As a way to draw increased awareness and attention to some of the standup sponsorship opportunities on our site, we’ve set apart one blog per month to put the “Spotlight on Sponsorship”! If you have a premium level listing on SponsorPark, and would like to have your event featured, please contact Stephanie.Lochmiller@SponsorPark.com to submit your event, as we are currently looking to fill our 2012 Spotlight calendar. This month our spotlight shines on the “Jersey Girl Sports”.

What is Jersey Girl Sports all about?
If your brand is looking to connect with a strong following of loyal women, then look no further! All Jersey Girl Sports events are designed to get women connected and educated on sports, presenting sports news, information, entertainment and lifestyle content from a female perspective providing a truly unique experience. Some of their events over their first year in existence include hosting 1st and Flirty to women at the Black Enterprise/Pepsi Golf and Tennis Challenge to Strikes and Stilettos with the Charleston Riverdogs – a minor league affiliate of the NY Yankees.

What Makes this Opportunity Unique?
Jersey Girl sports has grown over 300% in the past year, and each month they reach over 50,000 women through their website and average over 500,000 social media impressions each month. Jersey Girl Sports has a unique niche with an extremely loyal following. Jersey Girl Sports understands that sports encompass a lifestyle and they use the power of consumer engagement to help their partners get optimum brand awareness and exposure. By jumping on board with Jersey Girl Sports now, brands gain the opportunity to build a lasting partnership with a growing organization.

Surviving Sponsorship in a Heated Economy
Angela Davis, Co-Owner of Jersey Girl Sports explains that because of the competitive economy sponsors are becoming more analytical and expect to see the results of their investments. To address these concerns Jersey Girl Sports has implemented programs with quantitative metrics so that sponsors can see the return on their investment. Davis also said they’ve begun working with SponsorPark because it spotlights their proposal in a focus environment for companies that are actively looking for ways to expose their product or brand.

Preferred Partners?
Because Jersey Girl Sports promotes athletics, fashion, health and fitness and beauty industries, this platform really can cater to any brand or product seeking to get in front of a fiercely loyal female following. To learn more about Jersey Girl Sports check out their SponsorPark listing.

As a way to draw increased awareness and attention to some of the standup sponsorship opportunities on our site, we’ve set apart one blog per month to put the “Spotlight on Sponsorship”! If you have a premium level listing on SponsorPark, and would like to have your event featured, please contact Stephanie.Lochmiller@SponsorPark.com to submit your event, as we are currently looking to fill the remainder of our 2011 Spotlight calendar.  This month our spotlight shines on “vVv Gaming”.

What is vVv Gaming all about?  
vVv Gaming is a competitive video game organization with a dynamic and vibrant community of teams and players that compete at major video games events around the world.  With entertaining podcasts, educational articles about teamwork, competition and strategy and dominating finishes at major tournaments around the world, they work to deliver unparalleled value to anyone interested in competitive video gaming by constantly striving to uphold their motto: Entertain. Educate. Dominate.
With the gaming industry itself having such an established following, vVv Gaming works to reach out and attract new fans as well as recruiting and retaining fresh talentThey believe that all gamers need an outlet to share and express their passion in an environment that is social, empowering, supportive and informative, regardless of skill.

What Makes this Opportunity Unique?
One unique aspect to this property is  that every member of vVv Gaming is required to connect on social media and over the course of the last four years the organization has recruited some of the most influential gamers in North America.  This not only allows the property to leverage their social media following to potential sponsors, but also allows their members to feel more engaged on multiple levels, whether they are a competitive player, or simply a fan.

Surviving Sponsorship in a Heated Economy

According to vVv President, Jerry Prochazka, the struggling economy hasn’t been much of a barrier for them.  He compares the brand recognition vVv Gaming has to that of McDonalds in that when their brand is put in front of a male demographic ages 14-29, it is recognized and trusted.  According to Prochazka, “We bring these strengths to our partners.  Gaming is exploding, and I can’t think of a better time to be a part of it”. 

In order to futher extend the reach of their property, vVv Gaming has turned to SponsorPark.  “SponsorPark is a true partner.  They understand that their clients need a marketplace to share their value proposition, as well as a space where opportunities abound” said Prochazka. 
 
Preferred Partners?
vVv Gaming has a strong male demographic aged 14-29, and partnering with vVv Gaming allows sponsors to have their brand presented across multiple mediums in a way that doesn’t feel forced.  vVv Gamings demographic understands the organic interaction between brands and sponsors and how critical it is to their overall success and enjoyment.  To learn more about vVv Gaming and contact property owners, visit their SponsorPark listing.

You ever get home from a date and say, “that was amazing – I wonder if they had as much fun as I did.”  And the more you care, the more you make sure to find out.  Well, in sponsorship, it’s just as important to find out if the experience was as good for them as it was for you.  We all know that what you consider successful might not be what the sponsor considers successful, so in order not to play the guessing game, you have to start out by first finding out what they want, and then creating an activation strategy that makes that happen to the best of your abilities. But while good intentions are fine and dandy, you have to be smart about constructing a successful measurement strategy.  As you consider the development of your activation effort, you must consider what you are implementing to ensure optimal measurability.  What are you doing to support the ROI reporting to your partner when the event is said and done?  The name of the game is: generate calls to action, and measure the response.  Have I been clear?  I know, I’ll stop saying it now and get to the application piece… I have a few ideas for you to consider: 

• Bounceback coupons. I come from the world of retail, and trust me, bounceback coupons work.  They each had a unique code on them that could be traced back not only to the specific individual who redeemed it (or at least who it was mailed to), but also to which bounceback we were redeeming.  Very trackable.  Do you have a sponsor who wants to see sales happen as a result of the partnership?  Hand out coupons (maybe on the event tickets?) with say 20% off that sponsor’s merchandise.  Create a unique way to measure how many were redeemed – remember they must be distinguished to your unique event/partnership activation.  While it’s true that they could be redeemed further in the future (unless you specify otherwise), most will be redeemed sooner than later, and you’ll need to provide data to support this within a given time frame. 
• Quantified exposure on all marketing fronts – including social media: this one is not terribly new.  Any time you can accurately define the exposure they got with a particular group of people, measure it.  Do you have 3,000 followers on Twitter?  Offer a call to action which includes your sponsor (and is trackable), and in your ROI report include specifics.  Ex: 25 tweets over the course of 1 week with _____ call to action to our over 3,000 followers. 200 responded to call to action, 15 retweeted to their followers producing another 25 responses.  What can this call to action look like? Maybe you’re driving traffic to their website to vote on a product, or perhaps you’re asking them to indicate their preference in  new services, or share a video about how the sponsor has impacted them.
• Give target audience incentive to market for you.   This really piggybacks off the last tip because it’s typically pretty measurable – especially through social media.  I love the campaign by Legal Zoom when they essentially invited their target audience to create and submit a video telling the story of how they used Legal Zoom services and how it affected their life/small business.  If they won the contest they would be featured in a commercial advertisement on television. Good marketing for both parties involved.  I can still remember some of the winners.  This not only gave many of their clients incentive to market on their behalf through new media (the life of online videos are not time sensitive), but they also gave them incentive to drive people to watch these videos because part of the consideration for the winner was how many votes they received.  Brilliant. As a partner to a brand with an effort like this, you can underscore their effort by leveraging your contacts and creative activation strategies to support their call to action – and measure it.

There are really no limits to how you can measure successes. And you definitely want to think through how you’re going to communicate this valuable tidbit when you provide ROI to your sponsor.  Just remember, if you ask for nothing, you could receive anything – try measuring that… Ask for something and communicate the result, measure progress, and improve the behaviors that drive the action you want reinforced. Boom.  Success.