Sponsorship and its activation evolved principally out of PR, it gave PR exciting and credible content to build stories around brands.
As the industry developed, other benefits to sponsorship beyond PR content evolved (brand awareness, image association, sales, etc.) and in response sponsorship became content to be leveraged across other disciplines. Whilst this has been a success for the industry, we increasingly found and find ourselves being measured by factors out of our control. ‘Our success often sits in the hands of others…’
Furthermore the economic pressures of the last few years have driven brands to either end of the sponsorship objectives continuum. On one end, Sponsorship as a ‘cost effective’ brand awareness/ stature vehicle, and the other, Sponsorship as a means of engaging consumers/ customers through their passions and in their leisure time. The middle, the unrealistic staple of the last 15 years has now gone.
If you’re using sponsorship for engagement, then we need to find a new lease of life and take back control of our discipline. Could Social Media be that opportunity? We think so. The union of Social Media with Sponsorship works, because;
1. The way consumers behave - Social Media is heavily fuelled by ‘shared interests & passions’, and 2. Sponsorship engages through ‘shared interests and passions’, but with Social Media, Sponsorship can now deliver;
- Greater Richness and Closeness
- Bigger Reach for Less
- Longevity beyond a single event
- An easy transition into CRM/ Sales
- Measurement like never before
Ben Pincus
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