Sponsorship Activation – The Holy Grail of Marketing Sponsorships

I recently attended the two day Western Sponsorship Congress in Calgary as part of  CF Marketing Group’s sponsorship program. The two days were jam packed with presentations from local, regional and national properties and sponsors.

The presentations were remarkably consistent in the key messages delivered.  The sponsorship landscape is rapidly changing with significant implications for both sponsors and properties. Some of the highlights from the conference include:

• The investment in marketing sponsorships continues to grow reaching $1.43 billion in Canada in 2009 – real growth of nearly 3% from the previous year.
• The sponsorship game has changed – logo recognition and standard sponsorship packages are not sufficient.  Sponsors are looking for measurable ROI, customer engagement and partnerships.
• Investment in sponsorship activation will soon equal and likely surpass rights fees.  Since 2006, activation spending has increased by 85%, reaching $0.76 for every dollar of right fees investment.
• Allocation of marketing budgets to sponsorship has reached 16% vs. 5% ten years ago.
• Sports sponsorships continue to dominant with over 50% of sponsorship budgets being allocated to these.  However, fastest growth areas include festivals, fairs and events.
• A minimum 25% of sponsors don’t have a way to the ROI obtained from their sponsorship investments.  This figure is probably low and is likely an area of increased focus for sponsors.

So what does this mean for sponsors and organizations offering sponsorship opportunities?

Engagement of the audience has become the over riding objective of sponsors.  Just being there isn’t good enough.  Assuming a good fit, motivating the target audience to respond is paramount.  As a result, I see three key criteria a successful activation program needs to address:

1.       Get noticed.  Breaking through the clutter is critical but not always easy.  Consumers are bombarded with marketing messages and are very good at ignoring the bland, the ordinary or the uninteresting.

2.       Be engaging.   Being noticed isn’t sufficient.  Sponsors need to grab the attention of their target audience to engage them through interactive vehicles.  Research suggests that engaging the consumer between 2 – 5 minutes dramatically improves the success of a sponsorship activation program.

3.       Be measurable.  Clearly if ROI is important, it is important to include response measurements to gauge the success of a sponsorship program.

Do your sponsorship activation programs incorporate elements to address all three?  If not, it might be time to reexamine how you are leveraging the investment being made to determine what can be done differently or improved upon to get the desired results from your activation efforts.

CF Marketing Group delivers promotional messages through the use of unique, innovative products to increase the stickiness of your promotional messages for marketing contests, events or sponsorship activation programs.  Stickiness means your promotion will be noticed, have interactive elements and deliver measurable results.  To find out more watch our short video at www.cfmarketinginc.com.  Or call me at 403.452.2699 to discuss some ideas on how we can help.