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PM Forum - Liverpool
Secrets of successful sponsorship
Corporate sponsorship used to be about one of two things: pure philanthropy or positive PR. But increasingly, larger and more innovative organisations are looking at external relations as a way of doing business more responsibly and engaging more effectively with stakeholders.
With Liverpool's Capital of Culture year off to a flying start, and predicted to bring in millions of extra visitors to the city before the end of 2008, two of the event's key figures came together at Deloitte's Liverpool office on Tuesday 15 April to explore the key ingredients of a successful sponsorship agreement.
Cathy Meadows, Sponsorship Manager at Liverpool Culture Company, began by explaining the organisation's sponsorship strategy. Rather than allowing firms to sponsor one-off events, the Culture Company made the decision early on to build long-term, mutually beneficial relationships with sponsors by adopting a tiered structure of 'partners', 'supporters', 'suppliers' and 'friends'. That meant that the earlier in the planning stages that an organisation came on board with their sponsorship, the greater the return they would see from their investment.
Tracy Hunt, Capital of Culture Events Manager at official Liverpool 08 partner, Alliance & Leicester Commercial Bank (ALCB), explained the benefits that the organisation had experienced as a result of signing up in 2005 - a full three years before the event itself.
Having recently made a round of redundancies, ALCB had made the decision to join up early in order to re-engage the workforce and display its commitment to the city of Liverpool. In 2006, after hiring Tracy, a full-time member of staff dedicated to activating its sponsorship, the bank set about this by organising a series of staff and family events. ALCB also exploited its early involvement in Liverpool 08 to organise a series of breakfast seminars and networking events, specifically target local businesswomen. These types of events were then repeated throughout 2007, building the bank's profile and repositioning it within the market as a forward-thinking organisation.
Incorporating the Liverpool 08 branding into all of its corporate literature, ALCB also selected a local charity and employed a match donation scheme, allowing it to give back effectively to the community.
While outlining the positive potential outcomes, Tracy also warned the audience not to rush into a large-scale sponsorship agreement without careful planning. Those without the in-house resource necessary to effectively activate such a sponsorship will struggle to see a return on their investment and, once paid for, the agreement must exploited to its fullest. Measuring return on investment (ROI) is also crucial to ensure the buy-in of key decision-makers within the organisation.
In ALCB's case, ROI was measured against three key factors: new business won; brand benchmark; and staff morale. In order to ensure that the sponsorship could be used to win business for the bank, key business targets were invited to share in the corporate hospitality at the opening event. This resulted in at least one large piece of new business won. In terms of brand benchmarking, surveys have shown that regional awareness is now significantly higher, at around 23 per cent. Employee surveys have also been used to measure staff engagement, which is notably higher than following the earlier redundancies.
ALCB is one example of an organisation that has effectively harnessed a sponsorship agreement to achieve positive results. For those considering such an arrangement, Cathy and Tracy had six golden rules to adhere to: know your objectives; match the event to your organisation; know what assets you bring to the table; allocate resources to activating your sponsorship; tie in with marketing plans; and don't forget your employees.
Lauren Jones
MC2
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