Tag: Sponsorship strategy

Email in Motion 14th September, 2010

Usually the last person picked for school teams, I jumped at the opportunity when asked to join the Pure360 team for their upcoming Scally Rally. Perhaps it was because of my experience of driving on the other side of the road or my love of road trip snacks, either way, I have made the cut!

The team includes email marketing specialists from Pure360 along with their partners and friends, myself included With a range of specialities in email, search and social media from product development and commercial management, you can be sure that the top email tips that we share will be worth following. Not to mention keeping informed on who crashes the car first!

Our race through Europe starts in Calais, France and ends in Rimini, Italy. Throughout those four days (based on the car not breaking down), the whole team will be sharing email marketing tips along the way through videos, blogs and tweets. We will be spreading the word of email marketing across Europe, so be sure to follow our adventure.

The Pure360 Scally Rally Team is also raising money for a group of charities including Barnardo’s, The British Heart Foundation, The Woodlands Trust and many others. We would love to swap your sterling for email tips – donations can be made here.

To find more information on the Pure360 Scally Rally team, their drivers, the route, or the charities, as well as following us on our blog, please check out: http://www.pure360emailmarketing.co.uk/scallyrally

Need Sponsorship? Our top tips will show you how! part II 13th September, 2010

Our last blog gave you some tips for sponsorship seekers and here are some more for you to take away with you!

Tip: Internal buy-in is key

There is only so much one individual can do to make the sponsor feel like a partner. It is imperative that the whole organisation recognises and realises the benefit of sponsorship for the organisation and doesn’t look at it as a hassle or more work. If you cannot get your team to work with you and your sponsor, you will be unable to provide one of the core objectives of the sponsorship – mutual benefits through partnership activity.

Tip: Look beyond logo placement

Sponsorship is about engaging an audience and creating a meaningful experience. By understanding the sponsor’s objectives you can work together to create this. I cannot stress this enough, sponsorship is not about putting your sponsors logo on your marketing. It needs to go beyond logo placement to create brand engagement and touchpoints with the audience so the partnership resonates. Only then will sponsorship be successful.

Tip: Understand your prospects

Tailored sponsorship proposals are the only option when you are looking to generate significant sponsorship funding. Understanding your prospect’s business and budget timelines is key to building these relationships. With so much information available, there should be no excuses for not doing your homework and really finding the value underlying the proposition.

Tip: Account management

Account management is the key to a successful and sustainable sponsor relationship. Ideally, you should be looking to have long-term sponsors who continually fund your sponsorship proposals because they find value in their relationship and they enjoy the positive working relationship you provide. Making your sponsor feel like a partner by involving them in every step of the way will enable stronger engagement by them with you and your sponsorship platform.

Tip: Get help

Sponsorship can be very complex and it is simply not about asking for funding because you have a great proposition. When done properly, it will not only help to fund your activities, but will also create a meaningful relationship between your organisation, your sponsors and your audience – significantly adding value to your whole business. Information on how to create sponsorship proposals or information on how to create sponsorship opportunities can be found online, through forums, blogs, and books. Specialist sponsorship agencies like Slingshot Sponsorship can also provide training and consulting to help integrate a successful sponsorship department into your organisation.

Jackie Fast Launches Slingshot Sponsorship 7th September, 2010

Specialist sponsorship agency secures the Direct Marketing Association UK (DMA), Periodical Publishers Association (PPA), UK AWARE, iheartfashion, and the Data Publishers Association (DPA) as first clients.

London, 7 September 2010 – Jackie Fast, the former head of the DMA’s sponsorship and affinity partnership department has launched her own agency, Slingshot Sponsorship Ltd (localhost:8080/slingshotsponsorship.com). In response to the growing need of expertise in sponsorship strategy, the agency is pioneering a new wave of marketing specialising in sponsorship that communicates across all vertical sectors and channels.

Slingshot Sponsorship will be using both national and international sponsorship experience as well as innovative marketing techniques with a focus on brand engagement through digital channels and social media. Jackie has worked with major brands including Royal Mail, Equifax, Xerox and ITV building sponsorship campaigns in the marketing services sector.

Slingshot Sponsorship specialises in corporate funding and asset management for music artists, professional associations, sporting competitions, as well as arts and cultural events. In addition, they will be working with leading consumer brands and international agencies to help enhance and negotiate future sponsorship campaigns.

Jackie Fast, managing director at Slingshot Sponsorship comments, “The market is shifting towards partnership marketing approaches and creating synergy between organisations. This shift created a surge in mid-market sponsorship during the recession, which has caught on with atypical rights holders. Whereas in the past sponsorship would only be sourced for large consumer events such as Formula1, we are now seeing brands take advantage of smaller and more engaged platforms generated through professional associations, music tours, and bespoke events. Instead of corporate excess of hospitality, this new wave of sponsorship brings a high level of engagement with the brand at a fraction of the cost of advertising.”

Jackie continues, “Slingshot Sponsorship aims to help rights owners effectively take advantage of this shift. Not only ensuring that the rights owner can develop a sustainable new revenue stream, Slingshot Sponsorship ensures that the programmes in place add value to all parties involved – propelling the brand, adding value to the audience, and providing additional capital to the rights holder. Furthermore, with the increase of sponsorship opportunities now available, Slingshot Sponsorship will help brands consolidate the opportunities to choose the right fit for their objectives.”

At launch, Slingshot Sponsorship has been selected by the Direct Marketing Association to manage and develop all of their current sponsorship opportunities including the DMA Awards. For UK AWARE and iheartfashion, Slingshot Sponsorship will manage all of their partnerships and consult on PR, media and communications. The DPA & PPA have also come on board as first clients of Slingshot Sponsorship who have been tasked with managing corporate sponsorship sales.

Slingshot Sponsorship is based in Central London, UK and works with both national and international clients.

Sponsorship Sales: Selling the Benefit 25th August, 2010

I recently saw a sponsorship tweet tip that said, “Think about how you can benefit the sponsors business, before you make an approach.” My immediate reaction to this tweet was that it was absolutely ridiculous (sorry tweeter!) – OF COURSE the sponsorship proposal should be about how the opportunity should benefit the sponsor’s business; it would be ridiculous to think otherwise. If you did think otherwise, you’d just be asking for money, free money at that. And no one wants to give away free money.

However, upon further consideration, this tip may not be as ridiculous as it immediately seemed. Slingshot Sponsorship helps brands and rights owners create sponsorship proposals for their assets and it is true that we stress this in every training session – the proposal needs to highlight the benefit not the event, platform, inspiration, etc. The more specific the tailored benefit, the more likely that you will get your prospects attention.

The first stage in this process is to understand your prospect’s brand and really understand what drives their business. Thankfully, we live in a world where this information is at our fingertips, so there is no excuse for poor sponsorship proposals. If you have the time, we’d also recommend that you meet with your prospect or at least speak with them over the phone so you can get a real understanding about what their marketing objectives are.

One of the benefits of using sponsorship as a marketing platform to build brand relationships is that it can be incredibly flexible and tailored. Sponsorship can be used across all media channels and all media sectors. For this reason, you should be able to create an engaging campaign tailored to your prospect. Benefits will arise from these tailored sponsorship proposals and will be the only way to successfully sell sponsorship.

Make sure to keep following our blog as we will be putting out tips on writing sponsorship proposals throughout the year!

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