connecting people,opportunities and ideas

It is with great pleasure that I announce two new members of the LinkedIn, Sponsorship Insights Group Leadership Team.  Chris Hughes and Claire Ritchie will be working on a strategic plan to enhance the awareness of our group and capture both traditional and non-traditional media exposure.

Please let us know if and how you would like to contribute through discussion forums, job postings, recruitment, blogging or writing guest articles in our newsletter.

SINE QUA NON INTERNATIONAL: A BRIEF INTRODUCTION
•    Founded in 2001 by Claire Ritchie, Sine Qua Non creates opportunities for brands, whether for companies looking to develop revenues and relationships or for rights holder looking for exposure, we provide outstanding experiences with exceptional returns. From strategy to activation and implementation, SQN creates and manages brand connection for clients in a range of sports and other sponsorship areas which create equity and add value.
•    Our highly experienced team have held key marketing positions client and rights holder side giving us a 360° perspective enabling us to get under the skin of a brand. We make sure that projects are aligned to business objectives with a well thought out, targeted, strategic approach with measurable results that deliver a clear ROI.
•    We have a particular expertise in technology enabled sponsorships. (more…)

This blog is topical as many of us are looking for work,  Here is what I am doing:

1.  Networking online – Facebook is or can be a business tool, LinkedIn is fantastic, blogging

2.  Networking offline – I belong to MENG, Luxury Marketing Council and others to try to meet thought leaders and ask for mentorship

3.  Positioning myself as a thought-leader – by blogging and leading roundtables at conferences and hosting groups on social networking sites

4.  Subscribe to job search engine sites – Monster, CareerBuilder, etcetera, and specialty sites in your industry IEG, Marketing Sherpa

5.  Ask friends for personal introductions and do informational interviews and do the same for others

6.  Help others looking for work – karma works and the payback will come around

7.  Volunteer – show your willingness to work and capabilities

8.  Don’t let your ego get in the way – do whatever it takes to find connections and be helpful to others

9.  Deeply reflect on your interests and capabilities – don’t try to put a round peg in a square hole

10.  Keep you chin up – the serenity prayer is not just for people in AA.  Accept the things you cannot change, change the things you can and have the wisdom to know the difference.

As always, I welcome your feedback and input!

As many people may have heard, Michael Phelps was recently photographed while smoking from a bong at a party in South Carolina. Almost immediately, Kellogg’s, the maker of cereals like Wheaties and Corn Flakes, dropped their sponsorship of him, claiming that Phelps’ apparent marijuana usage is “not consistent with the image of Kellogg.”
This is an example of the trend with brands to distance themselves from those who endorse their products or services when those people make a mistake or are alleged to have made a mistake, either socially or legally. (more…)

Everyone played it as a kid. It was a traditional backyard game. All you needed was a basketball, a hoop, a friend, and a little creativity. You know it: H-O-R-S-E. And now the NBA is adding it to its All Star Game festivities. Joe Johnson, Kevin Durant and OJ Mayo are set to participate in the event’s premiere Saturday, February 14 at 5 p.m.

However, the game will have one strange twist. It won’t be called H-O-R-S-E. Instead, it will be called G-E-I-C-O in honor of one of the league’s leading sponsors. Players will compete to avoid spelling out the name of the prominent car insurance company.

Some may see the addition of the event as an ode to nostalgia, but its modified name only further proves just how significant sponsorship dollars are to the sport industry. In 2007, sponsorships accounted for $490 million of the NBA’s revenue. Most teams will bring in at least $6 million in sponsorships per year, and some will bring in over $20 million. Needless to say, corporate partnerships have are becoming the new wave way of making big money in sports.

The entire All Star Game weekend has over 20 sponsors alone, with Adidas, T-Mobile, Right Guard, and Southwest Airlines included. Right Guard will sponsor the new Block Party event and Southwest Airlines will host a police vs. firemen contest. (more…)

The difference between advertising and sponsorship is that advertising can be an element of sponsorship.

While sponsorship offers extensions – vertically, horizontally, experientially and, hopefully, when done right, digitally  and transformationally.

Amazingly, even in these tough economic times, Super Bowl advertising and sponsorships sold out, generating $200 million in revenue.  However, the angle for some, like Hyundai was slanted to promote their ground-breaking return policy.  You can read more about it in the NYT article.

Some were good, some bad.  You can read reveiws from AdAge here.

In terms of activation, I thought that HULU did a good job of aligning with NBC to promote themselves simply and direct traffic to their website to view the Super Bowl commercials.  It was what good sponsorship should be:  relevant, synergistic, integrated and consumer-centric.

They even made it a little dificult to find the commercials by not putting a tab on the front page for easy navigation.  This forced consumers (me) to learn about the site (and find classic SNL skits).  I now have their site bookmarked.  Smart.

For an All-American game and sport, I thought, it was about time for The Boss or at least an American act to perform at halftime.  And Wow.  What a National Anthem performance, by Jennifer Hudson!  But why coudn’t I find it on Hulu?

What are your thoughts?

I re-listened to the IEG 2009 Trends webinar and got a few more nuggets that I wanted to share and some insights/analysis:

• Sponsorship spending grew by 11.4% in 2008 but is projected to only grow by 2.2% in 2009
• Of the nearly 17 Billion sponsorship dollars spent by North American Companies, most will continue to be spent on sports (68%), however, they project to only grow by 1.8%
• Of all sectors, sports is projected to be the slowest growing at 1.8%
• Sectors with biggest growth opportunities are festivals, fairs and annual events, associations and member organizations (4.4%).

Given these numbers, what are some suggestions for sellers?  (more…)

I recently attended a webinar hosted by IEG on trends for 2009 and found it informative and enjoyed some very insightful comments by their Chairman, Lesa Ukman. 

First the statistics, according to IEG, North American Sponsorship spending is supposed to increase by only 2.2% as opposed to a growth last year of 11.2%.  While weak, this is a much better than (more…)

Today, we are offering a guest columnist in this blog space. Please provide your feedback and let me know if you’d like to be a guest blogger on this site.

Developing New Sponsorships in Challenging Times

By Kevin Bartram

Principal, Bartram Sponsorship Strategies

We all know this fact – the state of the nation’s economy has not been this bad for generations and the conditions are not likely to improve any time soon. Corporations are reducing spending, particularly in any areas deemed discretionary, which is how many would classify sponsorships.

So how can an organization develop new sponsors in these tough times? The answer is to work on principle, establish a solid foundation and offer true value that will resonate with the companies deemed most desirable for partnership. Be authentic and professional in your approach while truly focusing on the needs of the companies being approached. It’s easy to say that you’re committed to establishing partnerships – it’s another thing to truly act like a partner. Remember that, regardless of the type of organization you represent, your sponsors are most likely looking at your organization as a channel for driving business, however directly or indirectly.

While one might be tempted to simply have a fire sale and cut any deal possible, now is the time to get buttoned down, revisit and update your sponsorship plan and make sure that the information being taken to prospective sponsors reflects the reality of the market and speaks to the unique needs of the corporate audience. Here are some actions to consider as you look ahead to a challenging 2009 (and beyond) in your effort to secure sponsorship revenue to fund your endeavor.

Ø  Have a formal plan and defined sponsorship program that shows the prospect that you mean business, that your organization is stable with a low risk factor. Corporations are generally risk averse but, in times like these, risk is often the biggest influencer in making spending decisions.

Ø  Present your offering not from the position of how wonderful your organization is (aren’t they all?) but how association with your group and access to its offerings can help companies do what they are in the business of doing.

Ø  Consider approaching your sponsorship packaging from the perspective of identifying and providing access to your assets. What a company is actually purchasing when investing in a sponsorship is access to the unique assets of the sponsored organization, whether brand affinity, a unique audience, events, media or direct business opportunities.

Ø  Don’t come off as desperate or fearful – potential sponsors can sense this from a mile away and won’t likely provide funds to an organization whose financial viability is strongly in question. Fear and desperation will drive away the risk averse in droves.

Ø  Take advantage of the tough times by clearly positioning your offering as a business solution – as a means to drive business, generate sales and deepen relationships with potential new customers. As with all of these tools, one must apply them authentically, in a way that reflects the true nature of the organization seeking sponsorship. Be sure that what you are offering can truly be delivered.

Ø  Offer your business whenever possible. Be ready to act like a true partner and make business commitments to the companies from which you are seeking sponsorship funds. And, by extension, be sure to approach those companies with which you do business with your sponsorship offering and seek quid pro quo from them as well.

Ø  Consider pursuing sponsors for your organization’s “green” efforts but only if truly committed to taking actual measures to address environmental matters. Of course, many companies are jumping on the green bandwagon and sponsored organizations have adjusted to take a green position, whether genuine or not. This is a fertile area in which to seek sponsorship and will likely be so for years to come but the pretenders are easily weeded out and reputations can be damaged by making claims that do not hold up when scrutinized.

Ø  Always have a professional presentation, a clean website, and take a respectful, consultative approach when recruiting sponsors. This may seem second nature and go without saying but, having sat on the corporate side for the past year, I can state first-hand that there are still many seeking sponsorship with poorly crafted, unprofessional offerings that come primarily from a position of need. Lead by clearly stating the strengths of your organization and how your assets can help prospective sponsors enhance their businesses and you should at least get some attention, the first step toward generating new sponsorships in tough – or any – times.

As a means for helping organizations develop or enhance their sponsorship offerings, I am making available my CD training courses, Sponsorship 101 and Sponsorship 201 to Dan Beeman’s Linkedin Sponsorship Insights Group at a special low rate of 20% off. Designed to guide sponsorship professionals, new or experienced, in the art of sponsorship development, each CD is comprised of a one hour training program, led by yours truly, with presentations and bonus materials that provide access to intelligence gleaned over more than 15 years in the business. The programs are based on my successful webinar series administered with Sponsorwise and contain a wide range of valuable practices I have used in developing major sponsorships on behalf of both corporate and property clients.

Regularly priced at $149 each, we are making each program available to this group for $119. A package with both 101 and 201 can be purchased for $199 (regular price 249.00). We are also sharing revenues with Sponsorship Insights to help fund this valuable networking and information service. Oh, and shipping is free. The contents of these programs would cost thousands of dollars if delivered by way of a consulting relationship and each contain many practices that, if properly deployed, will generate a direct ROI many times greater than the programs cost.

Please click on this link for more information on our training programs. http://www.sponsorshipstrategies.com 

Place your order, then type in the promotion code: insights for your 20% discount. You’ll have your CDs in a week or so to help you in your quest.

Good luck and here’s to a prosperous and positively event-ful 2009.

Kevin Bartram Bio (more…)

• Brand visibility: Pre-Olympic promotional programs were implemented in conjunction with partnering financial institutions in 46 different countries. Visa definitely gained exposure during the actual two and a half week period, and the new Visa card accounts that were opened during this timeframe further extended the visibility factor post-Olympics.
• Increased sales: Visa not only increased its sales volume during the Games, it also had an opportunity to more effectively showcase products other than its credit cards. During the Torino Winter Olympics Visa issued 650,000 prepaid cards in direct relation to Olympic transactions, and similar results can be expected of the recent Summer Games.
• Enhanced brand image: This is where the value of exclusivity becomes ambiguous. Consumers tend to use credit cards for the convenience factor. Ironically, Visa created an inconvenient situation for anyone who did not already use a Visa credit card or would have preferred to use another card for whatever reason (corporate card, reward points, etc.). Furthermore, consumers have generally come to expect the freedom of paying for their purchases with their major credit card of choice so the Visa-only policy has resulted in many an unpleasant purchasing experience and has generated a certain degree of backlash. On the other hand, their exclusivity on such a prestigious event may have caused some purchasers to wish they had a Visa!