Sponsorship
as a Form of
Marketing

Key Points:

Using sponsorship and community involvement as a form of marketing can have a huge impact on a company’s market share. Whether you are a stalwart of the business world wanting to grow and let people know you’re still working hard or, a new company wanting to create brand awareness or, maybe a bit of both, then sponsorship is really an area that can work successfully. While we’re definitely not saying to put all of your marketing eggs in one sponsorship basket, the same is true for the reverse. People shouldn’t count sponsorship out because they see it as just giving money away, as it truly is so much more than that. It’s a fact that people prefer to deal with companies who support their community as this shows that the company is not all about making money, but about building relationships.  As a company, if you feel like you’re just acting as a bank then you aren’t sponsoring correctly!  But we will cover that at a later date.

And while you can’t quantify a sponsorship, in the same way that you can’t quantify the business you get from an placing an ad in the paper it should be considered as part of your marketing budget. Getting involved in local sponsorship opportunities will raise your company profile, build new relationships with your local community and, when done properly, provide you with an excellent return on your investment which can then be marketed to the wider community with the simple words of “Proud to be a part of our community” or “Proud to be a part of the team”.

To put it really simply will someone spend more time looking at a billboard or the back of their kids shirt as they run around a soccer field? Will they remember the ad they saw in a magazine more fondly than the logo on the medal in which they finished their first half marathon? Using sponsorship as a form of marketing typically has a longer life span and the warm fuzzy feeling surrounding it giving the chance to; create, change or improve people’s perception of the brand by being viewed as the good guys!