I’m a big fan of nectarines. They have this sweet, juicy, soft, mouthwatering flavor that is just so satisfying and refreshing on any day of the week… OK, I might have to go find one now. But if you’ve ever taken a bite out of your favorite fruit and it was not quite ripe, the experience is NOT the same. The flavor has not matured, the texture is all wrong, and your craving is just not quenched. It definitely doesn’t draw you into picking up another! Sponsorship partnerships are the same way. There are some partners that are ripe and ready to work with, and there are other sponsors (and even properties) that are still maturing, still transforming, still growing, and they aren’t ready to be the ideal partner.
So, what signs indicate a partner is “ripe” for your sponsorship? Here’s just a few:
1. Their portfolio of partnerships aligns with your offering – if you’re a professional MMA fighter knocking on the door of a sponsor whose focus has always been in child hunger or “green” living, don’t waste your time. If you are organizing a walk for diabetes in your city and you know of businesses who LOVE to participate in community specific efforts related to your audience – pick up the phone and call them! Is your primary offering related to the marketing focus you’ve seen in a particular sponsor’s history? Good sign! The point is that the story of a sponsor’s portfolio should really resonate with and point to a partnership like what you have to offer. If your partnership opportunity sticks out like a sore thumb in their portfolio, the chances are they’re not going to be terribly interested, and you don’t want to take up precious time explaining your value around every curve vs. simply finding a partner that “get’s you.”
2. Their values and mission align with yours – basically the partnership should make sense. We often ask our clients what kind of sponsor they would be interested in. We can always tell from their response what kind of partner they would likely be. It’s really important to find a partner whose brand identity resonates with or complements the image you are portraying. This means that not only will your target audience likely align, but your messages to this audience will be underscored. It doesn’t help a company, or you, to activate messages to your audience that deviate from the central message you typically send. This won’t be leverage friendly in the sponsor’s other marketing efforts, nor will it flow with your own efforts. You want to be able to be such a good fit to a sponsor’s marketing focuses that they’re truly excited to hear from you and the ideas flow for customized partnership activation. The value is clear.
3. There’s no current drama in their industry – An example of this would be when just a short time ago when businesses were receiving TARP funds. There were a lot of mixed feelings then from the consumer about what right a brand had to invest in “unnecessary” spending that portrayed them as frivolous or irresponsible with their dollars. Whether or not you have a great way to partner with these individuals, my personal standpoint that NOT all publicity is good publicity; and you don’t want to be affiliated with a partner who has bigger fish to fry with a faltering brand image. You probably won’t get the attention you deserve while they’re busy addressing other prioritized needs, and you won’t have a clear and strong message to send together other than your explanations for why you moved forward as partners at this time.
4. There is time to leverage a customized partnership – this is personally where I tend to get on my soap box. I think because of the surprising number of proposal listing representatives we get that that seem to be blindsided by the fact that we don’t think 2-4 weeks is long enough to activate a good partnership. Even when you have the most incredible sponsorship opportunity ever, it doesn’t make a difference in the world if your sponsor doesn’t have the ability to leverage it for all it’s worth simply because it’s too soon. This is really one of those where you have to look in the mirror and decide if YOU are ripe fruit as a property rep. From a sponsor’s perspective, don’t invest in a new partner when you don’t have time to fully take advantage of the benefits. The only time I would even consider entertaining this idea is if there is a significant discount since the value of the partnership goes down with fewer days to activate it.
5. There has been adequate planning for your program or event – you’re out of the idea phase and into the action/implementation phase. At SponsorPark we make it a habit to connect with our brand new members about a week or so out from when they register with us. We want to wrap our minds around what their sponsorship efforts and event/program look like from their perspective, that way when we’re campaigning to sponsors we might recall some good fits. Every so often we run into a property that is really just not sure how to answer many of our questions. They don’t know quite how much they’re looking for in funding, they haven’t considered the benefits they have to offer a sponsor, or perhaps they know what they are hoping for in an audience or venue but NOTHING has been set in stone to offer as a guarantee to a sponsor. They are still writing their business plan and this is NOT the phase to reach out to a sponsor. Sponsors don’t want to waste their time hearing what could happen, they want to hear about what you’re going to do based on intelligent data, commitments from venues or celebrity endorsers, etc (my favorite is when there are no answers to our detailed questions, but somehow this is all going to take off in 2 months). Make sure to have your ducks in a row, and then start the hunt for a sponsor – how can you even know if you’re a good fit for them unless you have more of these details ironed out?
These are obviously just a handful of examples to start with. Do you have any best practice “ripe fruit” identifiers to add? By all means, we’d love to hear from you!