Sep 16, 2013 at 12:54 PM
written by Staff
A Five Step Guide For More Strategic Sponsorships
For Janus Kodadek's MBA dissertation, she set out to discover what sponsorship processes drive the most value for leading brands. After research with leading brands, rights holders and agencies, as well as case studies on several best-in-class activations, Kodadek came up with 5 key steps for designing more strategic sponsorships:
Authenticate: Clearly define goals and objectives for the sponsorship, leading with strategic business objectives. Anchor the sponsorship in consumer insight to ensure that the sponsorship platform is relevant and authentic to the target consumer base.
Correlate: A strategic sponsorship platform requires "fit for purpose," that is, congruence between the strategic objectives set forth in the first step and choice of partner. Such "fit" will ensure the relationship will deliver the raw materials needed to achieve success. Foster a true partnership, ensuring that the strategic goals of both parties are viewed as equally important. Based on reciprocity, the sponsor-rights holder relationship becomes a marketing alliance rather than a transactional arrangement.
Collaborate: Assets and activations that are created collaboratively between sponsor and rights-holder enable the brand to use the property as a conduit through which it connects with the target audience. This allows the band to create a bond with the audience, rather than simply an association with the property.
Activate: Having completed the planning process, activation is where the sponsorship comes to life for the consumer, offering the opportunity to innovate products and services, foster differentiation, communicate a brand's proposition, stimulate consumer engagement and co-creation.
Evaluate: In a strategic approach, evaluation should focus on determining if pre-existing objectives have been achieved.
The full report, Blueprint for strategic sponsorship, is definitely worth a read for strategic sponsorship buyers or anyone looking to get inside the mind of one (i.e. sponsorship sellers). With the author's permission, we've re-published the full report below.
