Sports Management & Marketing

Stop Selling Sponsorship!

youngsports 2016. 6. 21. 18:16

Video: Stop Selling Sponsorship!

Hi there, in this video we’re asking you to stop selling sponsorship. That’s right. Stop selling sponsorship. Today. Right now. Why? Well because we want you to think about building partnerships instead.

This isn’t a new idea in sponsorship, people have been talking about using the word ‘partnership’ instead for a long time, but we don’t really mind which word you use, it’s the mindset you have that is important.



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QG2E6WD0crA


Selling sponsorship used to mean getting the biggest fee for the fewest assets. You and the sponsor are pitched against each other, both trying to get a better deal than the other. once you have an agreement, you give your sponsor their rights, hand over to someone more junior to handle the account and you move on to finding the next sponsor.

 

Instead, a partnership looks at how you can work together, both bringing value to the table and therefore both taking away more from it, as you build added value together. You have a shared responsibility for success. You therefore put more effort in, which results in added value to your fans as well as each other.

 

Partnerships can involve most departments in your sponsor’s business, whereas sponsorship is typically handled only by the sponsorship team, which can be just one person in smaller companies, or the marketing team. It can therefore be more susceptible to budget cuts as it is seen as an expense and only one department is fighting to keep it.

 

A partnership that adds value to every aspect of a business is far more likely to survive difficult economic times and the whims of annual marketing planning.

 

Being a partnership, it also has a longer term focus, whilst sponsorship can be seen as more of a transaction, you’re doing a deal for one season perhaps and when that season is over, the sponsor may or may not decide to buy that sponsorship again.
You’ll still put a time frame on a ‘partnership’ approach, but it’s likely to be longer and keep renewing, if it’s delivering.

 

The long-term partnership approach places a greater importance on brand values. You wouldn’t form a business partnership with another firm that didn’t have the same values and culture style as yours. So you equally wouldn’t want sponsors, who are going to be targeting your audience to have values you didn’t agree with either. In the UK we have seen football clubs cancel sponsorships with certain categories of loan companies who were thought to be treating their customers unfairly.

 

You need to protect your fans and so have a responsibility to ensure that the sponsors you engage with on their behalf are stable and will add value to the club and the fans experience. Equally your sponsors will want to understand the values of your club, it’s management and ownership.

 

This trust and transparency is critical to a good relationship. We have seen a lot of stories where individual athletes and governing bodies behave in ways that are not acceptable to their sponsors. Feeling more empowered than ever before sponsors are walking away from such arrangements.

 

A partnership approach can add even more value to fans and if they can see that you are a genuine partnership, they can easily understand why you are working together and when people understand something easily, they are more likely to accept it and engage with it.

 

So how do you know who is best to partner with? Well, it comes down to what you, as a business, want to achieve, beyond your sponsorship target.

Is it improved fan experience?
Is it improved team performance?
Is it a more ecological stadium?
Is it increased participation in your sport?
Is it increased revenue from all available streams?

 

Who could you partner with in order to best achieve that and what could you offer them in return that would help them to achieve their objectives? And then which firms have the same values that you do?

 

The sponsorship team needs to be fully aware of the clubs overall goals, so that they can create sponsorship objectives to help achieve them and not just take the first company who agrees the fee.

 

Then, finally, remember that if they are a ‘partner’ they are part of your club and should be included in relevant conversations and events.

 

Make them part of the decision making process for the club. And bring your sponsors together. Any partner will benefit from meeting others given the connection, and creating a ‘business club’ for partners will add extra value to them, as well as making it easier for you to manage different sponsors at events. Creating this family style environment, can only help the club as you have a variety of businesses now invested in the success of the club, as it adds value to them.

 

The partners all benefit from that shared expertise and of course it presents business opportunities for them too.
In fact, you should find yourself feeling as if you half work for your club and half for the sponsors.

 

Thanks for reading!

 

If you’d like to talk about improving your sponsorship strategy or if you’d like to find out more about our sponsorship audit process, please do get in touch and make sure you’re signed up to receive all our latest News & Insights.