Deal Flow 8-25-2009

Del Taco has extended its sponsorship with the Arizona Cardinals Football Club for a second year in a row, making Del Taco the team's official QSR. BSkyB has signed on to be a founding partner at London's O2 arena for £3m per year. Payless Shoe Source will be the exclusive sponsor of the Official Ride of Fashion's Night Out. The Buffalo Bills have signed a sponsorship deal with Power Trip Be...

SpongeTech Soaks Up Sports Sponsorships

Who says signage can't sell? Not SpongeTech, the smarter sponge. In fact, you can't go to an MLB ballpark without seeing SpongeTech somewhere these days. In case you haven't seen our daily Deal Flow section, SpongeTech is making sports sponsorship a centerpiece to the firm's new marketing strategy. And people, a lot of people, like Keith Hernandez are taking notice. At current tally, Spo...

Sponsorship for Speakers

To this point I've been primarily speaking of sponsorship in "general terms" – talking about some of the major ways to prospect for sponsors … why sponsors would want to sponsor your event (or property) … and some inside tips on getting "in" with them. And I'll certainly get back to sharing more of these tips; however, I wanted to devote the next few blogs to discussing sponsorship in specific...

Quick Tip: Leverage Existing Sponsors to Sell New Ones

Use your existing sponsors to help you sell new ones. Ask for their referrals, build case studies with them and advise prospective sponsors to talk with existing ones about their personal experience. If they've got a great story (which they should, right?), talk it up! Like any other business, word of mouth can be one of your most powerful sales tools.

Deal Flow 8-24-2009

Stonyfield Farm entered a one-year sponsorship agreement with the U.S. Open to promote its Oikos Organic Greek Yogurt. Memorial Hermann Healthcare System became the official health care provider of the Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA). Panasonic Inked a sponsorship deal for 'Avatar' to promote new 3-D plasma and Blu-ray products Kimberly Clark and Marcos Ambrose's No. 47 Toyota a...

2 Priorities for Improving Your Sponsorship Programs

Some positive economic indicator may be signaling the beginning of a rebound. Or maybe not, but we can only hope. Nevertheless, now is the good time to focus on improving your nonprofit corporate sponsorship program, especially if you suspect it lacks value. Here are two important priorities for making improvements; you’ll find additional suggestions in my guidebook, How to Jump-start Your S...

Bolt Feat/Feet Propel(s) Puma YAAMs

Last week Usain Bolt set both the 100m and 200m world sprint records at the World Championships in Berlin. The promotional blitz by Puma began with the bolt arms, the celebratory foam arms released by Puma prior to the games, kicked into full gear with Bolt hoisting the golden shoe like the Stanley Cup and is wrapping up with PUMA's very own cause-effect analysis. The result? The special ...

Sponsorship: Product or Service?

Someone asked me back in grad school whether sponsorship was a product or a service. At first glance, the obvious answer was a service. The benefits are often intangible, the value depended a lot on the servicing of a contract, and developing an appropriate solution for client needs requires a lot of custom research. But then I started to realize that many of the proposals I had received on beh...

How Long is Your Sponsorship Sales Cycle?

For some it can be up to a full year or even more. That's a long sales cycles for any product. But perhaps a better question is how frequent and with who is your sales cycle dealing with? As with many organizations, how you use your data can in many instances dictate the success of your sales pitch. Most hands-on sponsors crave real-time data and updates. But how often do we really engage tho...

An Agency with a Purpose

In 2007, Harrie Bakst was diagnosed with Adenoid Cystic Carcinoma, cancer of the salivary glands, at the age of 22. It was a life-changing diagnosis. Only five months removed from radiation treatment, he ran the NYC marathon, which inspired a clothing line and a book, and founded his own agency that helps companies build cause marketing platforms. Carnegie Sports and Entertainment uses cause ...