connecting people,opportunities and ideas

When they are touring.

When they are brand friendly.

When they are committed to great causes.

When they provide authentic integration.

When they have significant reach and range to a targeted audience.

When they have not hit bigtime, but are about to…

Announcing an amazing opportunity:

Want to read about the hottest job opportunities, upcoming conferences, insightful blogs, exclusive articles and discounts, best-practices alliance partners?

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For more information about me and our services, please click on the links below.

Dan Beeman

Sponsorship Insights Group

Phone: 818.433.4239

Skype: danbeeman1

We are a global networking group and sponsorship consulting/sales agency. We connect properties with brands.  We help buyers and sellers increase efficiency and profitability.  How can we help you?

For more information, please click on:

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LinkedIn Profile, Join my LinkedIn Group on Sponsorship, Twitter, Facebook Profile

Although I missed the Blogworld Expo in Las Vegas last week, I got a good sense of what was discussed from a blog that was written by Jason Peck and videos found the front page of their site.  I especially enjoyed the perspective on what Ford is doing with social media.  Check out the video here.

Ford Social Media Expert

Guy Kawasaki also launched a really cool aggregator site of great bloggers and blogs according to categories

Were you there?  what did you get out of it?

Love this photo and great sponsorship integration of Safeway.  They get huge, national exposure from a local event and also drive traffic to retail – big win!  The banner-hangers were also pretty strategic in getting this angle and the publicist was good at getting photographers to take the pictures from the best location.  Also, note the integration of the American Flag – subtle yet prominent and increases the earned equity for sponsors and the festival as All-American.  Lastly, enjoy the exuberance of the winner.  They gotta get him in the pumpkin pie-eating contest.  He is a sure winner.  Just a snapshot, but says it all.  Check out event details at www.miramarevents.com

HALF MOON BAY, CALIFORNIA (October 13, 2009) — Iowa grower Don Young blew out a tire in Wyoming en route from Des Moines but fortunately his burly 1,658-pound gourd made it safely to yesterday’s 36th Annual Safeway World Championship Pumpkin Weigh-Off in Half Moon Bay, California where he obliterated the field and (more…)

Here is the Tuesday Morning briefing e-newsletter from my friend Brent Barootes and his take on sponsorship management.

I once heard the term (and have since used it on many occasions) that sponsorship is like babysitting. As a property (someone who sells sponsorship) you really become a “babysitter” for your sponsors. The longer I am in this business, the more I agree. But recently I have felt the term may better be “mentor” or “consultant”.

I do believe it is the role of the property to educate, to advise and to work with a sponsor to truly understand sponsorship. No one knows the property better than the property owner. The property must hold the hand of the sponsor and walk them through, show them what they can provide within their organization to help the sponsor achieve their goals. (Or for those of you that read this commentary last week, to ‘take away the hurt’.) Sponsors are busy. On average according to the 2009 Canadian Sponsorship Landscape Study, sponsors have investments in 12 properties and receive hundreds of submissions. The property that can “help” the sponsor to better understand how they can assist; who can hold their hand to give them ideas on activation; show them unique opportunities that will WOW their target audience and watch over their budgets for them will be successful.

Perhaps when we start out with a property we need to babysit our sponsors. But as we grow our role changes from babysitter to mentor or consultant. Properties are not there to “sell” product to sponsor. In the best of all worlds, they are there to consult, mentor and advise sponsors and prospective sponsors on how to “take away the hurt” and gain results that matter.

This is one person’s thoughts. Yours are welcomed as well so email me at brent@partnershipgroup.ca or visit our web site for more information by clicking on Partnership Group – Sponsorship Specialists and thank you for reading.

Brent Barootes
President
Partnership Group – Sponsorship Specialists

Kathleen Hessert @kathleenhessert is live blogging from SBJ’s Sponsorship Symposium today in NYC.

She has posted some juicy tidbits about sponsorship and social media. Here are some of my favorites:

“Sponsorship hasn’t changed. The world has changed.It’s been a sobering year”

AmEx Rich Learfield VP Global says Social Media allows them to gain scale & engage passionate fans so we look for best ideas

Soc media importance will grow more w/location based services @tpmcghee ie where fans congregate after game? share pic of experience

Anheuser Busch doubling spend on social media. Huge platform to access fan base- ask fans imp questions. Want to go where fans are

talked to several sports ppl w/influence last night in NY who still don’t have a clue- others part of the social media momentum

Not re: brand awareness must be activation according 2 Dan McHugh- Anheuser Busch. Partners must ans. How can U move more beer

Gatorade dropped TV spend from 87% of budget last year to 66% this year. Digital marketing moves from 0% to 6%

ROI is king BUT @tpmcghee AT&T says sponsors don’t have answers to what makes ROI which is 1 reason why sharing doesn’t happen

NFL CMO says must look at fans dfferently, sponsors differently. Dialogue must B deeper but partners won’t share metrics for ROI

Yesterday I took my kids to to Six Flags, Hurricane Harbor in Valencia, CA.  I had promised the trip all summer and waited until the crowds died down and the weather was still warm.  It was a good strategy – we had fun and there were few lines.

As you know from reading this blog, I am always thinking about sponsorship and revenue enhancements for properties, so I took a few mental notes.  Overall, I saw lots of opportunities for new revenue and other ways to better enhance their existing partners activation.

Opportunities

• Property naming rights sales opportunities.  What does Six Flags even mean anyway?
• Ride, parking lot or area naming rights
• Partnerships with non-profits to drive traffic in slower season, create third party promotions
• Adult-area sections.  This may include beverage, clothing and music preferences for over 18 that might not appeal to the rest of the park.  Naming of this could be sold to a casino.
• Music partnership – they played a certain play list which consisted of lots of Tom Petty.  They could partner with Rhapsody, XM/Sirius, a record label, Apple/Itunes or a radio station.
• Dodge and Chrysler were the automotive sponsors, but there appeared to be no activation or displays besides their signage.  The Tram ride from our remote parking would make an excellent opportunity for transportation-related branding and, of course the valet area s well
• Coke was the beverage sponsor and had some iconic and creative recycling trash receptacles, but there seemed to be no water sponsor unless Coke successfully negotiated the water category as part of an overall beverage deal (they like to do that).
• Kodak had their intercept locations to take photos, but did not capture us with any memorable offer or creative merchandising of their location upon exit.  They had a few staff members that looked like to just wanted to go home.  Why no high-speed cameras when we came out of the Tornado or other rides?
• Apparel Sponsorships – lifeguards and staff could all wear some cool, noticeable apparel that could be sold in their retail locations
• First Aid locations could tie-in with a local hospital

I know they have a corporate sponsorship team, but it appears they could use some help on a local level.  What do you think?  We welcome your feedback and encourage you to share this with others.  If you are not already a member of The Sponsorship Insights Networking Group on LinkedIn and Facebook, I wanted to invite you.  Our group of 4,000+ sponsorship and marketing professionals has grown quickly and members come from the top positions at such agencies as IEG, IMG, Wasserman, Momentum and leagues – NFL, NBA, NHL, CFL, MLB, AVP, MLS, NASCAR and more.

Members connect with each other to enhance their knowledge, further their careers and interact online via our discussion forums and blog.  We are committed to being the best, free business networking site for sponsorship and marketing executives on the internet.  We also send a monthly, e-newsletter and provide exclusive discounts for conferences and appropriate vendors.  All of this is provided free for you and appropriate associates.

To join, please click on the links below and forward to your associates.

http://www.linkedin.com/e/gis/59380

Lastly, you can follow/find Dan at:

http://twitter.com/danbeeman

dan@sponsorshipinsights.com

www.sponsorshipinsights.com

www.facebook.com/dan.beeman

http://www.facebook.com/groups.php?ref=sb#/group.php?gid=45136322100