Category: Blog


How To Value Your Sponsorship Opportunity 23rd March, 2018

Value your sponsorship opportunity just right to ensure you’re not selling yourself short or scaring buyers away with an unrealistic valuation…

How do you value your sponsorship opportunity?

Rights holders often price their sponsorship packages based on how much funding they need, but they also need to pay close attention to the value that price offers to buyers.

The reason brands sponsor properties is because they believe the sponsorship will give them greater ROI than using their budget in a different way, such as buying traditional media display space. The price you set must reflect this calculation and offer better value than the many other ways a brand can spend their money.

These Dos and Don’ts that will help you set the right price for your sponsorship opportunity.

DO… Benchmark against competitors

Find out how much similar properties are charging (or have recently charged) for sponsorship to see how your pricing compares. You may be able to command a higher price than your competitors, but you’ll need to think about what you can offer that they can’t. Your buyer’s focus will be on ROI, so if you want them to invest more, they’ll want to see a greater return.

DON’T… Benchmark against properties that are in a different league to you

There’s a tendency to compare your property to the biggest and best rights holder in your given field. This will give you a false impression, unless you actually are in their league. Now is not a time for ego or kidding yourself that your property is bigger than it is. 

DO… Know the true value of what you’re offering

Work out how much reach and coverage a brand will receive by sponsoring your property, then compare this to the fee they would ordinarily have to spend to reach this number of people. This can be worked out by finding the average CPM (Cost Per Thousand) for the given platform.

DON’T… Forget to consider sponsor impact

You may have calculated the value of each asset a sponsor will get, but don’t forget to consider the impact they can expect and how this may be diluted if you have more than one sponsor. A brand’s logo may be included on the press board at your launch event, but if their logo is alongside nine others, their impact should be calculated at 10% of what it would be if there’s was the only logo. This can also help you decide how many sponsors you want. Will it be better to target 10 sponsors paying £100 or one sponsor paying £1,000?

DO… Offer tiered sponsorship packages

Not every brand and potential sponsor will have the budget to sponsor the whole property, so it’s a good idea to have cheaper packages available. If you can split your assets and target different types of sponsors for each asset, you can secure multiple sponsors who all feel like they’ve got exactly what they wanted from the deal.

DON’T… Allow brands to pick and choose what they want

Splitting the assets can work well, but make sure it’s on your terms. Allowing brands to cherry-pick from the sponsorship opportunity will create a lot of work for you and may leave you with assets that you struggle to find a sponsor for. A sponsorship package is not a supermarket.

DO… Count your competitors

When looking at your competitors to compare pricing, it’s also a good idea to make a note of how many of them there are. If you have a lot of competitors offering similar opportunities, your pricing will need to be extra competitive if you want to secure maximum interest from potential sponsors.

DON’T… Try to charge a sponsor the total media value

As we mentioned, the sponsorship package you are offering needs to represent greater value and ROI than the media the brand could buy for the same price. So if you calculate the media cost at £1 million, the sponsorship package should be valued lower than that.

 

Following these do’s and don’ts will help you value your sponsorship opportunity at a level that attracts sponsors without undervaluing your offering. If you’d like further help with this or any other sponsorship queries, feel free to get in touch and we’ll be happy to help.

Contact Slingshot Sponsorship
Find us on Twitter: @Slingshot_UK


Recognise the Value of Social Influencers for your Brand 18th January, 2017

Influencer endorsement is not a new concept, it has however taken on a completely new meaning since the emergence of social media.

A celebrity’s influence has become larger and far more valuable with the ability to personalise their endorsement of a brand. Through ‘organically’ integrating products into a social media post, followers become more susceptible to influence, and are more inclined to listen when it is in a celebrity’s own words.

Currently the most liked image on Instagram is a Coca Cola sponsored post from Selena Gomez, with 6.2 million likes and counting. When an influencer seems to genuinely like and use a product on social media it is arguably far more effective to a consumer than traditional advertising, even when that celebrity is featured. What Selena Gomez proves is that when ads are incorporated well, fans respond positively to the brand.

It is this fact that brands have come to recognise and is why paid social media posts are fast becoming celebrities most lucrative asset.

Sponsored content however, is not just for celebrities. Any ordinary social media user with enough followers can utilise their influence to make money from sponsored content.

Users with as few as 100K followers can make significant money from sponsored content, proving fame is not everything when developing a successful social media brand.

Many have found the secret to success is finding your niche and remaining consistent. Repetition is key to successful accounts. Followers respond when they know what to expect from an account and when you stray away from your niche, you lose followers.

Therefore, smaller accounts remain successful for brands to advertise through, as they value follower engagement over sheer number of followers. An account with 100 followers where all followers engage with posts can be worth more to an advertiser than one with 1000 followers where no-one engages.

You can’t make an impact with people who aren’t paying attention. Brands that recognise influential individuals and utilise their reach and personality well will see the results.


China, The Sleeping Giant 12th January, 2017

China, a country already with the world’s second largest economy, made a bold statement in 2015. President Xi Jinping announced a goal to create a domestic sports economy worth $850 billion by 2025, a plan that also involves winning the football World Cup by 2050.

This has commenced rapidly, with Chinese Super League clubs paying stars like Oscar and Carlos Tevez at a premium, £60 million and £71.6 million respectively. The effect is simple – bigger names bring more spectators, more commercial interest and greater global reach. As teams gain more exposure around the world due to the leagues increased profile, they become an even more attractive property to brands. This heightened market activity has a knock-on effect to sponsorship fees throughout the rest of the world, as these large rights holders are able to command higher fees, smaller clubs can ride the coat-tails and leverage more expensive properties to their own benefit.

Outside of their home league, Chinese brands have become progressively active as sporting event sponsors and investors, lured by the potential profits of associating their brands with a sport, team or athlete to access a new market. Chinese brands are shown in each of the major European leagues – AIA at Tottenham, 138.com at Watford and Rastar Group gracing the jersey of RCD Espanyol, to name a few.

The biggest example is Hisense, who became the first ever Chinese sponsor of the Euros when aligning with the 2016 competition. Although the official sponsorship fee has not been disclosed, Hisense is said to have invested a sum of 370 million yuan (roughly £43 million).

It is not just football that China is attracted to, but also rugby and basketball. The levels of investment being seen will lead to an effect that can be likened to sponsorship inflation, as activity from within China develops rights holders into even larger properties. Global sports sponsorship investment levels have continuously grown year on year by 4-5% since the late 2000’s and with the sports industry estimated to be worth $73.5 billion by 2019, not surprisingly the bulk of that money will come from China.

Contrastingly, Western brands now have a way to penetrate the largely untapped Chinese market. With significant increases in awareness and media value, gaining a foothold in China would be a lot of brands’ number one goal, however there hasn’t been a platform big enough to promote themselves effectively, until now. The huge audience means Western brands now have a solid foundation to build exposure and revenue in this massive economy, just like the Chinese brands are doing in European sporting markets.

The next few years are going to be a very interesting period for sports sponsorship in China. An already global sport like football is becoming accessible to far more people, allowing rights holders to generate more money for their assets. While some may say that the money in sports is already at a ridiculous level without China’s new-found interest, it is another way of increasing globalisation by providing a platform for China to integrate with the West and vice versa.


There’s No ‘I’ In Team 10th January, 2017

Athlete endorsements are not a new concept. Brands have been using household names to increase the sales of their products for hundreds of years. It adds credibility, differentiates from competitors and becomes synonymous with the athlete.

In recent years, athletes and personalities are generating enormous revenue from sponsorships that surpass their earnings from their respective professions. Sport, is of course, the stand out example here, but movie stars are not far away. In 2016, Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson is estimated to have earned more than $51 million from various endorsements. In sport, there is no bigger example than Cristiano Ronaldo who generated more than $250 million throughout 2016 from numerous deals, including; a lifetime deal with Nike and a host of other deals with brands such as Herbalife, Toyota, Armani, Tag Heuer, Castrol and Monster Headphones.

Celebrities are not just competing against each other for sponsors, they are competing against teams, in some circumstances, their own team. In 2016, Real Madrid amassed over $265 million in sponsorship revenue which is not a small amount. Compared to their star man, it is only $15m more.

The attractiveness of an individual is their engaged fans, who idolise them, some of which would purchase anything that their idol endorses. Teams, of course, have these fans but they are potentially less engaged. With stars becoming bigger than the teams they are in, teams need to become more creative with their assets and increase their offering to a potential sponsor.

What a team does have that an individual cannot offer are larger media platforms, which include branding within stadium for matches, stadium naming rights, and kit sponsorship. This provides a tangible link to the team and is where the majority of value stems from in sponsorship. However, with the increase in recent years of Social Media, athletes are catching up with the teams and in some circumstances surpassing them. Real Madrid’s Twitter followers are 6.7 million, Cristiano Ronaldo’s is 49.3 million!

The team does however, have access to not just one athlete, but an entire team of athletes. It is standard in most contracts for players to commit to sponsor activations such as player appearances, image rights to use in sponsor campaigns and even the use of their social media. This eclipses the offering one player can offer a sponsor. Team sponsorship will offer larger awareness. In addition, teams can also offer direct fan engagement, not just through media channels. Utilising stadium assets such as activation areas and hospitality for B2B engagement.

Barcelona’s partnership with tyre manufacturer Lassa is a perfect example. Through its sponsorship of Barcelona, Lassa leveraged player access and created an entire advertising campaign featuring Arda Turan, Gerard Pique, Neymar and Luis Suarez. Through this they now have multiple athlete endorsers, not just one.

Although the teams have a greater pool of assets to offer a sponsor, it is crucial they offer creative and ROI driven activations for a sponsor. If not, these individuals could even start poaching sponsors from under their nose.


How Virtual Reality Could Boost Sponsorship Sales 16th March, 2017

Virtual Reality use is set to treble by 2020 in the property sales industry, so how can it be used in sponsorship sales?

Much has been said about how Virtual Reality (VR) is changing the game for brands, enabling marketers to truly let consumers inside their brand story. The technology is in high demand across all industries, with many recent sport-related case studies allowing for first hand experiences, providing new and exciting ways for brands to engage with their desired audience. However, less has been spoken about how sponsorship sales professionals can potentially use VR to their advantage.

Take the property market, VR is growing considerably in popularity as a way of marketing – and in the prime London market, where investors often rather inconveniently live thousands of miles away from the properties they want to view, it can be a very handy tool. The use of VR in property is already a $1bn industry globally, and Goldman Sachs estimate that is set to treble by 2020. Not to confuse sponsorship sales professionals with estate agents, but there is scope to learn from how VR is being used to good effect in their industry.

A sponsorship sale is often a longer process than many other business purchases, generally due to sponsorship impacting on multiple teams within in a brand, meaning considerably more internal discussions take place before a deal is confirmed. Therefore, sponsorship sales professionals are constantly looking for ways to minimise the obstacles during the process, and VR, if used correctly, could well eliminate several of these:

Walking sponsors through an event

Allowing potential buyers to really understand the essence of an event without physically being there is an art that sponsorship sales professionals have been trying to master in boardrooms for years through tone of voice, photos, and videos in presentations, and there is no doubt that many potential sales have broken down as a result of opportunities not being communicated effectively to brand managers. VR could well hold the key here and be the perfect tool to overcome this.

Helping sponsors gain clarity on what’s being offered

A common scenario and potentially one of the most frustrating responses for any sponsorship sales professional is the decision by a brand to hold off until they have assessed the opportunity ‘in the flesh’. This can be a genuine declaration of interest, although can also be used as a ‘fob off’ from a brand manager who is too polite to say no or loves a freebie. With the introduction of VR into the sales process, brands could gain clarity about the opportunity and sponsorship sales professionals could gain clarity simultaneously around whether the proposition is truly viable for the brand, thus speeding up the sales process.

Impact in the boardroom

A key attribute of a good sponsorship sales professional is the ability to constantly come up with creative brand activations and communicate them effectively. Use of VR in these situations also has the capability to further enhance the impact of these concepts and really help bring a potential brand partnership to life.

VR in the boardroom is something that may not sit well with some, but in our increasingly tech dominated world its occurrence will surely increase, and if used effectively in sales pitches, it could well soon become the most vital tool for a sponsorship sales professional.


Minimal Investment, Maximum Impact 20th December, 2016

There are certain features we expect from any sponsorship deal involving a major international brand. Usually this involves months of strategic planning, a slick marketing roll out and accompanying integration and activation to help bring it to life.

This only comes after complex back and forth negotiations over contract signings to ensure that each party involved will receive what they desire; normally exposure for the brand and income for the rights holder.

However, this week a sponsorship deal was announced that seemed more like a playful idea than a well thought out plan, but that doesn’t seem to have lessened its impact.

The sponsorship link up is between Diageo owned alcohol brand Captain Morgan and Leicester City Football Club captain Wes Morgan. What makes this work essentially starts and ends with the respective names; both are Captain Morgan. Given that any Premier League footballer needs to have an excellent level of fitness it is unlikely he very often drinks alcohol, so he is not your typical brand ambassador.

The main driver of the deal was seemingly to create an instant impact online and in the press. In essence, the deal signing itself was the strategy and activation. In order to ensure maximum coverage the funny and unusual terms of the contract were released, including Captain Wes Morgan having the entitlement to “enter any licensed premises and buy every patron a Morgan and Coke” but only after starting a chant of “there’s only one Captain Morgan.” He is also required to dress up as Captain Morgan “should the opportunity arise.”

The deal was announced through a twitter photo instead of an official roll out, with Wes Morgan tweeting his signing of the contract directly to his followers and allowing them to see the terms for themselves.

The unusual terms meant it gained instant traction online and in the press, being picked up by national newspapers and international sports websites as well as being widely shared on social media.

The traditional marketing campaigner may see this as an unthoughtful approach, but this kind of guerrilla marketing, especially in the run up to Christmas, is an innovative and effective way to reach a large audience with minimal financial investment and maximum impact.  Fewer employee hours, minimal activation costs and no paid for press coverage mean the return on investment is likely to be more favourable than an expensive traditional media campaign.

This is not an indication that more strategic and considered sponsorship tactics are becoming any less effective, more an indicator that there is more than one way of making an impact, and in this instance it seems ideal.


Sponsorship DIY 16th December, 2016

‘You need money to make money’ is a common term people refer to when encountering financial obstacles and rights holders constantly face challenges when it comes to taking their projects to the next level.

Most entrepreneurial projects start off as a one-man band or in some cases they might have a small team in place, but nevertheless the amount of effort to get projects of any size off the ground is not for the faint hearted, requiring a substantial amount of time and expertise. Rights holders are now realising the importance of sponsorship not only from a financial standpoint but they are beginning to realise that brand integration can make significant improvements to their holistic business model – ultimately saving them time and money.

Yet, with sponsorship so important to rights holders – sponsorship professionals now understand their worth and as such, large fees are associated with such specialist agencies. Therefore, obtaining the money to hire their services can often be very hard to come by, making the journey from zero to hero a daunting prospect.

However, the solution is simple; identifying alternative services that allow you to function like a specialist agency might be the worthiest investment any entrepreneur can make. Enhancing your knowledge from a fundamental level in the field you operate can ultimately acts as the foundation to your success.

At Slingshot, we don’t just work with global properties but all businesses with the ambition of propelling every client we work with to the next level. For those unable to justify larger investments into agency support, we conduct commercial training sessions that have been designed to give people an insight into the step-by-step process we go through with our global clients, providing you with all the knowledge and skills to go out and secure long-term sponsorship for your own organisation.

Performing like a trained sponsorship expert will result in you developing the right propositions, having the right conversations with the right brands resulting in you building long-lasting relationships with sponsors whilst driving year on year revenue. Don’t just hire specialists, become one.

If you’d like to hear more about the commercial training sessions we run at our headquarters in London, please contact Liam Ward at [email protected].

To book onto the course, simply follow the link provided.


Extreme Tech Challenge 2017 Introduces New China Vertical — Thanks to Sponsors iTutorGroup 9th December, 2016

XTC 2017 and iTutorGroup team up to invite China’s brightest female entrepreneurs to join the race to Sir Richard Branson’s Necker Island

Beijing, CN – Extreme Tech Challenge (XTC) and iTutorGroup join forces in a deal brokered by Slingshot Sponsorship, to create—for the first time ever—the China Vertical category, inviting inspiring female innovators around China to share their ventures with the entrepreneurial community. Now in its third year, XTC pits the most brilliant minds of the entrepreneurial world against one another, catapulting one champion to the top. XTC 2017 draws finalists from across the globe, representing nearly every sector of the tech world from virtual reality to blockchain. Fresh off the unveiling of the Top 25 finalists, this year’s competitors are one step closer to the finals, hailing from London’s Canaria to Tel Aviv’s Intezer Lab and soon: China.

Founding partner and primary sponsor of Extreme Tech Challenge, iTutorGroup, has helped the annual challenge spread its roots deep into the heart of China and beyond. The online-education-based company deploys real-time interactive personalized learning sessions in countless subject matters to connect upwards more than 10,000 teachers, across 80 countries through millions of classes each year. Utilizing a wealth of platforms- vipabc, vipabc junior, TutorABC, TutorABCJr, TutorMing and LiveH2H, iTutorGroup grants students around the world access to invaluable learning opportunities live. Since its inception in 1998, their breakthroughs pushed language learning beyond the confines of the physical classroom, defying physical distance, to provide widespread access to foreign languages and other subjects. Creators of the first commercially available synchronous learning portal, it was only a matter of time until iTutorGroup turned their innate desire for innovation into a thriving partnership with Extreme Tech Challenge.

Reflecting on the strives iTutorGroup has made alongside XTC and what lies ahead for China’s most luminous female entrepreneurs, Dr. Eric Yang extols:

“We are truly excited to be part of Extreme Tech Challenge and support female entrepreneurs in China and around the world. Ever since we started our company, entrepreneurial and innovative spirit has been part of our DNA. We always encourage our employees to think outside of the box and start with new initiatives that will bring our company as well as industry forward. Our focus on innovation has enabled us to grow into a global company with offices in Silicon Valley, Shanghai, Tokyo and Taipei, which allows us to impact customers in more than 20 countries every day. Nevertheless, to achieve a lasting change, we need support of many entrepreneurs and innovators which is why we are so happy to be part of this contest and support young female entrepreneurs”, said Dr. Eric Yang, Co-founder and CEO of iTutorGroup and VIPABC.

The invaluable partnership resulted in the creation of the 2016 Women’s Entrepreneur Pitch Contest, which took place in Beijing on November 18, 2016. The Top Five Finalists are Next Dress, Patsnap, Merak, Hosbby and BestSign — Congratulations! A select judge will crown only one winner from the pool of five pioneering candidates. The top-prize winner will be invited to attend the illustrious XTC 2017 Finals on Sir Richard Branson’s Necker Island with the opportunity to pitch their winning concept during the final round on February 2, 2017, to a panel of esteemed judges including iTutorGroup’s Chief Operating Officer Jerry Huang.

Extreme Tech Challenge will be unveiling the Top 10 candidates moving forward in the competition Saturday, December 3rd, 2016 at MaiTai Global’s annual Ocean Gala. An event to raise awareness for conservation and protection of the world’s ocean and its wildlife, the Ocean Gala is an integral stop on the race to Necker Island.

Stay Connected:
iTutorGroup: Website | Facebook | Twitter
XTC: Website | Facebook | Twitter

About iTutorGroup
iTutorGroup is the global leader in online education providing individualized, personalized learning experiences to hundreds of thousands of students and business professionals in countless subject matters through its network and sourcing of experts and teachers in thousands of centers, institutions and cities around the world. We do this by leveraging big data analytics and utilizing advanced algorithmic matching between students, classmates, teaching consultants and digital content. Since its inception in 1998, iTutorGroup has become the largest online platform driving live human-to-human interactions worldwide. iTutorGroup leads the revolution of education and live interaction with its human-to-human platform and service model. With iTutorGroup, anybody can learn anything from any device, anytime, 24-7.

About Extreme Tech Challenge / MaiTai Global
The Extreme Tech Challenge is the world’s largest startup competition. It is a contest designed to identify emerging leaders that have the potential to dominate their markets and reward them with greatly enhanced visibility, infrastructure and resources to scale quickly at low cost. Ten world class startups will be selected as semi-finalists to present live on stage at CES with 3 finalists presenting to a panel of all-star judges including Sir Richard Branson, Tom Siebel, Theresia Gouw, Jim Breyer and Steph Hannon on Necker Island. Winners will receive resources to amplify their success and scale their companies.

XTC is presented by MaiTai Global, a vanguard collective of the world’s leading entrepreneurs, creators, and athletes. Participants combine their energy, network and resources to help each other achieve professional success, pushing the limits of work and play while also fueling philanthropic activities around the world.


Don’t Fast-Forward Through Your TV Budgets 8th December, 2016

Speaking as someone who has transitioned from the sale of television advertising into the sale of sponsorships I believe that traditional television advertising is utterly overrated. I have spent years booking ad campaigns for well-known global brands who are desperately focused on ensuring that their thirty second ad is run at the precise time they booked it into. Even though that is virtually impossible to guarantee, given the ever-changing nature of live television, brands never fail to be shocked that an ad booked in at one time may move.

 

When I sit down to watch a television programme one thing I’m not paying attention to are the ads. According to data from Alphonso I’m not alone, with a little under half the population skipping ads. What does catch my eye however are the brands who are clever enough to integrate within a programme. Taking the time to asses an opportunity to integrate a product or brand into a television show is proven to be more successful when done correctly. Viewers appreciate brands who choose to support their favourite shows and will remember these brands each time they watch.

 

Many brands become put off by big scary price tags associated with sponsoring a television programme, however when you consider the engagement levels with integrated brands over the ones who are simply ignored or fast forwarded through during ad breaks, there really is no argument. I can’t tell you who’s ad ran 4th in break 3, but I can tell you the brand that took the time to relate to their audience by integrating within the programme. Brands who are still nit picking over which ad break their 15 second TVC falls into, must realise it’s time to wake up and understand the reason they want it to run first, in the back of their minds they surely realise no one is watching it anyway.

 

The limits with television sponsorship really do not exist. A successful television sponsorship becomes synonymous with your favourite show. They can also be used to drive a response from the viewers. Creating brand engagement is easy when you can influence the content of a programme as a sponsor. Sponsors provide a programme with the ability to be bigger, whether it be through sponsored segments outside of regular programme budgets, provision of prizes or even just product placement. This reflects positively on the sponsor, suddenly the prize provided to contestants of a reality show becomes something viewers at home want for themselves. This not only makes the brand desirable in viewer’s eyes but also memorable.

 

Brands who take the time to invest in a sponsorship at the end of the day see their efforts reflected in sales. Even though it may be a risk at the outset it is proven that sponsorships work and are effective when executed properly. Avoid being skipped, sponsor a programme, and secure your engagement among viewers.

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