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More money is wasted on sponsorships than on any other aspect of
marketing communications. It's a strong statement, but it's my
conviction.
Sergio Zyman, formerly chief marketing officer at Coke
highlights the all-too-often inequality between parties in
sponsorship arrangements in his incisive book The End of
Advertising as we Know It:
"...a lot of people simply assume that you're going
to send some sponsorship dollars their way. It's an assumption
that's really a naive throwback to the days when wealthy
individuals 'sponsored' artists and musicians who couldn't
otherwise support themselves."
Zyman jokes that a third of his $5 billion budget was spent on
'painting things red' and sponsoring 'things that moved' during his
tenure at the corporation - and makes the point that sponsorships
should only be undertaken where they generate a favourable
impression and/or connect with specific and stated target
audience(s). Put simply - there's no point sponsoring a sporting
team or an event merely because one of the directors has a friend
who's involved...
That's the starting point. Once a clear match has been
identified between a brand's offering/positioning, the sponsorship
opportunity and the target audience(s), then the real work of
sponsorship management begins. If you're merely being
offered prominent logo placement in a straight cash swap, then the
answer should invariably be 'no'. Seek instead to negotiate a
genuine win-win scenario, whereby both parties receive tangible and
specific value from the transaction. Sponsorship is no different
from any other communications activity - it needs to be strategic,
integrated and measured. It ought to generate ROI.
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