9
09
2009
You know that feeling when you get a good idea? Not just a “huh, nice thought,” idea, but an “oh my goodness! Where’s a pen? Why has no one thought of this before?!” idea. Yeah, there are some entrepreneurs, event planners and brilliant marketers smiling right now - you know what I’m talking about! It’s like it produces in you a supernatural drive, a hunger to taste the reality of this vision - you suddenly have unbelievable stamina – which is great! If you can slow down for a brief second and think about what it’s going to take to get there, do the research, crunch some numbers, and get a good action plan in place. That’s why great teams have both a visionary- the one with the grand ideas and undeniable passion; and a doer – a doer is usually a thinker and implementer – someone who does their homework and researches the best route to take to make the concept work.
Sponsorship Opportunities or Properties are almost always visionaries – they’re very excited about a particular idea or concept, and the next step is simply to slow down and make sure they are also being a planner, a researcher, and an implementer. There’s this interesting new show out called “Shark Tank,” where entrepreneurs pitch their ideas to business sharks hoping for their monetary support – it always shocks me how many of them don’t have critically relevant information to offer, research to present which supports the why’s of the investment! Of course they are ripped to shreds by the sharks which is apparently what makes good entertainment… These days there are so many sponsorship opportunities or marketing mediums for a sponsor to market through; so as one who represents a great sponsorship opportunity, you need to gather some critical information and present it in such a way that a sponsor will look at you twice! I recently chatted with a Strategic Partnership’s manager at Coca-Cola who informed me that it was incredible how many potentially fantastic properties pitched their sponsorship idea – without relevant information. He politely told them to come back when they put together a relevant proposal, when they stared blankly across the table and finally dared to ask what he wanted to see, he said “well, I’m not going to coach you on how to take my money, but if you can figure it out we can meet again.” Wow. That being the case we’ve decided to walk through what we inventoried from some incredible active sponsors as “relevant” and “critical” information in an initial proposal. This initial proposal is not customized to the sponsor’s specific objectives yet – that is something you will do after you get in the door with the most appropriate sponsors when you’ve had a chance to cast your vision and ask them what they might want out of the partnership. Keep in mind this vision casting initial proposal is not just an emotional, feel good document. It needs to include quantitative evidence of success around the criteria most important to potential sponsors. Here’s what you include:
• Detailed Description
• Pictures
• Timeframes / deadlines
• Media Exposure
• Target Audience / Market Information
• Sponsor Packages and Benefits
• Event Analysis
• Current Sponsors Involved
Each of these items Stephanie and I will be breaking down in future blogs – so stay tuned! In the meantime, tell us about a time that you were able to present an idea to a group of people and truly generate excitement? What worked best for you?