Latest Thinking from IEG

Sponsorship Means Never Having to Say You’re Sorry
Despite the fact—or perhaps because—it’s one of the chickier chick flicks out there, Love Story is among my movie favorites. So it did not surprise me when the most famous line (“love means never having to say you’re sorry”) in its Oscar-nominated script flashed across my mind’s ear the other day.  It did surprise me when it came to me in a sponsorship context. I was in Kansas City, where I had the pleasure of participating in the Missouri Assn. of Convention & Visitor Bureaus (MACVB) Annual Meeting. One of my fellow presenters was Doug Price from DMAI (Destination Marketing Assn. Int’l), who spoke about trends and the future of destination marketing. Toward the end of his talk, Doug mentioned the advocacy efforts undertaken by the Seattle CVB and other cities (Indianapolis, etc.) to make the case for tourism—not just to prospective tourists, but specifically to local residents. I checked it out, and I found Seattle’s “Why Tourism Matters” campaign (www.whytourismmatters.org) to be an aspirational model for the case organizations need to make in support of—rather than in defense of—their marketing efforts.

More >

Filed under: cause marketing, destination/tourism, nonprofit, associations

Cause Marketing Is Not Good for Society! Really?
“Consumption philanthropy is not about change, but about business as usual,” writes Angela M. Eikenberry in her article “The Hidden Costs of Cause Marketing” published in the current edition of the Stanford Social Innovative Review. (You can find the full article here.) The article suggests that the reality of cause marketing—which Eikenberry refers to as “consumption philanthropy”—whereby a certain percentage of a particular product purchase goes to a cause or charity, does not affect social change. In fact, it goes so far as to say that cause marketing does more harm than good. While I most certainly agree that every person in this society should and could do more to truly affect social change, and that every corporation should and could do more to be truly socially responsible, I think it would be a huge mistake to completely dismiss cause marketing.

More >

Filed under: nonprofit, cause marketing

When a Nonprofit Board Member Is Also a Prospect for a New Sponsorship Program
In my work here at IEG, I get directly involved with many nonprofits, such as associations and museums, as they launch new sponsorship programs. One interesting challenge that has developed in several instances is how a nonprofit should go about working with a board member who will be involved in approving the launch of a new program, but whose company also is a good prospect for sponsorship. Sound familiar? Typically, the information you would provide board members involved in the approval process of a new sponsorship program is much different than the information you would present to prospects for buying the sponsorship. It’s not that there should be any secrets kept from potential sponsors—as transparent selling is needed now more than ever—but they are certainly two different conversations.

More >

Filed under: cause marketing, nonprofit, associations

What Are Consumers Telling Us?
Those of you who subscribe to IEG Sponsorship Report have seen the March 30 issue’s In Depth article, which takes a look at the Performance Research consumer study I mentioned in a blog post last week.

More >

Filed under: cause marketing, entertainment, nonprofit, research, sports, arts

Insights from Willie Cone, Executive Producer & Senior Consultant, Event Marketing & Promotions
Industry veteran Willie Cone shared some great sales tips for nonprofits in his presentation Cause Marketing Partnerships: The Real Deal.

More >

Filed under: how to get sponsorship, IEG conference, nonprofit, selling, strategic philanthropy, cause marketing

Tuesday Session Recap from the 2009 IEG Sponsorship Conference
Something that many Americans like to do first thing in the morning is get a jolt of the latest headlines. Therefore, it was a sense of irony the first session of Tuesday’s IEG Sponsorship Conference dealt with media sponsorships.

More >

Filed under: cause marketing, digital media, evaluation, how to get sponsorship, IEG conference, media sponsorship, new media, nonprofit, olympics, sponsorship measurement, sponsorship ROI, sports, Canada

Insights from Tom Dewar, JA Worldwide
What does the Ronco Veg-O-Matic have to do with sponsorship?

More >

Filed under: how to get sponsorship, IEG conference, nonprofit, packaging, selling, cause marketing

Pre-Conference
Given that it was a six hour session, it should come as no surprise there was a lot of ground covered in the session that IEG’s Rebecca Joslin and Diane Knoepke led for a group anxious to get their feet wet on what is going in the sponsorship world. It was interesting way to start the IEG 2009 Conference. Rebecca Joslin and Diane Knoepke took participants a litany of bullet points of what companies are looking for in this brutal economic era.

More >

Filed under: how to get sponsorship, IEG conference, nonprofit, selling, cause marketing