Today, we turn our blog over to Gail Bower for her insights into the sponsorship world. Gail Bower is president of Bower & Co. Consulting LLC, a firm that specializes in dramatically raising the visibility, revenue, and impact of non-profit organizations. She’s a professional consultant, writer, and speaker, with more than 20 years of experience managing some of the country’s most important events, festivals and sponsorships and implementing marketing programs for clients. Launched in 1987, today Bower & Co. improves the effectiveness and results of clients’ marketing, events, and corporate sponsorship programs.

Read Gail's Blog, More on your role as a sponsorship seller.

There have been a number of stories lately surrounding the protest of event sponsors. Companies are being targeted because it seems that what they sponsor and their practices are perceived to be at odds with one another. 

As an example, McDonald’s has been a recent target of protests by British doctors indicating that fast food menus don’t belong in the Olympic Village when so many Britain’s are obese.   In addition, Coca-Cola and Heineken were also pointed out as “bad for you” products that are partners with the Olympics.   According to the Guardian Newspaper, protestors were developing several coordinated campaigns aimed against those companies accused of using the Games to cover up unethical corporate activities.

To the Olympic Committee’s defense, Coca-Cola and McDonald’s have been sponsors for a long time, back to when these products weren’t so bad for you and people weren’t so obese (figure that one out).  To their credit, these companies have introduced programs and products committed to supporting healthier platforms.  And just look at how those active, healthy athletes have been eating McDonald’s food at the Olympic Village for years! (I’ve seen the commercials).

The Olympics represent this coming together of peoples from all forms and ideologies in the name of sport, to achieve and learn from one another and somehow make the world a bit better.  It truly does capture the imagination of millions worldwide and seems to have meaning for most of us.  The Olympic Committee has stated outright that without sponsor funding from McDonald’s and others, the games just wouldn't happen.  So, for better or worse, these groups are insuring that the Olympic “spirit” burns using their corporate dollars to keep the flame going.

The protestors and the Olympics need to keep in mind, however, that sponsorship can be a powerful force for change within the corporate structure.  Sponsorship provides these companies with an opportunity to internally come together under one umbrella.  From leadership down to the janitor, successful sponsorships are based, in part, on how the sponsorship relationship becomes part of the corporate DNA.  The Olympic Committee has the power to assist those brands in reshaping their ideas simply by encouraging the companies to activate their relationship.

So, perhaps because of the Olympic relationship, those companies under protest find an opportunity to make themselves a bit better BECAUSE of their involvement.  Maybe we should be embracing those companies that choose to talk the talk, because that might give them the opportunity to walk the talk, too. 

It’s hard to say.  But, sponsorship is a powerful tool.

After months of discussions and ideation to merge SponsorPark and Pinpoint, it’s been a very busy couple of weeks and I wanted to take a moment to convey what our goals are moving forward to support you and your passions. 

Sponsorship marketing is one of the most powerful methods of engaging consumers and research findings continue back this up. Connecting with people at the very core of their passions opens the opportunity for brands to meld with consumers, resulting in preference, intent to purchase and sales.  A 2009 Edelman PR study also proved sponsorship to be the most trustworthy form of advertising; and, in an age of consumer skepticism and major shifts in consumer values, sponsorship is poised to be a leading form of advertising over the next decade.

However, at the grassroots level, there’s room for improvement in how properties and brands activate their sponsorships.  Our focus is to reshape the landscape of  how brands and properties communicate their value propositions. We’re providing platforms for sponsors and properties to exchange best-practices and garner the greatest possible results. This can only be achieved by activating the real benefits of sponsorship and meeting sponsor expectations.

I know that sounds like a lot.  But, at SponsorPark, we assist properties in how to execute more efficiently and create greater results for sponsors through evidence-based practices.  Properties need to learn how to better manage their sponsor’s expectations and select benefits to accentuate their sponsors focus.  

Through Pinpoint SES, our sponsor software tool, we assist brands in shaping their strategy to create more effective sponsorships.  Understanding what types of sponsorships capture their audience’s hearts and minds and, how to communicate that relationship with stakeholders, and activate the relationship through their multiple platforms within their own organization is critical to the sponsorship success, for both the sponsor and the property.

Regional companies need to start using their sponsorship portfolio across multiple channels within their organization to garner greater results.  Sponsorship is not just a marketing function, or a PR function, or a sales function – sponsorship activations need to be a corporate-wide function flowing through the organization’s DNA.

By improving communication and fostering an understanding of the sponsorship discipline through the tools we’re making available, we can change the way properties view themselves and help brands see the true value of sponsorship marketing.

We’re excited for this next step and are looking forward to seeing what the future holds for us, our properties and their sponsors. Thank you for joining us in this journey.