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Blog Entry 18 of 24 Audience Development Specialists

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Audience Development - Sponsor Relationships

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Contributed by: Shoshana Fanizza on 4/18/2008

This week was all about working with sponsors. I started thinking about how some organizations forget to take their sponsor relationships to the next level - an actual partnership.

Partnering with a corporation is different than simply having the corporation sponsor an event and giving them some logo recognition benefits. Rather, a partnership benefits both organizations when they work on the project together. Let me give you an example.

I have been very impressed with a particular corporation and how they partner with various cultural organizations in my community. Not only do they sponsor events by donating money, but they also get involved with the event! If you ask them to the gala's, they do have people attend. If you give them a discount on tickets for their concert event, they will send the information out to their employees and purchase tickets for their concert event. I have even seen this company co-purchase advertising with one of their non-profit partners to help with advertising the event.

The key is to develop a partnership attitude right from the start. Having your sponsoring companies get involved with their sponsored event makes sense for both organizations. They are benefiting by getting recognition, but if they help make the event a success, they will really get recognition with a bigger audience and have a sense of accomplishment and satisfaction for their dollars.

Corporations like to get involved with successful projects or at least potentially successful projects. They are businesses after all. They want to see a solid return on their investment. You can help them understand that to get the best return on their investment is to be a little proactive themselves, to get involved. And, if they go to their event, they have a chance to network and to enjoy their investment!

Get a little creative with your partnerships. Do they have a huge parking lot that they can host a community outreach event? Or maybe a fun product placement would make sense for a particular production. What about them sponsoring a television ad which is always challenging to budget? Create a t-shirt together. Or, do you have a role where one of their big wigs could be invited to make a cameo appearance. Talk about some great publicity that would result for both organizations!

There are some companies that rather have the simple recognition. This is fine too. However, if you do not ask them if they would like discount tickets or co-purchase advertising or to go to the gala's, etc., you will never know what level they would like to become more involved. Partnering with your sponsors can make your event extra special. Having your audiences see how well the relationship works is worth a lot more than the investment money, and both partners will literally see many happy returns.

Until next time, may your audiences be happy and loyal ones, and if they are not, feel free to contact me!

~Shoshana~

Shoshana Fanizza is the founder of Audience Development Specialists. Her mission is to introduce organizations to their existing and potential audiences and to help form more rewarding relationships with them.

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CONTRIBUTOR INFORMATION

Shoshana Fanizza

Boulder , CO

Shoshana Fanizza has posted 24 blog entries and 0 comments since joining on 1/18/2008. Shoshana Fanizza 's average blog rating is 5.

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