Event Sponsorship – What your Company Needs to Know!

Event sponsorship is support provided by an organisation in return for marketing around an event.  Events offer low risk opportunities to make a personal connection with an audience and increasingly companies are including event sponsorship as a core element of their marketing strategy.  

Why Should your Company Sponsor an Event? 

According to IEG, global sponsorship totalled $62 billion in 2017 and is forecasted to grow.  Assessing the merits of traditional marketing, event sponsorship can offer greater ROI.  The combined marketing value of events – content creation, direct reach, media exposure, brand differentiation and activations – the efficiency in which it’s delivered and the lasting impact can outweigh more conventional means of connecting with a target audience.   It is seen as a moderately low budget route to a potentially high marketing yield.  

Event sponsorship can provide easier wins in community relations as it presents brands to highly engaged audiences and often, when multiple options are available, the social aspect or networking sectionals can be the most sought after by brands.  Through selective sponsorship, organisations can position themselves as thought leaders and educators in their field, building trust through outreach, something which can differentiate their brand from competitors.  

Event sponsorship an offer brands direct interaction with consumers through experiential activities.  These  activations can create lasting content for brands to use on multiple media platforms ensuring the resulting marketing collateral works harder for less cost.  At a basic level, these interactions and attendee data can provide invaluable insights and inform future marketing.

At a time when digital events are steadily increasing, virtual event sponsorship has opened up more possibilities.  The digital space offers a global reach which can provide greater lead generation and expansion.  All the benefits of sponsoring an in-person event can be replicated, often in a more comprehensive way and platform providers are constantly innovating to offer fresh choice. 

Types of Event Sponsorships

Categorised into four main types, different sponsorships suit different brand requirements.  Financial is the main form of sponsorship where organisations give money in exchange for marketing benefits.  Event organisers usually offer tiered financial sponsorship packages which allow for brands to have different levels of involvement that suits their needs and budget, the lead sponsor usually providing the most money.  In Kind sponsorship can be more accessible as organisations provide goods and services in return for in-event marketing.  This can be prizes, equipment, products, catering, even staffing.  This is a very open style of sponsorship as anything that event producers need to run the event can be traded for marketing. Media Partners are sponsors who usually promote the event on various platforms, this is a growing area of sponsorship as communication channels grow in the digital space. Lastly Promotional Partnerships are similar to Media Sponsors but involve individuals, usually influencers or media personalities.

So You’re Sold on the Idea of Sponsorship…What’s Next?   

Event sponsorship can seem like the ideal marketing tactic however ensuring the right event fit is critical to success.  There can be considerable reputational risk in impulsive associations and many companies engage the services of an event agency who can expediently craft a mutually beneficial partnership.  In advance of taking any action however you need to ask some questions to make sure the event is aligned to your brand? 

Key Considerations in becoming an Event Sponsor

• What are the event details – do they suit your organisational calendar and activity?
• What is the event purpose and vision and does it align with you organisation’s objectives and values?
• What’s the event theme – Is the subject matter suitable for your brand?
• What are the benefits for your brand being associated and is the ROI sufficient? 
• What’s the attendee profile – is this your target market?
• What is the event production like – Is there any reputational risk by association?
• Why is this event different from others – will you gain brand differentiation through association? 
• How will the event organisers measure the event’s success and what metrics will be available to you? 

Talk to us about Event Sponsorship and Promotional Partnerships 

As a producer of many live and corporate events, DXB Event Works have engineered extremely successful sponsorships and partnerships for major brands in Dubai, the UAE and Europe.  Talk to us about creating meaningful commercial associations for your brand and we’ll demonstrate how event sponsorship can maximise your ROI with case studies such as our previous events.