Ultimate Conference Blog

In their annual industry forecast, IEG predicts that North American Companies will increase their spending on sponsorship by 4.5% in 2016.  Actual spending in 2015 was up 4.1% over the previous year and continues the steady growth trend we’ve seen year-over-year for the last six years.

While Associations and Membership Organizations, as a category, are only projected to receive 3% of all sponsor dollars spent, that’s still a healthy $612 million dollars, according to the same report.

How can your association or event compete for a larger slice of the pie?   Here are four strategies for developing programs that more engaging, more meaningful and more successful at helping sponsors build their business, which is, after all, the purpose of sponsorship.

1.  Develop partnerships that go beyond traditional sponsorship.

Traditional association sponsorships tend a focus on a single event, rely heavily on logo placement, and generally place most of the responsibility for messaging and marketing the sponsorship on the sponsor themselves.

Sponsors are looking for new ways to reach their audience and better opportunities to engage with them before, during and after the event.  They need to differentiate themselves through custom sponsorship and unique marketing campaigns.  While there is still no standard for who is responsible for marketing, show organizers should expect their role to grow here.  The more successful they can help their sponsors become, the more likely sponsors will return year after year.

2.  Consider association assets as communication channels, rather than a la carte offerings.

Your association likely has a variety of ways to communicate with and engage members – an association blog, newsletters and publications, websites, webinars, social media sites,  etc.  Rather than considering these as separate sponsorship opportunities to sell to different sponsors, consider how to use these channels as additional means to communicate a sponsor’s message.

That might mean several large sponsors share the voice and visibility in each of the channels but for a single sponsor it means that their message is not isolated to a single forum, but communicated through a variety of media.  This increases their exposure and reinforces their message when members hear it more frequently and in a variety of ways.

3. Leverage causes and charity fundraisers as platforms for sponsorship

If you spend a fair amount of time researching companies, like I do, you know that there are not many companies that don’t support a good cause or philanthropic endeavor.   In addition to making a difference for whatever cause they choose to support, companies also want to make an emotional connection with their customers around a shared value of giving back to our communities.  Think of companies like Coca Cola, Fed Ex, Starbucks, Visa, Microsoft, Bank of America.  They don’t need brand recognition.  They have that already.

Does your organization already have a fund raising initiative or cause that they support?  How can you better leverage that as a platform for sponsorship?  Here are just a few ideas:

• Create an event onsite where attendees have the experience of giving back to the community.
• Add the ability to donate to your cause on the registration form.
• Poll your attendees to nominate causes that they are interested in.
• Engage your attendees’ competitive spirit through games and challenges and ask sponsors to match donations.
• Share photos and status reports and encourage attendees to build the buzz through social media.

If your organization doesn’t currently have a cause they support, I would think twice before launching one for the sole purpose of attracting sponsors.  But if it’s something that your organization is already considering, you can cover your cost and likely make money for your organization, while raising funds for a good cause.

4.  Measure success

Success is no longer simply measured in term of how many of your members attended your event (and therefore probably laid eyes on your sponsor’s advertisement in the onsite program).  You can help corporate marketers justify their investment in your event by showing tangible results.  How many people visited a sponsor’s website in response to messaging around the event?  How many attended a sponsor webinar or downloaded their white paper as a result of their participation in your event?

The specific metrics will depend on how you and your sponsor jointly define success.  It may not be easy or even possible at first to measure these things, but start to figure it out now because it will be critical for your success in the future.