What is sponsorship?
When an event or company has a Sponsorship it means the sponsor is supporting an event, activity or organisation by providing money or other resources that is of value to the sponsored event. This is usually in return for advertising space at the event or as part of the publicity for the event. According to Guy Masterman who is a key speaker in the event industry and has also come up with many ideas suggests that sponsorship is:
“mutually beneficial arrangement that consists of the provision of resources of funds, goods and/or services ... in return for a set of rights that can be used in communications activity, for the achievements of objectives for commercial gain.”
Why do you have sponsors?
· Increases amount of promotion and advertising.
By having a sponsor your company has more of an opportunity to increase your name getting out. For example, Samsung sponsor Chelsea football club. There name has become the main logo for the football club and every time you think of Chelsea you associate them with Samsung. This is good as it allows Samsung to have a good name and is also brand on there tops and around the stadium.
· More word of mouth more income
One of the main reasons why companies and events have sponsors is that it will automatically increase the amount of income the business will be seeing. For example by allowing your name be spread around more people will hear about you and be interested in you, which inevitably by the end of it you will have an increase in income in your business/event.
· Reliable (gives a better name)
If you are sponsored by a reliable/responsible company you will immediately be associated as the same. However a down side to this is that if something bad happens to the sponsor your company/event will be shot down the same way. For example, Tiger Woods’s £7million-a-year contract with Gillette was in jeopardy after the company axed him from its advertising campaigns following allegations he has had a string of extra-marital affairs. This can have a very bad effect on the company/ event.
· Target specific audience.
A positive effect in which sponsorship can have on the company is if they choose the right sponsor they have the opportunity to be able to focus on there targeting audience. For example it would make no sense to promote the National weddings show in a children magazine top of the pops as it you not be seen.
In conclusion Masterman summarises various authorities on this and concludes that whether the Return of Investment is achievable depends on the sponsorship being: Planned to align with objectives, Accountable.
Miles, G & McDonald, M (1999) Sport Marketing: Managing the Exchange Process, London: Jones and Bartlett
Matching a sponsor with the characteristics of the sponsorship vehicle was critical for its success. Not only would a good match enhance the donor’s brand – but a bad one would damage it. Any incongruity between the sponsor’s message and the attributes of the sponsorship vehicle would be confusing to target audiences.
The national Wedding show.
After researching for sponsorship on the national wedding show I have come to the conclusion that they do not have any. I believe the main reason for this is because as it is an exhibition, each of the stalls will have there own sponsor and the main show its self will not need any. The expenses of hiring out the venue will be made back as a result of all the different stalls that are required to pay a fee for them to be able to stay there. Although they do not have any sponsors.... that I no of, they have created many different ways of promoting themselves effectively this is to in order them to get 60,000 customers a year.
Negative effects.
As the national wedding show does not seem to have a sponsor this can be seen to have a negative effect on the show as.
· There advertising will need to be done all by the show and they can not get advertising from other companies.
· By not having a sponsor this may lead to less customers coming as they may be unaware of the reliability of the show.
Positive effects.
On the other hand by not having any sponsors this can also mean a good thing.
· As stated above the show it is not out to make a profit it’s the stalls that want to make a profit, which means that they do not need a sponsor.
· It can create a bad fit in terms of image and characteristics.
· Sponsorship clutter too many messages.
The Xfactor tour.
The Xfactor tour is sponsored by Talk talk which is a very reliable mobile phone company; they have been there sponsor for them for since 2009.Negative effects.
· As Talk Talk is a very well known brand if they do something bad the tour will be immediately affected by the sponsor, this could lead to a decrease in the amount of customers attending the tour.
Positive effects.
· Talk talk have a very wide audience which allows the xfactor tour to be promoted to a much larger audience which again will create more of an income into the tour.
· The sponsorship strap line echoes ITV's own channel identity for ITV1, ‘the brighter side'. This again increases the amount of people who will see the tour advertised.
Below is a link to a clip taken from youtube from one of the adverts used on the Xfactor show.
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