looking for so you have the right discussion with the right people and ask for and propose the best ideas.

Out with the old.

Happy New Year! I hope 2013 is an amazing year for your sponsorship results.

 

More on your role as sponsorship seller

Early in February, at an event I partnered on with the Boston Business Journal, Ray Hoefling, Senior Vice President, Commercial Banking, at Webster Bank was our special guest. Audiences had an opportunity to hear some of the creative ways Webster Bank, a well-known Connecticut brand, is engaging sponsorship, particularly with the nonprofit sector, to introduce its brand and build relationships in a competitive market.

When we opened it up to the audience for questions, the first one was a familiar refrain. A gentleman wanted to know how he could reach Hoefling or the proper decision maker, something that he was finding to be "very hard."

Hoefling looked straight at him and, firmly but compassionately, said, "It should be hard."

Corporations are inundated with proposals, a small fraction of which are really on target. Therefore, relationships matter. Your conduct, how you comport yourself, how efficient you are about getting through, and how you engage with corporate leaders all make the difference between successful sellers and others. Admittedly this can be tricky terrain, especially at a time when nobody has time.

You may remember a book I recommended a couple years ago, called SNAP Selling by Jill Konrath, about how to sell under these crazy-busy conditions. It's a terrific guide on how to navigate the terrain when your emails and voice mail messages are so easily deletable, when getting through is a challenge.

Here's a short video on how to be –– and not be –– a pest. If your sponsorship ideas are really well-aligned and you started a new relationship on the right foot, don't give up. Watch this:

 

 

Big is not a sponsorship strategy

If you had a brainstorm to take one of your products, make a really really big fabricated replica of it, maybe even with a slogan on it, and then set that up on display and call it sponsorship, rethink that idea. Big is not a strategy.

If you drove through Philadelphia during the holidays, you'd likely have seen this:

(It says, "You know you love it.") Yes, it's a giant noodle at a park in a prime location adjacent to an outdoor Christmas market. As far as I can tell, no sampling, no couponing, no interaction with the noodle makers. Just a big noodle.

In case you couldn't tell, this is a replica of a Kraft Macaroni & Cheese noodle. But a giant noodle replica does not make a successful sponsorship activation.

Apparently big is Kraft's strategy. Here is a photo I shot in 2006 when I was the managing director of the Essence Music Festival. Kraft was a sponsor and parked its Oscar Mayer Weiner Mobile in the festival.

Again, no sampling, no tour of the Mobile, no staff, just a big hot dog. [UPDATE: To be clear, Kraft did have a display area on the other side of the exhibition hall from the Mobile. The Big Hot Dog, however, was on its own.]

Yes, big gets noticed, but in our everyday bombardment of information, it's fleeting.

Have you seen other examples of big?

 

Respond or rebuff: what's your approach to customer input?

In a matter of months, Netflix went from beloved to beaten up.

Netflix customers have long raved about how easy it is to use its streaming and DVD services, and business leaders view its operations as a great model of a customer-centric approach to operations. (A client of mine, for example, recently referrenced Netflix in describing how she needed me to help her design and create a new initiative for her organization.)

This summer, however, Netflix made a series of missteps and bungled decisions, surely with all the best of intentions, that some (about a million) customers disliked. Really disliked. OK. Hated. It increased its pricing by 60 percent, separated its streaming video from its DVD shipping services, and then, the final wallup, announced a whole separate company for the DVD services, under the much maligned name, Qwikster. However, on Monday, the company hit the rewind button (except for the pricing changes), killed Qwikster, and announced to customers:

Dear Gail:

It is clear that for many of our members two websites would make things more difficult, so we are going to keep Netflix as one place to go for streaming and DVDs.

This means no change: one website, one account, one password…in other words, no Qwikster.

While the July price change was necessary, we are now done with price changes.

We're constantly improving our streaming selection. We've recently added hundreds of movies from Paramount, Sony, Universal, Fox, Warner Bros., Lionsgate, MGM and Miramax. Plus, in the last couple of weeks alone, we've added over 3,500 TV episodes from ABC, NBC, FOX, CBS, USA, E!, Nickelodeon, Disney Channel, ABC Family, Discovery Channel, TLC, SyFy, A&E, History, and PBS.

We value you as a member, and we are committed to making Netflix the best place to get your movies & TV shows.

Respectfully,

The Netflix Team

Clunky, awkward, uncomfortable, and very public, Netflix attempted to expand its services in ways it thought it was being valuable to customers. And it backfired. However, their reversal means they can begin again, regain customer confidence, and move forward.

Though no business wants to make mistakes so publicly, the Netflix case study is actually a great example of what hundreds of CMOs and CEOs are saying is "crucial" to their successes in the 21st century: "customer intimacy." That's according to a new study by IBM.

"The most proactive CMOs are trying to understand individuals as well as markets. Customer intimacy is crucial – and CEOs know it. In our last CEO study, we learned CEOs regard getting closer to customers as one of the three prerequisities for success in the twenty-first century. This sits squarely in the CMO's domain."

--IBM's From Stretched to Strenthened: Insights from the Global Chief Marketing Officer Study

Yes, of course, these leaders surely aspire to smoother, even more pleasant feelings of intimacy than this, but let's not forget, sometimes intimacy can be messy. Netflix deserves a lot of credit for putting its collective ego aside and responding to what its customers are saying. Er, screaming.

Let's also not forget another leader who encountered a similar situation: Steve Jobs and Apple. When the second iteration of the iPhone came out, customers who had most recently bought the first version received a $100 store credit for being early adopters of the new technology that had dropped in price by half. Mr. Jobs issued an open apology and made the correction.

Intimacy requires an openness, receptivity, back and forth. And this openness is a requirement that all businesses – even nonprofits – must grow more comfortable with. Its an exchange that corporate sponsorship is an ideal medium for fostering. 

In contrast, intimacy is not about rebuffing customers. Unfortunately, that's what I read in a quote by a spokesperson for a breast cancer organization in an AP article this morning about whether painting October pink, in support of breast cancer awareness month, had run its course. I (and others) have been saying that it has for years. But more importantly some women who have battled breast cancer hate the reminder. One woman in the article is quoted as saying the pink "drives her nuts." Yet the organizational spokesperson remains, "unapologetic." Not exactly openness.

The shifts we're facing in how we market to customers affects all of us. Learn from the Netflix and Apple examples. Foster a sense of openness and dialogue with your communities. And if you goof, respond. Don't rebuff.

 

 

3 ways Steve Jobs may inspire you

We now live in a world without Steve Jobs, and an enormous void exists.

He leaves a legacy that will inspire millions of us for many reasons for generations. I offer three ways Mr. Jobs may inspire you:

• Experience of the brand. If you've never been in an Apple store, visit one soon. It's more like an attraction than a retail experience. The feel, the vibe, the overall experience of an Apple store should be your inspiration for your sponsorship program. For businesses that sponsor events, your onsite component should be so compelling that it becomes an attraction or an event in and of itself. Eventgoers should gravitate to your area and want to hang out there, playing around with your products or chatting it up with your staff, without fear of being surveiled or pounced on by overzealous sales people. Be generous. Let people experience your brand.

For sponsorship sellers, guide your sponsors and prospects by developing ideas and ways to participate in your events so that your audiences have this level of experience with your sponsors' brand.

• Speeches. Visit YouTube, search for "Steve Jobs," and spend some time watching his speeches, especially around product launches. Mr. Jobs clearly had a sense of humor, an eye for the dramatic, and a sincere way of drawing us in, expectantly. Do audiences at your events respond like this?

 

• Joy of Apple Products. I noticed in the days following the news of Mr. Jobs' passing a strong sensation of a void in my life. I did not know Mr. Jobs, and though I've been a customer since 1987, this connection still didn't account for this void and the quality of the sorrow.

Countless other technology and cultural writers have written about creativity, innovation, and why we love Apple products; however, it was not until I read Peter Shankman's blog post about why we love Apple that it all started to make sense for me. Shankman describes how such a deep level of customer service is woven into the products that we trust – we have complete confidence that our Macintosh or iPhone or iPad or Apple TV – or other product by Apple – is going to work, a confidence we don't have in most products and services.

I'd take it one step further. I realized the void I was aware of is not just counting on the products to work but relying heavily on Apple to take care of my technology needs. I don't need to spend time wondering what I need. The design team at Apple has done the work for me and creates products that are intuitive, effortless, elegant, and truly personal. They are products that live with me in my home, in my office, and in my travels.

This is no easy task, but your organization – through its products, services, brand reputation, relationships with customers, events – might hold these same aspirations.

To Mr. Jobs' family, friends, and colleagues, my deepest sympathies. To the team at Apple, we're counting on you, and we know you have big shoes to fill. Trust your intuition and your heart.

 

Experiencing your brand through communications and actions

Like you, I've got electronic gadgets. Sometimes they work great; other times, it's a big mystery why they don't.

The other night our Netflix account was completely inaccessible. We were unable to access it through Apple TV, by phone (busy signal), online (web page wouldn't load), and through an iPad app. We were shut out. In the scheme of life, of course, this is a very minor inconvenience, and whenever technology fails to work, I think about Louis CK's observation that everything's amazing and nobody's happy. So, life rolled along.

I put the technological hiccup out of my mind, until this morning when I received an email from Netflix:

Dear Gail,

Recently you may have had trouble instantly watching movies or TV episodes due to a technical issue on our end.

We are sorry for the inconvenience this may have caused. If you attempted and were unable to instantly watch TV episodes or movies yesterday, click on this account specific link in the next 7 days to apply a 3% credit to your next billing statement for your $7.99 a month Unlimited Streaming plan. Credit can only be applied once.

Ready to start watching again? Browse our selection.

Again, we apologize for any inconvenience and thank you for your understanding. If you need further assistance, please call us at 1-866-923-0898.

–The Netflix Team

Wow! Not only did I really appreciate the proactive distribution of information, but I was also impressed by their action – to refund customers' fees, however small the amount 3% would represent, to satisfy and be accountable for the problem. Great work, Netflix!

My experience with other technology providers is less than stellar. For example, my cell phone service for my iPhone is by  At&T. Even though I live in the fifth largest city in the U.S., there are times when the service bar says, "No service," in my house. I have missed and dropped countless important calls because of AT&T's spotty service. And not only have I never received an email apology, I've had customer service representatives take zero responsibility on behalf of the company. I always wonder if the information escalates beyond the guy on the phone. Do AT&T technicians ever hear of these problems so they can make corrections?

The experience of a brand is the sum total of many interactions customers have with it. Communications can enhance those experiences, but small, sincere actions catapult the customer experience even farther.

What has been your experience?

 

Sheetz and the Greatest Movie Ever Sold

On my drive out to work with a client in Central Pennsylvania, I popped into this Sheetz gas station/convenience store in Carlisle, Pa., to see if and how they took advantage of their movie sponsorship for POM Wonderful Presents: The Greatest Movie Ever Sold.

 

See what you think.

At the self-serve soda and beverage dispenser counter, you'll find the famous collectors' cups ("first time ever in a documentary," director Morgan Spurlock notes in the film) that Sheetz President and CEO Stan Sheetz enthusiastically snapped up. ("We're going to be on that like a wet t-shirt," he says in the film and trailer, which you can watch in my review of the film.)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I walked into the store in hot pursuit of the cups. Had I been more leisurely in my shop, I'd have been greeted by Morgan Spurlock, right in the center of the store.

Another sign dangled above the the cash register area.

Kudos to Sheetz for sponsoring the film and putting the brand out there so boldly, especially considering that the company has stores only in the mid-Atlantic area – in traditional media-buying terms that's "wasted circulation" – and for taking advantage of the sponsorship in-store.

However, since the film has not opened in the region and won't until Gettysburg's Majestic Theater nearby screens it late this month, does anyone in this quiet country town care? Do they even understand why the collectible cups are funny? Or why this man with an overly-logoed suit jacket is standing in their store?

What do you think? Any readers from Carlisle?

Sponsorship buyers and sellers: what you'll learn about sponsorship from Morgan Spurlock and his new film "POM Wonderful Presents: The Greatest Movie Ever Sold"

Morgan Spurlock's new film, POM Wonderful Presents: The Greatest Movie Ever Sold, is out today, and I urge you to check it out. It's hilarious and lots of fun to watch (see my full review). And there are so many lessons to be learned about sponsorship, if you're new to the medium, as either a buyer or seller, or need a refresher. 

Here are a handful of observations I had, culled from the 30 or so I just shared in a teleseminar:

For Brands/Buyers:

1. Are you taking risks in your sponsorship decisions? Or are you doing the same old same old? Marketing is about getting noticed, getting attention, and changing behaviors or perceptions. If you sponsor the same thing all the time, people eventually tune out. Shake things up every now and then. Be open to new ideas. If your operation has impediments to ideas – an online application form, a voice mail morass, or heavy hierarchy, for example – you may want to peel back the layers and let some fresh thinking in.
2. Don't look to your ad agency for your sponsorship ideas. The first time I bought sponsorship, I was at an ad agency. One of my colleagues asked why I made this recommendation for my client: "What does the agency get out of this? Are we getting a commission?" No, no commission, just a happy client because it was a great idea and fit, plus lots of other related PR, advertising, and marketing communications projects that the agency created to support the sponsorship. And did I mention success for the client? Eventually, in my own work selling sponsorship, I found that attitude pervasively at agencies. And worse, they didn't even understand the medium. Were there exceptions? Yes. But mostly from PR teams. 
3. Invest in your investment to get results. In the film, you'll see the sponsors confab and pull together resources to collectively promote the film and each of their involvements in it. Often times, I see "sponsors" listed on an event or organization's materials with no activation, no promotional support, no added effort in support of the sponsorship. What a waste! That's like buying a TV spot and not giving the station the spot. Use your investment wisely. Put all your effort around it. Get results.

For Sellers/Properties

1. Outsourcing sponsorship sales is absurd! If you think about nothing else while watching this film, ask yourself, "Would Morgan Spurlock have been successful if he'd outsourced sponsorship sales to a third party?" I suggest: NO WAY!! He's got the vision, the passion, the flexibility, the integrity, and the drive to sell for himself and more importantly cultivate his own relationships. That's what it's all about. Can someone else replicate your passion, vision and integrity? Do you want someone else in control of your sponsor relationships?
2. Do your homework and show up with ideas. Of course we don't know what wound up on the proverbial cutting room floor, but what we see is Morgan Spurlock in action with several great and specific ideas for his prospects. No Gold-Silver-Bronze packages. No generic. Instead, lots of effort, commitment, and specifics. Is every idea perfect? No, but it gets a discussion going, it provides a starting point, and gets the prospect excited. The rest, hopefully, is co-creation.
3. Get comfortable with rejection. According to Morgan Spurlock and a Q&A he did after the Philadelphia Cinefest screening I saw last Thursday, he called 600 brands to finally get 22 sponsors. If he feared rejection, he'd still be shriveled up in a corner somewhere. In the film, he actually seems to enjoy it. Or at least moments when the rejections were particularly dramatic. Example: watch for the spark in Spurlock's eye at 1 minute 13 seconds in the trailer (which you'll find embedded into the previous post). You don't need every corporation as your partner, just the right ones.

I could spend hours chatting up sponsorship best and worst practices in the film. I want to know what you saw. What did you learn from the film?

The Greatest Sponsorship Film I've Ever Seen: Morgan Spurlock's "POM Wonderful Presents: The Greatest Movie Ever Sold"

In 2004, shortly after seeing Morgan Spurlock's first film, Supersize Me, his cinematic experiment eating nothing but McDonald's three meals a day for 30 days, I headed off to New Orleans to the Essence Music Festival. I served as managing director for the daytime activities at the New Orleans Convention Center of the festival, the "Purpose" part of the "Party with a Purpose."

McDonald's was a major sponsor (and still is) and that year focused its activation on promoting its new healthier menu options. According to news reports at the time, McDonald's new menu had nothing to do with the film, and the company's history notes the introduction of Premium Fresh Salads to its menu in 2003. Still, I imagine not even company spokespeople could deny the synchronistic timing.

The vague trepidation I felt heading off to the 2004 Festival, wondering what impact the film might have for the Festival and its sponsor – would people rally? would festivalgoers protest? would there be a firestorm of media condemnation? – returned for me Thursday night when I went to see Spurlock's newest film, POM Wonderful Presents: The Greatest Movie Ever Sold. What would Spurlock say about marketing and sponsorship, the fields I'm in? What impact would it have?

In both cases, my trepidation was unfounded. No one protested McDonald's or the Essence Music Festival, and whether the film had any influence or not on McDonald's menu, who cares? The film raised excellent points; McDonald's has evolved its menu; and we each, as individuals, still must take responsibility for our own eating and nutritional information-gathering habits.

The new film is hilarious. Every industry has absurdities about it, and marketing is right up there. Spurlock pokes fun at it all – including at himself. POM Wonderful Presents: The Greatest Movie Ever Sold is the story of Spurlock's attempts to secure sponsors for the film while bringing us a glimpse behind the scenes of the sophistication of modern day marketing and uncovering the dark side.

What a different film this would have been in the hands of another filmmaker, like Michael Moore, for example. Consistent with his own branding profile, Spurlock is equal parts "mindful" and "playful" about the story and issues, right down to the musical score. Sergei Prokofiev's Peter and the Wolf, about the hunter and the hunted, couldn't be a more perfect composition. Take a look at the trailer.

The film takes us through the whole process of sponsorship development, though in this case in the form of "brand integration," modern lingo for product placement, a tactic used by major brands to have their products embedded into the storylines of films and television shows. (Seinfeld was a master at this. Can you name all the brands, from Rice Krispies to Junior Mints, woven into the storylines? Sometimes the scripts read just like the press releases, making it even funnier.)

Throughout the sponsorship sales and execution process, Spurlock shares with us, the viewers, and his advisors his concerns, especially where to draw the line between selling out and not. Of course Noam Chomsky and Ralph Nader portend a dreadful future of Corporatized Morgan Spurlock, imploring him to rise above. With a mischievous sparkle in his eyes, Spurlock counters by hawking his sponsored shoes, Merrell's, to Nader. (Film tip: don't leave before the credits end for a great interaction with Nader.)

Spurlock keeps it light and defines the line quite clearly for his own work. In a post-screening discussion on Thursday, the closing film for Philadelphia's Cinefest, Spurlock said he pushed back on sponsor requests to approve the film before it opened and to see a financial return. 

"Being in the film" was the sponsors' return, he said. Exactly!

Overall, I found the film thoroughly enjoyable, laugh-out-loud funny, with plenty to learn for both sponsorship buyers and sellers, as well as life-long students of marketing. It opens next weekend, and I urge you to see it.

I will say, however, that one critique I have is also where Spurlock did sell out. Or rather, enabled someone else's sell out. One of the more serious threads in the film is about marketing messages in places where maybe they don't belong – public schools.

"Schools should be sacred," a Broward County school representative says, while she discusses with Spurlock the challenges of balancing a decreasing budget with demands for new programs. Banner advertising on the school fence line and truck fleet and in school buses is one solution. By the end of the film, POM Wonderful Presents: The Greatest Movie Ever Sold joins the ranks of the district's advertisers by purchasing all three vehicles. 

(It also bought the naming rights to the city of Altoona, Pa., home to another sponsor, Sheetz. The filmmakers reportedly purchased the rights for $25,000, and for 60 days, a drive through Pennsylvania, 130 miles west of Harrisburg and about 40 miles southwest of State College, will take you to POM Wonderful Presents: The Greatest Movie Ever Sold, Pa. As the New York Times reports: “Clearly, the people of Altoona have a sense of humor,” Bill Schirf, the mayor, said in a statement, “and an asking price.”)

 

Apparently Google doesn't know about Altoona's temporary name change; as of this writing, you can still find Altoona.
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By advertising through the school's banner and bus billboard program, the filmmakers stepped on those sacred grounds at the same time they exposed the problem. Wouldn't it have been better for the film to simply have made a contribution to the school system, even an anonymous one? Or developed a cause marketing campaign? 

Perhaps this seems like a minor infraction in an overall enjoyable film, but a donation or cause marketing campaign would have been more aligned with the point of the film's social side. 

POM Wonderful Presents: The Greatest Movie Ever Sold opens next weekend. Go see it, have fun, and feel free to share your thoughts by clicking on "comments" below to let me know what you think!

[In honor of transparency: I paid full price for movie tickets for my friend and me, and I own several pairs of Merrell's that I paid for on my own. I have drunk POM Wonderful I paid for, eaten foods from Amy's I bought, have been in the airport on Aruba enroute to Granada on business, never worn Ban (that I'm aware of), don't own Carrera's, never shopped at Solstice, never heard of Get It for Free Online till now, have paid for my own rooms at Hyatt, don't live in a city served by jetBlue, never purchased a KDF car wrap, never purchased Mane 'n Tail (nor do I have a kid or Shetland pony to try it on), have purchased a few items at Old Navy, have never shopped at Petland, have purchased my own Seventh Generation products, have purchased my own gas and snacks at Sheetz, own no clothing by Ted Baker, may have dabbed at teenage blemishes with Thayer's Witch Hazel purchased by my mother, and was not influenced by any of these film sponsors while writing this blog. I did just enjoy mentioning them all however!]

Parting ways, new beginnings

Today's Philadelphia Inquirer reports that PNC Bank will no longer sponsor the Philadelphia International Flower Show, a decision they'd made and informed the Flower Show of two years ago. The bank is looking to sponsor other opportunities, and new leadership at the Flower Show is positive about its ideas to partner with the corporate sector in 2012 and beyond, according to the article.

These will be tough shoes to fill, for both sides. From outward appearances, PNC Bank was a great partner, growing with the event, committed in all the right ways, and taking full advantage of the opportunity. A true partner.

The PA Horticulture Society, producer of the Flower Show, too, are a terrific partner. Its approach to meeting sponsor objectives, by bringing its partners' businesses to life artfully within the context of the event, never losing sight of its mission, set a high standard for future partners. I can imagine through this 20-year partnership, the two organizations learned a great deal about the sponsorship medium and about its own and each other's strengths.

Future corporate partners of the event will benefit from that accumulated knowledge. Rise to the occasion. Be bold. Explore all the possibilities that one of Philadelphia's best events has to offer you. One of the greatest failings I see corporations make is investing in sponsorship and not fully leveraging that investment. It's like paying for TV advertising and not giving the stations the TV spot. Take advantage of the full value of sponsorship.

And to future partners of PNC Bank, you have a sophisticated client. Deepen your understanding and creativity with sponsorship so that you meet the bank's needs and your organization, too, benefits fully.

It's spring, time of renewal, new beginnings, and I, for one, am eager to see what's ahead for both organizations. At the same time, I'm always fascinated by businesses' decisions to end long-term sponsorship, forgoing the brand equity invested over time. 

I'd love to hear your thoughts. Have you experienced this type of parting? Corporate readers, have you made these decisions? Please share your thinking and strategizing.