Sponsorship Strategist

Sponsorship Love in the Time of Coronavirus

Now is absolutely not the time for radio silence. You need to be communicating with your key audiences as personally as possible.  Your sponsors are chief among these audiences. Here's what to do. Read more →

A Sponsorship Relationship Mantra

If you can adopt this intention for your sponsorship relationship building, you’ll attract great partners and have some fun, too. Read more →

The Bad Deal

You have three choices when you’re presented with a bad deal. Read more →

You know that hope is not a (sponsorship) strategy, right?

You had a great conversation with a prospective sponsor. They’re super excited about the ideas you proposed, and you spend a couple days writing a rockin’ proposal. Your colleagues add more suggestions. You finalize the document and want to pinch yourself—the ideas here are fantastic, and the dollar signs will take your event or organization to a new level. You hit send and count the days till you get to discuss the proposal with the sponsor contact. You just know they’re going to love it and that this is the start of a long-lasting partnership between your organizations. Did I mention all the money your organization is going to generate? Whew! Might as well kick back and wait for the money to flow in, right? Read more →

3 trends to innovate your sponsorship value

If you’ve worked with me or taken one of my workshops, you know that one of my mantras is that selling sponsorship is all about selling the future. If that’s the case, it follows that an important activity for you is to keep an eye on the future, at least the near-term future. You’ll want to pay attention to changes and shifts in the marketplace that present opportunities for your organization and sponsors. These shifts provide you with important information about brands, culture, your audiences, and about the business landscape in general. These patterns can influence new ideas for your sponsorship efforts and value you create. Read on to get started with three trends I see. Read more →

Sponsor logo clusters and other marketing problems

You know how some marathon t-shirts or nonprofit event emails or hard copy invitations have a big jumble of logos, most of which are so small you can’t even read them? Have you ever wondered whether this glob of logos is valuable? Read Gail Bower's response to Kivi Leroux Miller's "When Sponsor Promotion Consumes Your Communications Channels," who likens this display to a Times Square billboard. Read more →

What you can learn from Jay Z and Barney’s about choosing your partners

You may have heard about the sticky situation Jay Z found himself in just before the holidays. About to launch his line of branded merchandise, Jay Z’s retail partner Barney’s became embroiled in controversy, accused of racial profiling. According to reports, in separate incidents, police stopped and questioned two black customers who’d just purchased items at the luxury retailer and left the store. Barney’s conducted an investigation and found that no employees were involved in the police officers’ actions. Jay Z refused to back out of his deal with the retailer — though he gave himself an out pending the... Read more →

4 sources of sponsorship ideas

Many organizations view their corporate sponsorship programs as a static set of “benefits,” usually very low-level stuff, that they might update once a year. A better way to regard your corporate sponsorship program is as a renewable resource, a constant source of ideas, innovation, visibility and, ultimately, revenue. Four Sources for Sponsorship Innovation Four sources fuel your ability to innovate your sponsorship program. Current offerings. Your sponsorship opportunity — event, program, initiative, etc. — has inherent value and offerings presently, plus new easy-to-develop ideas you could offer now. Future offerings. Your organization has ideas for the future — ways that... Read more →

Test your sponsorship ideas

If you know me, even through my writing or attending a workshop or collaborating on a project, you know that I encourage (sometimes even provoke) people to think big. Corporate sponsorship is one of those marketing vehicles where thinking big is easy and the best way to go. The problem is most people don't. Here's a simple tool to help you test your ideas for bigness. Considering this simple Venn diagram, ask yourself how your ideas work to advance the goals or needs of each stakeholder on this diagram. What's the storyline for each stakeholder? Are your ideas exciting from... Read more →

Have a Great Event Idea?

You may have heard that I am looking for great ideas about events — event concepts, operational techniques, event components, marketing for events. What is the best idea you have for an event or how you operate an event that you can share? I'm presenting a webinar on May 30 for IFEA, the International Festival & Event Association, called 60 Ideas in 60 Minutes. Everyone who enters the contest will receive a copy of the PowerPoint. That means by sharing 1 idea, you'll receive 60 back. Pretty good ROI, right? The winner of the best idea will receive a webinar... Read more →