Activation
Lighting The Fire: Getting Sponsors To Activate
Properties find success by offering relevant activation ideas and examples of successful programs from other sponsors.
5/24/10: Chuck O’Connor, director of corporate partnerships for Traverse City, Mich.’s National Cherry Festival presented by Verizon, is not alone among sponsorship sellers and servicers when he expresses a level of frustration.
“I’m often envious when I hear about big activation programs. We have a big event but we work with a lot of regional companies that don’t understand activation.”
As experienced rightsholders know, activation is the key to success of sponsorships. In general, better leveraged deals earn better return on objectives and investment, which in turn plays a major role in the partnership being renewed.
“If a sponsor is not planning on activating, then they can’t depend on the outcome being a success; sponsorship is the medium and activation is the message,” said Bruce Erley, president of Creative Strategies Group, a sponsorship sales agency.
While larger and more experienced sponsors typically are well aware of activation’s importance, it is often another story for properties who must work with smaller companies and those newer to sponsorship.
Compounding the problem for properties over the last couple of years: economy-driven budget and staff reductions that in many cases curbed sponsors’ appetite for leveraging, with many doing all they could just to maintain spending on the sponsorship fee itself.
IEG SR recently asked numerous rightsholders—with a focus on those that work with local and regional sponsors—how they convince, persuade, cajole or otherwise get sponsors to activate. Below, eight ideas that have worked:
Proactively discuss and suggest activation ideas. Properties should offer as many tailored leveraging suggestions as possible to prompt sponsor activation conversations and actions.
Properties should start brainstorming ideas prior to making the first pitch to a prospect, a strategy that often can grab the attention of a potential partner and sets expectations for activation.
“We spend a lot of time developing activation ideas for sponsors at the proposal phase,” Erley said. “Creative activation ideas are far more important than ‘you get this many ads and your banner goes here.’”
Provide activation platforms that deliver clear audience benefits. When brainstorming activation programs, properties should develop ideas that help sponsors enhance the attendee experience and reinforce that activation that is relevant to the audience is most likely to earn the sponsor credit and loyalty.
That was a strategy O’Connor recently used when pitching an insurance/financial planning company a presenting sponsorship of the National Cherry Festival’s global wine pavilion.
In addition to highlighting the pavilion’s more affluent—and thus more targeted—audience compared to attendees of the overall festival, O’Conner suggested the company use the wine pavilion to entertain clients and prospects at a fireworks show during the festival’s closing night. The pavilion closes to other ticket holders at 10 p.m., while the fireworks show goes to 11 p.m.
“They loved it,” O’Connor said. “Their clients can stay at the pavilion, watch the show and be treated to food and wine. If we can enhance the patron’s experience, we all win.”
Make programs organic and relevant. In addition to enhancing the attendee experience, activation ideas that fit seamlessly and organically into the overall event experience have a better chance of being embraced by sponsors.
Creative Strategies Group uses the following criteria when developing activation ideas: Programs need to be relevant to the event and attendees; they should include an interactive element to gain the attention of attendees; and they should have a ‘wow’ factor to generate interest.
“If we have at least two of those criteria, we have developed a good activation program,” Erley said.
Offer sponsor testimonials. Seattle’s Seafair uses sponsor testimonials to encourage activation.
“Great testimonials and examples of successful activation programs from existing sponsors are a great way to inspire partners to activate,” said Heather Smith, the festival’s interim sponsorship & promotions director.
Provide examples from competitors. Brett Gorrell, vice president of sponsorship with event producer Festivals, Inc., encourages partners to activate by sharing case studies of activation programs by companies in the same category.
That includes examples from other properties and—in non-exclusive categories—plans that competing sponsors have for upcoming programs at the same event.
“It’s a bad situation if one of your competitors is there and you are not activating,” Gorrell said. “I try to draw attention to that beforehand so that they don’t sponsor the event and feel like they have lost.”
Festivals, Inc. produces the Comcast Bite of Seattle, EQC Taste of Tacoma, Oktoberfest NW and other events in the Pacific Northwest.
Offer activation credits. Under certain circumstances, Howard Freeman, president of event producer Promo 1, offers activation credits to sponsors that don’t have a budget for leveraging.
For example, Freeman will reduce the rights fee 10 percent for a company that helps secure another sponsor, with the provision that the savings be used to activate the partnership.
“We’ve give them a menu of items to activate the partnership, such as additional tickets, more advertising and unique hospitality experiences,” he said.
Promo 1 has used the strategy with a health insurance company, which brought in a sibling auto insurance brand as a sponsor, Freeman said.
Promo 1 produces the Quick Chek New Jersey Festival of Ballooning in association with PNC among other events.
Serve as a de facto promotions agency. Recognizing that the profit in sponsorship is in renewals, Promo 1 will serve as a quasi-promotions agency to ensure sponsors conduct the necessary activation to generate ROI.
“We’ll do some hand-holding and act as a promotions agency in year one,” Freeman said. “It’s in our best interest to help them get a good return so that they come back bigger and better in the following years.”
That sometimes means lowering prices. For example, Promo 1 has reduced the price of some sponsorship packages to free up dollars for an incremental media spend. The producer than works with its media partner to ensure the sponsor receives a valuable package.
“We’ll hook them up with a radio station we work with so they get twice the bang for their buck, instead of just buying spots and dots.”
Host sponsor summits. Properties can use sponsor summits to show activation-reluctant partners what other sponsors are doing and the success they are achieving.
“It’s better to hear it directly from colleagues and peers and to have them give an endorsement of the event and the sponsorship” rather than just receiving examples from the property, Freeman said.
Properties also can use summits to facilitate sponsor cross-promotions, an effort that can often be more effective and less expensive than sponsors activating on their own.
Sources
Festivals, Inc., Tel: 425/295-3262
National Cherry Festival, Tel: 231/947-4230
Promo 1, Tel: 973/882-8240
Seafair, Tel: 206/728-0123
Creative Strategies Group, Tel: 303/469-7500