The most traditional and trustable marketing strategy is the sponsorship. It’s been around for decades, with sponsoring an event or team immediately unlocking exposure to large groups of people and even earning goodwill for the brand. Sponsorships boomed in 2011 and grew to $3.4 billion over the following years. With the advent of the internet, which offers more opportunities for patrons to connect with teams and event organizers, sponsorships have become even more widespread.
How to be a sponsor
The most basic way to look at sponsorship is that you, as the business, are offering to fund all of or a section of an event or team’s expenses in exchange for brand exposure and association. Due to this form of marketing being so widespread, you won’t find it difficult to encounter a group looking for a sponsor. Just about anyone who’s looking to run a successful event or organization will be on the lookout for a sponsor as it’s a clear-cut way to fund the venture even before it gets going. You need to market your company to potential sponsors.
You need to see beyond just the marketing element of your logo on pens and shirts. Sponsorships are investments if done right. The key is that sponsorships are best thought of as business-to-business applications as you’re looking to see how marketing with this other entity will help them as well as promote your business. You can then look at what potential customers are most interested in and build from your assistance to an event or club toward the real target audience for your sponsorship agreement.
Sponsorship is possible in many ways. You can sponsor online by partnering with influential people, posting sponsored content on a blog or reviewing products online. In the physical space, you can offer hosting services, cash and prize donations, fund aspects without charge, run educational or informative programs, and go with traditional sponsorship plans – such as banners, tote bags, and other branded additions. Red Bull’s sponsorship campaigns are a fine example. Red Bull was not always well-known, but they would often sponsor VIP events and give out complimentary drinks. Red Bull became well-known for its sponsorship of extreme sports and other epic stunts.
Promotion of your Business
If you’re a new start-up business, the kinds of sponsorship deals that you’re used to seeing around are likely out of reach. Most of the sponsorships that you’ll be familiar with almost certainly pertain to sports teams. Because of their huge exposure, sponsors have a lot to offer. This includes drinks at interviews and sponsorships for stadium names or kit suppliers. Many businesses that sponsor sports events and teams often support multiple sponsors. The casino online is West Ham United’s official sponsor in soccer and the Cheltenham Festival horse racing. Ninjas In Pyjamas also supports eSports. A key point shown here is that, even though it’s an Omni-gambling platform, even the unrelated section of casino games still showcases the brand’s sponsorship of these sports teams, proving the power of association.
It’s big business and a huge part of the multi-billion industry. As you can clearly see on the home kits for Chelsea, Three and Hyundai sponsor the reigning Champions League winners, with those deals costing a combined £50 million ($68 million) per season. The brand exposure and associations make these deals worthwhile, even at such high prices. To increase brand awareness, small companies may consider sponsorship deals. Although sponsorship deals for the multimillion-dollar Premier League may not be possible, it is worth sponsoring your local team or club. As shown with the sponsors above, you don’t even need to be sports-relevant to find value in a sports sponsorship. This route has additional benefits such as making an impact on sports fans, showing your business values, and expanding your reach in the local community. There are also many sports events throughout the year. These include amateur 5-a-side soccer tournaments and local flag football finals.
Sports teams are more likely to settle their sponsorship deals for the current season, or for a couple of seasons in the future. If you are looking for sponsorship opportunities in the near future then public, corporate, and charity events may be the best options. These events can be sponsored in a variety of ways, including sponsoring all or part of the event. This will increase brand awareness, customer perception, help you build business relationships, gain insight from your target audience, and help to improve brand visibility. To make the most of your presence as an event sponsor, you don’t want to go over the top with your advertising presence, but offering tote bags and freebies is always a good way to win favor with passersby and especially those intrigued by your brand.
There’s a lot that you can gain from being a sponsor, especially if it’s in sporting circles, and there are always people, clubs, and organizers who are on the lookout for a business that wants to exchange funding for marketing.
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