Sponsorship Marketing from the Company Perspective

This was published on Rodeo Sponsorship Strategies (rodeosponsorshipstrategies.com) blog in January, 2014.

When you are out looking for sponsorship for you or your event, here are a few things to keep in mind, from the company or marketing director’s side of the table.

1. Think about it as “partnership marketing” which will get you in the right frame of mind. You help us, we help you.
2. We don’t need you. We have hundreds of options for spending our limited marketing budget. If we sponsor you, how will we sell more product? I am not going to connect the dots, you need to show me how it will help us, because I have to justify my budget spending to my boss and show him next year that I made a smart decision. We don’t sponsor to be nice, we need to sell stuff. Think like a business person.
3. Do your research. Know my company, what we already sponsor, and what my products are. If you are a bullrider or announcer, don’t ask me to sponsor you with a horse trailer company because you aren’t hauling horses to events, and not showing off my product.
4. Impress me. This means professional looking KIT, not an email or Facebook message with grammar errors. In this kit (digital or paper) you should include: your bio/background, what you’ve won, photos (we want our product to look good on you/your horse/at your event), where you plan on competing next year, who your other sponsors are (we want to be in good company and not with a competitor). If you are an event, we want to know your demographics, which means how many people attend, from where, how old they are, how many men vs. women, how much money they have, and photos of your venue. I won’t spend the time looking or asking for this information, because the other people who want my money have done it for me.
5. Product only sponsorships still cost us money. Yes, we will want you to use our products and get them out in the public eye, but product isn’t “free.” If all your photos show you using the competitor’s product, why not get them to sponsor you? Don’t say that you love my product when the photos show that you don’t even use it. On a big item like a trailer, find someone who has one of our trailers and tell me specifically what you like about it.
6. Look and act professional. We don’t want our endorsees representing us by acting immature or partying or having questionable PR on their Facebook pages. You represent your sponsors, take that seriously in everything that you do, 24 hours a day.
7. Be loyal. Don’t jump sponsors every year or go with whoever offers the next better deal. If I see your history of a logo jumper, I won’t be interested. We invest in you; you need to help us build a brand together. Come to me with ideas on how we can work together, or opportunities you see when you’re out on the road or doing projects with your other sponsors. Be proactive in PARTNERING with us. Once you’re signed, NEVER be caught using a competitor product, because that will be the one photo that gets back to me.
8. When you’re signed/sponsored, make my life easy. Volunteer to be part of photo shoots and autograph signings. Take initiative and don’t make me call you 12 times. The endorsees that are easy are the ones I will promote in articles, photos, catalogs, websites and they are the ones that won’t get dumped in budget cuts. Be my star and I will fight to keep you.

Robyn Volkening, M.A., owns V Strategy, LLC, a marketing and business development consulting firm. She has managed sponsorships for the some of the largest apparel, boot, and horse trailer companies in the industry and is a published author. www.vstrategyonline.com

Competing With the Big Box

Many of my clients are small independent retailers or small businesses. At some point, a big box store moves into their area, or online notices the products that they have found and been selling and starts selling them cheaper. How do they stay relevant and compete with the stores that have millions of dollars of advertising?

This is what I tell them: service, relationships, and unique products. Let’s say you’re a feed/tack store. If you sell the big brands, you can’t compete with the box store down the street that buys 100,000 units of Big Name Shampoo. You need to seek out the better or more unique product, maybe the organic product or the newest product, that is made by another small business. The Small Shampoo/Supplement Company can’t make enough of their product to service 300 stores and Big Box wants the proven winner that they can sell a ton of, not the little unique product that doesn’t have the marketing budget in national ad campaigns.

Service is very important. The Big Box hires the cheapest employees and usually doesn’t train them all that well. You need to find GOOD employees, train them, and pay them well, or provide them with something the big box store can’t. And then reward them for their knowledge and loyalty to you and your customers. Sell items that require more time investment to sell it and invest that time; educate your customers. Be friendly, try to help them solve a problem, be useful, provide knowledge and customer service that the big box store can’t provide. Be relevant to your community and your customers. Know your customers! Know that Suzy just bought a new horse that has digestive problems and ask how the horse is doing the next time she comes in. Remember that Steve has a cute little daughter with a pony. Take notes or use a CRM computer system if you need to. Ask them how a product worked for them. Form relationships. Big Box won’t do that. People buy from people they trust and like.

Small independent stores can still thrive, but they have to be nimble and creative and not compete based on price on the same commodity products that Big Box gets in volume. Wouldn’t you rather shop where you have friends to talk with and a pleasant environment, where people can provide you with some insight into a product, instead of a self-serve, sterile, crowded and unpleasant environment?

Partnership Marketing

I work with a lot of organizations that participate in “sponsorships.” It is a big part of our industry. But many companies don’t get much ROI from their sponsorships, and most on the other side are always 100% focused on “getting more money.” I think the mental focus is wrong. I prefer to think of this as “Partnership Marketing.” How can we use our respective resources to help achieve goals on both sides? For the long term?

I think both sides need to be proactive at identifying opportunities, and having meetings that don’t just focus on negotiating the dollar amount, but what the end goal is. Yes, the company wants to sell things. But do they want to do that via a retail store on site at the event? Via coupons? Promo codes on their website? How will they link their sponsorship to their brand? Have both sides provided logos, press releases, blurbs? Does each side promote the other in their online and print media?

I think both sides need to work together on a frequent basis, not just exchange a contract and then talk a week before the main event to get a banner. And, both sides need to participate and collect data on the event to see what worked and what didn’t. The association or event should gather demographic data from the events and organization and provide that to the sponsor. The sponsor should attend the event and get involved, as well as think through a strategy to develop on-site as well as future sales that can be attributed to that event or sponsorship.

Working together is the only way to assure a beneficial relationship from partnership marketing.

Sponsorships and Prizes

Committees, pay attention. Companies sponsor events to SELL THINGS. They often don’t have cash to give you, but they may give products to get your contestants to try their brand and get visibility to their items. Make use of this! So many events have bad (or no) prizes, because no one was proactive at getting awards ahead of time. Committees need to know their prize budget, and have people who are looking at sales, thinking outside of the box, and making calls, not just looking for cash, but closeout tack, clothing certificates, and more, that can be added. I’m a fan of giving deep, or random prizes, especially for the non-pros who actually NEED things, not giving everything to just the winner or the “big” open classes. People spend a lot of money attending shows and rodeos, make it worth their while. And, anytime you can brand a product with your show logo, that is just marketing for your next year’s event.

Make your event “fun” and worthwhile, spread around the loot, and make your event the one that everyone wants to enter next year.

Prepare For 2016 NOW, Before Your Event

Committees are preparing for the final push before their summer events. Things are getting busy! And its kids sports and BBQ and wedding season, to boot. But sponsors for 2016 are going to want information on your association and event. That means NUMBERS, and RESULTS, and PHOTOS. You can’t get those after the event happens, you have to be set up to get them while the event is going on. This means being prepared for the future. Sponsors want to know how many people attended, demographics on those people (where are they from, male/female, ages, spending power). They want to see photos from the event to picture themselves and their products and how they might fit in. Not just arena photos, although those are good, but photos of the tradeshow areas, banner locations, and who else is participating. They want to see what the stands look like. Are they full? Is there audience participation? Shopping? What growth areas did you have? More awards? Was there press coverage? Social media activity? Did the social media mention sponsors? In order to increase sponsorship and attendance, you have to prepare at this year’s event for next year. And the time to make current sponsors feel valued is now. Find out what they want to accomplish at your event and make sure it happens in order to keep them renewing for next year. Events with proactive partnership marketing mentality and numbers will be the ones getting the 2016 sponsor dollars.