At the Heart of Sponsorship
Mark Harrison, TrojanOne
Originally printed in PR Canada, April 3, 2006

It greatly bothers sponsorship professionals when they go to a conference and a special interest presenter burns fifty percent of their allotted time providing a “Sponsorship 101” lesson for the audience.

Personally it drives me bananas.

So when I launched the first ever Canadian Sponsorship Forum last November, our team worked double-time to ensure that all speakers avoided this trap and instead approached their presentation as if they were conducting an “Executive MBA” in Sponsorship Marketing. In some instances that worked well. In others, people slipped because sometimes we failed to recognize the intellectual level of our audience.

But recently I attended a leading industry conference on Sponsorship and had an epiphany: maybe we do need to get back to basics.

As I sat through endless presentations on charitable donations and in-store sweepstakes and product placement and reality TV and downloads and sampling tours and VIP experiences I became confused, convoluted, and concerned. Was I attending a sponsorship conference or an interactive marketing forum or a brand activation symposium or an advertising workshop?

There were plenty of great stories about leveraging people’s marks and giving away trips. There were some useful insights on how to utilize a property to get more soda pop displayed at a grocery store. Even the presentations that dwelt endlessly on what went on in the volunteer tent proved useful (Helpful hint: don’t let your clients teenage son be a volunteer).

But it seemed that nobody was talking about the principle fundamentals of sponsorship and what distinguishes this form of marketing from others. It appeared that the mindset of many speakers almost wanted to stay away from the word sponsorship, dwelling on the tactics they had utilized around the core principles, but not telling us why these activities were significantly stronger because they were part of a sponsorship program. When presenters did refer to sponsorship they used words such as “partnership” and “integration” and “stewardship” and “affinity marketing.”

It became evident to me that perhaps many of the presenters weren’t simply trying to save us from the basics, but possibly didn’t understand the basics. What else could explain the lack of enthusiasm for the core principles of sponsorship?

At its roots sponsorship is defined by one party providing support for the cause of another party (I want to sail the seven seas, will you buy me a boat?) And from these early beginnings, business people realized they could curry favour with desired audiences and stakeholders by not just supporting their own personal interests, but by supporting the interests of the consumer. These roots grew into a new branch of marketing as marketers came to understand that a brand becomes more attractive to consumers as it affiliates itself with causes that are important to consumers.

In full bloom, sponsorship is the shared equity between a brand and a property. It is when a sponsor supports a property in its pursuits and receives public credit for it. It is when a brand is recognized for helping a youth choir have their CD published. It is when a brand provides grants to struggling artists or new equipment for the team or international quality coaching for the aspiring athlete. That is sponsorship.

Unfortunately much gets confused with sponsorship today. Bringing clients to a hosting tent; using tickets in a sweepstakes; distributing samples at a game; having a half court shot for a big cash prize; utilizing an athlete in a commercial; all very effective marketing activities, but they are not sponsorship. All measurable based on media impressions or contest entries or sale shift during the promotional period, but not sponsorship. All impressive to a sales force or key trade customers, and for a brief moment with consumers, but not sponsorship.

No, sponsorship is much more powerful. It’s opinion making. It’s influential. It’s belief-altering, not just behaviour-altering. It is emotional far beyond a momentary cheer or laugh. It taps people’s passions. Not just their consumerism.

Sponsorship in its most basic form is support. There is no stronger gratitude on a personal level than to a person who has provided you with support.

There is no more powerful marketing approach on a consumer level than providing support. That is the strength of this basic strategy called sponsorship.