Week 9 Blog- Sponsorship and Event Management

1. I think the key points to remember from this week's readings were...
Sponsorship: purchase of specific rights and benefits associated with an event, organisation or individual. It expects a return.
- It has changed over the years to be known as ‘corporate partnerships’.
- Sponsorship generates goodwill, as well as providing opportunities to enhance the image and reputation of the organisation by association.
- Sponsorship is one of the most expensive tactics.
- It has moved from being simplistically regarded to being a representation of community partnering.
- The larger an event is, the more likely it is to require some form of sponsorship.
Types of sponsorship: Philanthropic sponsorship- close to a donation as sponsorship can get. It is community based.
· Corporate sponsorship- sponsorship of an event that is not normally connected to the business or organisation.
· Marketing sponsorship- most popular, offers cash and goods in return for tangible revenue-oriented results. This type has a quantifiable effect on the company’s bottom line.
Writing a sponsorship proposal: The officials involved in the decision making about sponsorship include the sponsorship manager, marketing manager, and/or the public relations manager.
- The first point of contact in requesting sponsorship is usually through a written proposal.
- Keep it short and relevant to the reader and most of all be comprehensive about what the potential sponsor is being offered.
Ambush marketing: this occurs when a company misrepresents itself as being associated with an event when it has no official, legal or moral rights to do so.
- This false and misleading information can destroy the concept of sponsorship and the viability of some events.
- There are certain steps that can be followed in order to avoid ambush, these include:
· Ensuring the target audience knows who the real sponsors are.
· Introducing integrated marketing as a component of the overall sponsorship strategy.
- The most common avenues for event ambushing are:
· Advertising in event publications.
· Signage sales
· Sponsorship of an individual or sporting team.
· Sponsoring the broadcast of the event.
· Sponsoring the sub-categories within the event.
· Buying advertising time around relays of the competitor’s event.
· Staging major promotions that coincided with the event.
Event management: Events include- conferences, sports activities, launches, openings, community or political meetings, breakfasts or dinners, and lectures.
- They are an opportunity to make news.
- Common reasons for an event are:
· Generation of media coverage
· Creating a platform for product demonstration
· Corporate/client entertainment
· Revenue generation
- Events can be expensive, therefore an adequate budget and strong financial management are both necessary.
- This often requires good sponsorship support and credibility in the eyes of the sponsor.
- A comprehensive public relations strategy is a vital factor in event management, which needs to be designed specifically for the event.
- Special events usually only provide the opportunity for media coverage for a short period of time.
- Event publicity aims to extend the target audience beyond the event’s spectators and participants.
- Most major events set up a media centre on the premises.
- Can be an ideal forum to launch or market a product with a view to attracting future sales as well as generating publicity.
- Product demonstration can present opportunities for credible third party endorsement of a particular product.
- Some events have the sole purpose of impressing key clients and developing new business opportunities.
- Special events can make money if carefully planned and budgeted for.
Creating events: There are four general steps that should be followed in order to create a successful event:
· Feasibility
· Planning- list of duties and time management plan for implementation, event committee formed. A checklist is a helpful tool.
· Execution- includes the critical path: details exactly what should be happening at any time, and is a fundamental aspect to the effective management of an event.
· Evaluation- there are three primary methods of evaluation:
-Debriefing meeting
- Event assessment- in terms of patronage and financial performance.
- Business activity assessment- helps to gain an indication of the benefit to local businesses by investigating business activity during the event.
Budgeting: Requires an eye for operational detail and consideration of items that are not usually included in the primarily administration focused PR budget.
- The two main areas are income and expenditure.
Risk management: Strong crisis and issues management practices, as well as dedication to risk management required.
- Risk analysis process: identify à evaluate à manage à Output: risk response procedure and documents.

2. The readings made me think more about public relations theory/practice in that …
Sponsorship is a two way street as the responsibility for positive benefits are being taken by the event organiser and the sponsor. It is a very valuable tool for the PR practitioner to use if they can, in order to publicise and create further awareness of the business or organisation. The reading made me realise there is a lot more to sponsorship and special events than I previously knew. They are not just a simple matter of Leighton Hewitt wearing Nike clothing when playing tennis. I like the format of this text book in that it doesn’t just tell you what you should do, but it always provides a list of the things to avoid.