Sponsoring – is it profitable for you?

Sponsoring relations is a kind of a business agreement in which the sponsored entity receives money for its activities and the sponsor gets a specific sales result and generates growth in its brand’s position. The process of integrating a given brand with the image of the sponsored entity is usually planned for at least a few years and incorporated in the sponsor’s long-term strategy.

WHICH AREAS ARE THE MOST ATTRACTIVE TO SPONSORS?

Sports is definitely one of the most attractive areas for companies in terms of sponsoring. It is a consequence of the high return generated by the companies thanks to the fact that fans are closely attached to the brand which is associated with their favourite club or athlete. The fans’ loyalty to the clubs affects their attitude to sponsors and their purchasing decisions. Obviously, football is the best-funded sports discipline, however, studies have proven that significant returns on investment can also be generated from sponsoring niche disciplines. It is connected with the very good profiling of the audience group for a specific brand.

Artistic projects are also extremely attractive to sponsoring – in their case, the mechanism is similar as in the case of sports disciplines. Sports and arts evoke unusual emotions and the sponsors can benefit from the opportunity to skillfully combine them with the brand’s marketing activities.

Cooperation with influencers, especially micro-influencers who attract significant trust and commitment from their fans and are oriented towards narrow, specific target groups, is also an increasingly robust branch of sponsoring. As many as seven out of ten teenagers trust an influencer more than a celebrity. Influencer marketing is currently considered one of the most promising forms of acquiring customers.

When making a sponsoring decision, the sponsor should first and foremost carefully choose the person, discipline or artist to suit the profile of the company. Therefore, “SUITABILITY” is the keyword.

WHAT TO DO FOR SPONSORING COOPERATION TO END WITH A LONG-TERM AND SUCCESSFUL CONTRACT?

A good relationship requires involvement from both parties, both the sponsor as well as the sponsored.

Before the sponsor decides to choose a specific entity, they should plan the process of mutual integration and get answers to a number of questions:

• What customer group do I want to attract in particular?
• Are my customers fans of a specific sports discipline or artistic undertaking to which I want to commit?
• Are there any “stars” in the team/band around which an advertising campaign can be built?
• Do my customers share the values and opinions of the influencer with whom I would like to cooperate?
• Can the type of emotions involved in the sports discipline or the artistic project be identified with my services or products?
• What features of the club, event or values of the person or entity might be particularly attractive for my brand?
• What were the brands the potential sponsored entity or person was involved with before, how long did the cooperation continue and why did it end?

The more answers the sponsor can get to those questions, the more accurately they can define the elements of key importance in starting the cooperation.

WHAT PRODUCTS TO USE WHEN PLANNING AND EVALUATING SPONSORING ACTIVITIES?

Three reports are definitely an extremely important element at the stage of planning, executing and reviewing sponsoring activities:

1. The study of the sponsoring potential thanks to which the sponsor gets detailed information on whether their brand should commit to a given project to achieve its strategic objectives;
2. The study of influencers based on which the brand accurately tailors the specific influencer to its marketing activities;
3. The analysis of sponsoring effectiveness which will make it possible to evaluate the profitability and benefits stemming from the actions.

With that respect, it is worth contacting an experienced analytical company which specializes in such reports and incorporates in them individual guidelines of the client as well as the specifics of a given sector or project.

Sponsoring reports prepared by independent research companies can include a number of elements, e.g. the evaluation of visibility and degree of recognizability of the sponsor’s logotype in the area of media and promotional activities, a detailed analysis of communications, evaluation of the profitability of sponsoring activities vs other forms of promoting the company; benchmarking maps which make it possible to compare the sponsoring activities with other projects, recommendations for potential sponsoring solutions or public opinion polls.

TIDBIT

Analysis of logotype visibility
It is a study which makes it possible to determine how the elements of visual identification function and work in media content – evaluated elements include the visibility of the logotype or the advertising material, recognizability and broadcast time. A study of brand recognizability based on third-party public opinion polling might be an additional element.

TOP 5 SPONSORING MISTAKES

1. Wrong choice of the sponsored discipline, event or person – in extreme cases, that element might become the source of a serious crisis for the brand;
2. Choice of a project which attracts too much attention and is going to overshadow the sponsor’s brand in terms of the image;
3. Lack of cooperation between the sponsor and the sponsored, leading to incoherent communication;
4. Wrong identification of sponsoring with brand exposure (image building) – effective sponsoring should support sales;
5. Moving in the dark – no measurements at the planning stage and no measurements of the effectiveness of the sponsoring activities.