Nomad Marketing Blog

Well, you did it!  Your event was a huge success.  Your audience flocked to your space at the event and enthusiastically embraced your brand.  Time to relax until next year, right?Wrong.Now’s the time to solidify the relationships you developed at the event.  Use the event as a springboard for a year-round conversation with your new fans.Start by sending thank you’s and congratulations to the attendees, organizers and participants.Ads and press releases, e-mails, blog posts and web summaries are great ways to thank your audience for their participation in the event.   Cadillac dealers resell their loaner cars after golf events – giving them an excuse to reinforce the connection between their brand and the event – after the fact.Share the excitement!You can help your audience relive the event by posting videos and photos on your website, YouTube, Facebook and MySpace.  Quality content will attract people who missed the event as well.  Keep-A-Breast, a breast cancer awareness organization, posted this fun video from the Van’s Warped Tour on their website and on YouTube.  The connection to the rockers and the event make for an entertaining and pretty viral clip.

Send special offers or exclusive information to people who registered with you at the event, too.  Your audience will appreciate the exclusive, club-like feel you create around your brand and the event. You can interact with this group throughout the year, turning them from curious samplers into loyal customers.And of course, when the event rolls around next year, you’ll start the cycle all over again.  You’ll have a larger, more loyal fan base.  You’ll have a routine you can replicate. Events are not an annual occurrence.  They are a year-round opportunity to create lasting bonds with your audience.  Plan well, execute consistently and maintain the connection.

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It’s event day.  Are you having fun?  Are you connecting with the event participants and attendees?  If not, you’re missing a big chunk of the benefit from your sponsorship.Activating your sponsorship is a critical element in your relationship with the event.  This is your chance to make a lasting connection – with the crowd as a whole – and one-to-one.  Your on-site presence should be as prominent, engaging and meaningful as you can make it.  Here are several components you should include in your activation:

1. Signage – make sure the event gives you signage opportunities that match your investment level.  Your brand should be as visible as possible.
2. Announcements – Emcees, announcers, hosts, etc. should thank you for your support and recite your event message as often as possible.
3. Exhibits/Activities – Give people a chance to meet you and your brand.  Games, contests and prizes are great lures.  If it’s feasible, demonstrate or sample your products/services).  If you can wander the crowd and distribute your wares – that’s great too!
4. Registration/Surveys – Get names from people.  Get them to register for drawings, newsletters, online goodies.  Give them something in exchange.  If you can spend time with them, ask them some questions – use the event as a research opportunity.
5. Collateral material – Make sure that you create relevant collateral material that promotes your brand – and connects with the event.
6. Giveaways – T-shirts, hats, rubber bracelets, glow-sticks – in short SWAG.  Everybody loves it – and it usually hangs around after the event.  Doesn’t have to cost a mint, either.

None of this comes for free, of course.  The average amount spent to activate sponsorships is 1.5 X the sponsorship investment amount.  So, if you spend $10,000 to sponsor an event, you’d be spending an additional $15,000 on activation.  A reasonable range is 1-2 X.  Spend less and you’re limiting your ROI.  Spend more and you’re probably spending money you don’t need to.Your on-site activities can bring your sponsorship to life.  The event-day activities give you a chance to be seen, heard, touched, smelled and tasted.  The better your activities, collateral, signage and giveaways are, the more attendees will remember their interaction with your brand – and the great connection they had with it at the event.Oh yeah, and don’t forget to have some fun, too.

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So you’ve chosen an event to sponsor.  Congratulations!  It’s not too early to start the marketing machine.  A well-crafted marketing/media plan can make the difference between a major marketing coup and a colossal waste of money.  Event sponsorship needs the same level of support as any new product, service or marketing launch.If you’ve chosen your event wisely, you’ll have plenty of potential stories and marketing opportunities.  The visual appeal of these stories gives you access to all sorts of media outlets.  Media of all kinds are clamoring for compelling video content.  Participants and fans using your products or services at the event make great visuals.  The event’s benefiting charity creates a ready-made human-interest story.  In-store promotions and appearances by event participants solidly connect the event to your brand and your customers.Storylines

• Announcing your partnership.
• How the charity benefits from your help.
• How your products/services help the event/participants. (Great opportunity for behind-the-scenes videos and testimonials.)
• How you reach out to the community.
• How spectators can be a part of the event/live the lifestyle using your products/services.
• Related contests, sweepstakes, etc.

Media/Vehicles

• Your website
• Event website
• Media websites (starved for video, imagery)
• Video sharing websites
• Blogs/e-newsletters
  • Yours
  • Event
  • Participants
  • Fans
  • Media
• Mass print media
• Broadcast media
• Trade publications (online and print)
• Street events

Schedule

• Up to 6 months ahead - Announce your involvement (up to 6 months ahead)
• 4-6 weeks ahead – background feature stories, human interest, trade interest, co-branding, in-store promotions
• 1-2 weeks ahead – event specific feature stories, participant profiles, event activities, street events
• During the event – daily highlights, results/recaps, news, testimonials

Don’t expect the event to do the heavy lifting of marketing your sponsorship.  Take advantage of the event’s branding by creating your own marketing campaign around the sponsorship.  Start talking to the world - early and often.  Look for compelling stories and especially compelling imagery.  Think branding.  Think promotion.  Make the connection to your customers.  Reach out to all types of media.  Make the most of your sponsorship.

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Choosing the right events is the first step in a successful sponsorship marketing strategy.  Don’t necessarily say yes to the first event that comes along.  At the same time, don’t be afraid to say yes to the right event.  Think through your decisions carefully.  There are a number of factors to consider as you make a choice of events.Fit with your audience.

• Demographics – Who attends the event?  Are they the right age, gender, income range, etc. for your brand?
• Psychographics – Do the event’s attendees aspire to the same things as your audience?  Do they perceive themselves similarly relative to the event and to your brand?

Fit with your brand message.Events can transfer their image to yours.  The closer the event matches your brand message, the tighter the linkage will be.  Here are some great examples:Each of these sponsors creates a close connection to its audience through the association with the event.  Red Bull’s hardcore image and the underground appeal of snowboarding are an obvious link. Toyota connects to health conscious triathlon fans and participants, spotlighting their green messaging at the Lifetime Fitness Triathlon.  VANS, the classic skate shoe company, is an underground icon.  Sponsoring an alt music and culture tour fits their brand like a pair of well-worn kicks.Event detailsPay attention to some key event elements as you research sponsorships:

• Size – The event should be prominent enough to get unpaid media, but not so large that your sponsorship is lost – unless you’re the title sponsor, in which case bigger is always better.
• Longevity – An established event is usually better managed, more widely known and more credible.
• Activation opportunities – It’s not just about banners and logos.  Good events will give you the chance to interact directly with your audience.  Be sure the events you’re evaluating offer promotional and educational opportunities.
• Media/Marketing efforts – It shouldn’t be entirely up to you to promote your involvement in events.  Be sure that the events you’re looking at have media and marketing plans that include online, print and broadcast strategies, both paid and unpaid.
• Interaction with other sponsors – Event sponsorships can be great ways to expand your business relationships.  Good events will offer sponsor thank you events, VIP hospitality and possibly make direct introductions among sponsors.

BudgetIt’s a balancing act.  Ideally, the sponsorship opportunity you pursue should get you “above the line” – not just a mention or a logo on the poster.  That may require a larger investment.  At the same time, you shouldn’t sink your entire budget into the sponsorship itself.  Be sure to leave room for activation, including your own marketing efforts highlighting your involvement in the event.  More on that later.That’s a nickel tour of the elements to consider when choosing among sponsorship opportunities.  Research, customer knowledge and a clear-eyed review of sponsorship proposals will help you make the right call.  Next time we’ll discuss pre-event marketing/media and how to tell the world about your sponsorship.

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Advertising is dead.  Spam is despised.  The web is information overload. Q:  How is a marketer supposed to reach their audience?A:  By getting out among the crowd.Community events, sporting events, concerts are all rich territory for marketers.  Event audiences are captive audiences for brand messages.  They pay more attention to brands that are associated with their favorite activities.  Over the next few weeks, we’ll explore ways to add event marketing to a marketer’s arsenal.A 1999 study of consumer brand perceptions indicates that the benefit of event sponsorships goes beyond simple awareness.  By selecting “strongly matched” events, brand owners can make strong brand associations between the brand image of the event and the image of the brand in question.  The positive image of the event transfers to the brands themselves. “Brand image has been defined as ‘perceptions about a brand as reflected by the brand associations held in memory’ (Keller 1993, p. 3). From a theoretical position…brand associations can be influenced when a brand becomes linked with…a sporting event through sponsorship activities. In these cases, the pre-existing associations held in consumers’ memories regarding a celebrity or sporting event become linked in memory with the endorsed or sponsoring brand. In essence, the celebrity or event image is transferred to the brand.”“Obviously, if this image transfer process is occurring, then brand managers considering sponsorship arrangements should not only consider exposure issues (i.e., brand awareness) but should also take into account the congruence between a sporting event’s image and the image/positioning goals for their brands.”– Professors Kevin Gwinner & John Eaton, Arizona State University, Journal of Advertising, 1999Event marketing:  A case studyEvents are worth considering as part of any marketing strategy.  Over the next several weeks, we’ll explore the best ways to analyze, choose and maximize results from event sponsorships.  We’ll look at the following areas individually:

• Know your audience – understand the events that appeal to them, attract them and can provide a strong connection with your brand.
• Broadcast your involvement – using media and marketing to get people to the event and recognize your involvement.
• Connect in a meaningful way – develop on-site activities/collateral that capture their imagination and attention.  Turn the brand awareness effort into a direct marketing effort by collecting fan info.
• Measure the impact – conduct research before, during and after the event to determine the value to your brand.
• Follow-up – Maintain the connection after the event (direct marketing, media, advertising, web, etc.).

I hope this can be a lively discussion – post your war stories of event marketing – positive and negative.

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