3
08
2011
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.