Steal These Rules and Tools: TED Provides Guidelines for Affiliate Sponsorships
Posted: 9/1/2010 8:50:42 AM by
Diane Knoepke | with 0 comments
In its characteristically simple and get-to-the-point way, TED has created a springy little jumping-off point for any property that has a need or want to provide sponsorship guidelines to affiliate events or properties. Every single week I talk to organizations trying to reconcile the sponsorship priorities of a “big” or “core” property with the activities of satellite or component properties.
Examples of affiliates include but are definitely not limited to:
- Local or regional chapters
- Sub-specialty organizations (example: an affiliated group that has a narrow focus that fits within a broader organization, such as a specialized professional organization or a minority caucus)
- Third-party groups (example: a local school or fraternal organization planning activities for/around a property)
- Auxiliary groups (examples: a young associates board, a players’ wives’ organization)
- Single locations under an umbrella (examples: a shopping mall operating under a regional or national brand, a team within a league, an event within a series)
TED, like many “big” properties, wants to make sure that its standards carry through to anything that has its name on it. So, for the TEDx licensee events, these standards range from admission fees and content planning to evaluation methods and event format. And they include sponsorship as well.
Rules
TED protects itself, and its licensees, by providing Rules for sponsorships that cover many of the make-or-break issues that keep “big” property reps popping antacids. I encourage you to click the link above and check out the full list. I especially like their inclusion of an approval process, unacceptable sponsor categories and characteristics (i.e., greenwashers), editorial control, branding (TEDx, not TED) and reporting procedures.
The establishment of a “maximum contribution amount” would not be something I would typically endorse, but given the non-commercial aims of the TED movement, I see why they have put these guidelines in place. They are also straddling marketing and philanthropic lines with these relationships, so that makes further sense. I have a slight quibble with two items: (a) that vendors should be paid directly by sponsors and (b) that it’s easiest to have one sponsor, rather than multiple sponsors. Again, I see their angle on these two items, yet (a) assumes a cost-based sponsorship payment, and I would rather see a trusted property act as clearinghouse even in that case. And as for (b), I agree in theory, and yet you know what they say about eggs and baskets. Even a small event should have a little diversity in the sponsor roster, for its own sustainability and to ensure it doesn’t appear 100% beholden to one company.
Tools
Just as medicine needs a spoonful of sugar to go down, rules need a heaping helping of tools to make them worth following. While the What you can (and can’t) offer seems like more rules, it is better positioned as a sketch of appropriate sponsorship benefits and those activities to avoid to keep your promise to your audience. This brief list is in fact a richer sponsor package than many of the [not-even-glorified] signage buys that still masquerade as event sponsorships all over the world.
In addition to packaging, TED offers sales tools in the form of a sample presentation, sample letter and starter list of sponsor targets. The letter needs to go further by including some selling points and statistics about the audience, and it carries that ask/underwriter tone (vs. a sales/marketing one), but it’s a decent start. I have not seen the deck yet (sent a request yesterday), but if I do get my hands on it, I’ll update the post with my take.
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Filed under: cause marketing, events, guidelines, local, sports, associations