TANDEM Blog
What makes a stand out sponsorship agency?
When you’re ready to begin looking for a sponsorship agency, many will say that they will provide you with the sponsorship support that you need. But what really makes one sponsorship agency stand out from another?
Consider a Boutique Agency
The right sponsorship agency will:
- Make your life easier
- Add value to your business
- Deliver the results you need to succeed
A boutique agency can differentiate themselves by working in tandem with their clients to achieve tangible and measurable results. You'll work with the same team you trust from beginning to end and get direct access to the person(s) actively working on your account. In other words, there's no middle man (usually known as the "Account Manager").
Services for rightsholders include asset valuation, strategic development, sponsorship sales and servicing. Some of the services that really make a boutique sponsorship agency stand out include:
- Custom sponsorship asset valuation
- Custom sponsorship advisory services
- Unique sponsorship packages
- Creativity & flexibility
- In-depth understanding of the sponsor & rightsholder
Custom Sponsorship Asset Valuation
They’ll make things easier by finding out the true value of your sponsorship assets, and only the true value, with no strings attached. That way, you’ll have the research you need to move forward confidently with sponsor negotiations.
A comprehensive valuation will make you feel confident and excited about new revenue-generating opportunities.
Custom Sponsorship Advisory Services
You should expect details of how the agency will supply you with the best sponsorship strategy. Seasoned expertise combined with in-depth research and analysis of rightsholder's assets set you up for long-term success.
The agency should clearly demonstrate that they understand your customer, your venue, and your sponsors.
Unique Sponsorship Packages
In addition, you will likely discuss custom-tailored sponsorship packages that anticipate the unique objectives and goals of your sponsors. That means no out of the box, cookie-cutter strategies involved. Packages are customized as needed to meet both your goals, and those of the sponsor(s). The result is a mutually beneficial partnership that's sustainable and effective.
Tandem, for example, does not sell tiered sponsorship packages because we believe that sponsorship packages should be fully-customized. Tiered packages are restricting and can turn off prospects who don't feel they fit in those boxes.
We work closely with both rightsholders and sponsors in order to supply them with the best sponsorship package possible.
Creative & Flexible Sponsorship Packages
Smaller teams have more opportunity to communicate directly with their customers to fully understand their client's needs, wants, likes, and dislikes.
For example, your sponsorship package may include multiple sponsors for your event, each one working to highlight entirely different parts of the event. Therefore, each one will need a different package to achieve their goals. Creativity and flexibility play a big role in making that happen.
In-Depth Understanding
It’s important to fully understand sponsors and who or what they’ll work best with, because finding just the right sponsor for your event is the key to everyone's success.
After your sponsorship team finds the right sponsors, it’s important to include them in the planning process. This allows them to produce the best results and better understand all parties as they grow together year after year.
Furthermore, if an agency fully understands your business, they can leverage existing relationships with other companies that would be interested in sponsorship opportunities. Having that kind of partner will open doors you previously weren’t able to open.
In conclusion, a boutique agency can stand out by offering you direct communication so you're able to truly work in tandem with them. Similarly, by understanding your goals in-depth, the agency can customize all its services to meet your needs, as well as the sponsors'.
We hope this helps you understand what makes a sponsorship agency stand out! If you'd like to see whether or not we might be a good fit for you, we'd love to chat. Just send us a note using our contact form.
posted on November 21, 2019
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ASSET IDENTIFICATION & VALUATION SERVICES AT TANDEM PARTNERSHIPS
Don't know where to start? Tandem can help you identify your assets and determine their true value using proven methodology.
TANDEM'S STRATEGIC DEVELOPMENT
Take it a step further and invite Tandem to explore your financial objectives, audience, and offerings to receive a personalized strategy that produces results.
SPONSORSHIP SALES & SERVICE BY TANDEM
Tandem can also secure sales for your sponsorship program and execute successful fulfillment of promised assets to your partners.
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Sponsorship Proposals for Beginners
Sponsorship Proposals for Beginners: All the steps!
posted on November 7, 2019
Last week we told you to stop selling pre-packed deals, today we’re sharing how to create customized sponsorship proposals for beginners. You don’t need years of experience to do this well, just some time to research, and a creative mindset to connect your property or event to the sponsor’s values, objectives, and goals.
The goal for this sponsorship proposal is to show your prospect that their investment will get them closer to their customers. If you do your homework, you’ll be in a position to show them you genuinely care and that they can trust you to build a program which aligns with their objectives. Don’t worry about being a beginner, if you do all this, you will come off as a pro!
COLLECT THE PROPOSAL BASICS
As you begin to prepare your sponsorship proposal, you’ll want to first collect the basics. These will be important to include in your document and use to advance your proposal up the chain of command.
- Name and title of the person in charge of reviewing proposals as well as their contact info. Try LinkedIn, google search, or even a call around to figure out who this person is.
- Sponsor’s logo(s) – this could be just their company logo, but may even include one or more brand logos they represent.
- Sponsor’s mission, market positioning, marketing objectives, goals. You can find this information on their website or social media platforms, in press releases, advertisements such as digital artwork or out of home projects like TV commercials and billboards, and better yet—by talking with the right person(s).
- Sponsorship history – understand how previous and current sponsorships have been used to achieve their objectives.
- Sponsor’s competitors – it’s important to know what they’re up against to show them how they can be set apart in the market through your proposed partnership.
DESIGN THE SPONSORSHIP OFFER
When you’ve gathered these basics, which are key pieces of information, you can begin to build out a concept for this partnership that will be mutually beneficial.
So start asking yourself these questions:
- What concept(s) would integrate within your event or property and simultaneously align with the sponsor? This could be focused on a cause or community initiative or something that makes the customer’s visit more enjoyable. Get creative.
- What am I offering the sponsor? Some benefits for the sponsor might include brand awareness, lead generation, customer interaction, data collection, etc. What assets can you include that will achieve these marketing objectives?
- What are the values of each asset you are offering? This will be especially helpful if you move to a negotiation phase so you know how to keep the pricing fair for both parties even when you have to take away or add assets within the proposal. Aside from being helpful, it’s important to deliver an offer that’s priced right. You neither want to leave money on the table, nor overprice an offer that leaves your sponsor feeling robbed. Asset identification and valuation are areas we can help, if you’d like.
- You’ll need time to create this offer, negotiate it, and get an agreement in place before you can even begin to plan the fulfillment of promised assets. How long will this take? Based on those factors, when would be a realistic start date for the partnership, and what will be the length of term? Hopefully you can secure a multi-year partnership as those tend to drive better results for both parties and save you from having to secure a new sponsor year after year.
CREATE THE PROPOSAL LIKE A PRO
Now that you have all the information, it’s time to package it into a document that will impress your prospect. Use a template that includes your brand’s colors and fonts, and keep it simple.
Don’t cram everything on one page, lay it out by category using multiple pages to detail everything out. Let’s look at what that document might look like, beginning with page 1:
- Your logo with the sponsor’s logo. Include concept tag line if one is available.
- Describe your property or event briefly (1-3 sentences) and include some demographic data (preferably with charts—visual works better than text in this case).
- List of sponsor’s goals and objectives (bullet points work well for easy to read lists)
- Describe the proposed concept and list out the sponsor’s expected benefits
- Display all physical and digital assets you are offering including any data you have relating to each one (for example, if you are proposing email blasts, include how many subscribers would be receiving the email). This might take several pages, and should include images of what you’re proposing.
- Total sponsor package fee. Include any fine print – for example, if content creation by your team will cost extra, state that. Recap briefly the entire proposal re-stating if they will be title or presenting sponsor, whether or not they will have exclusivity, and any special access or rights they have with the package. Include also the length of term with beginning and end dates.
- The last page should be a “THANK YOU” and include your contact information.
IT’S WORTH IT!
Be conscious that doing it right will take time but if you can secure a strong partner with a solid concept, the return on investment for both parties will be well worth the extra effort! If you follow the steps outlined in this post, you’ll go from beginner to pro in no time! Or at least you’ll look like one 😉
We hope this is helpful for you and of course, if you need any further assistance, please feel free to reach out to us through our contact form.
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Asset Identification & Valuation Services at Tandem Partnerships
Don’t know where to start? Tandem can help you identify your assets and determine their true value using proven methodology.
Tandem’s Strategic Development
Take it a step further and invite Tandem to explore your financial objectives, audience, and offerings to receive a personalized strategy that produces results.
Sponsorship Sales & Service by Tandem
Tandem can also secure sales for your sponsorship program and execute successful fulfillment of promised assets to your partners.
START THE CONVERSATION
tagged: assets beginner concept create custom customized document effective help how to package pages partnership program proposal sponsorship sponsorship proposal template writeposted on November 7, 2019
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Tandem Partnerships
5 Ways to Build a Better Relationship with Your Agency
tagged: account management agency consulting experiential marketing mobile marketing tour relationship building sponsorship tips posted on January 10, 2019
1. Communicate Your Expectations
For any client, communicating expectations is number one. Communicating your expectations will find you the best-fitting agency. And then, with the right agency, you don’t have to waste time and stress over the best ways to communicate your ideas and future goals. Share what you need verbally or visually, just share all of your expectations in however makes most sense to you, and the agency will let you know what will be done next. But, maybe you’re confused on what to expect. The next most important way to build a relationship with your agency tackles that worry.2. Foster Relationships with Others in Your Industry
Not only is it important to build relationships with others in your industry for the sheer camaraderie of it and moral support, but it’s important for individual representatives to take in others’ experiences and learn about how about their journey. This way, you, as a representative, can learn about other’s expectations for their agencies and how they may or may not have achieved the success they desired. It’s also a good way to more quickly and easily help find the right agency for your company.3. Determine Your Target Market
Before finding the right agency, it’s also imperative that a target market is determined. Your agency will then be able to better help target or redetermine that target market with the best experiential or mobile marketing activations once you determine where to begin.4. Determine the Best Location(s) for Your Campaign
Many tours travel regionally or nationally and are only able to make so many alterations to their activation to suit properties. It is often easier for activations to personalize with a big build that will be in one spot for a longer period of time than it would be for activations that travel somewhere new every day or two. For example, this was done with the sponsorship we did with Samsung in Union Square. This campaign was placed in that one location for a two-week engagement. Of course, depending on the client, different footprints will be asked for. These are all things for both parties, the properties or rights holders as well as the agency, to take into consideration.5. Communicate Your Own Strategies
Communicate strategies applied to former projects, if any. When properties and rights holders communicate whatever they have had as their your own strategies, this allows the agency to better help them reach their aims in the way that properties and rights holders want to.Need Experiential or Mobile Marketing Activation Help?
Tandem Partnerships is Your One-Stop Shop
We’ll be there for all of your campaign needs including venue acquisition, permitting, and more. We meet expectations for experiential and mobile marketing activation campaigns.Interested in placing your tour?
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3 Simple Questions to Ask Before Hiring a Sponsorship Consultant
tagged: consulting sponsorship sponsorship agency sponsorship consultant sponsorship program
posted on March 22, 2018
Hiring a Sponsorship Consultant
Our goal is to provide you with the best information, advice, and guidelines to craft and maintain a successful and sustainable sponsorship program. Whether your goal is to grow from scratch or increase revenue on a current program—we can offer you experience, expertise, and creative insight.
So, when it comes to hiring a sponsorship consultant to assist with your sponsorship program, how do you know how to get what you’re looking for?
Here are our top tips to ensure the consultant you hire helps you craft a successful sponsorship program…
Be Crystal Clear—What Do You Want?
Before you can hire a sponsorship consultant, you need to know what you want.
1. Credibility or Expertise?
Case 1: You have challenges and objectives, but don’t know how to get there. Look for a consultant with strong, strategic expertise and experience.
Case 2: You know exactly what you want, but your company values outside expertise over internal. Look for a consultant to help you build credibility and generate internal buy-in.
2. Portfolio or Project?
Case 1: Do your needs center around one, specific project? You may need a strategist, implementer, or both.
Case 2: Or does your whole portfolio need an overhaul? You’re probably simply looking to hire a strategist.
3. Implementation or Strategy?
Most sponsorship consultants are implementers. They manage the entire process—making a strategy come to life. Then, there are strategists, who help to develop the overarching strategies.
If you know you need either an implementer or a strategist, you may want to hire a specialist consultant or agency. If you need both, consider hiring the two roles separately. If you want to hire one agency to do it all, find one that has a dedicated strategist with experience.
For example, we offer strategic planning for the development, growth, and ongoing success of sponsorship programs and other revenue-generating opportunities. By utilizing a holistic and dedicated approach, we begin each opportunity with the study and analysis of a client’s background, interests, and objectives before moving into the full consultation and development phase. This provides our team with a full understanding of a client’s history and potential for long-term sponsorship success.
We hope these few tips we’ve shared can help guide you—whether your goal is to grow a sponsorship program or increase revenue on a current program. In the end, our goal is to provide you with expert information, advice, and structural guidelines to create and maintain a successful and sustainable sponsorship program.
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5 Essential Steps to Create an Enticing Sponsorship Proposal
A How-To Guide for Rights Holders Everywhere
Research Potential Sponsors
When creating a sponsorship proposal it is important to research both potential sponsors and the relevant industry before finalizing the items that will be highlighted in your property’s proposal. The goal is finding what makes each brand tick and realistically assess the potential sponsorship opportunities your property can offer. Your property will need to tailor proposals to each brand; competitors in the same industry are not always looking for the same end game, especially within the sponsorship world.
Where can you find information about potential sponsors? Here are some ideas:
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- Company website – Analyze each potential sponsor’s website in great detail. Get to know the company well: understand what each company feels it does well, services offered, and attempt to determine each company’s marketing goals
- LinkedIn profile – Most large companies and their staff have LinkedIn profiles. This can be a great way of discovering the right contact and it also opens up networking opportunities. A LinkedIn profile can connect a company to target sponsors.
- Social media – For both B2B and B2C brands, consider Facebook and Twitter. Take a look at what each company uses social media to promote. Use Twitter hash tags to see what other people are saying about the company/brand.
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Understand What Each Sponsor Wants
A sponsor is looking for unique opportunities. As you write your property’s proposal, determine what your property offers that is more valuable to each brand than a competing marketing channel. Define your property’s audience as completely as possible; let potential sponsors know whom they could reach by partnering with your property. If you were able to determine a potential sponsor’s ideal audience during the research phase, demonstrate if and how your property’s audience fits the bill.
Also, include information about your property team’s attributes and skills, examples could include high social media engagement from fans or an unusually high level of fan engagement. Be sure to explain how your property’s strengths can help potential sponsors achieve their goals. For example, PIER 39 in San Francisco is the #1 tourist attraction and its sponsors recognize the unique value that that carries – they also make sure to leverage those properties when activating the PIER. The PIER has a high level of foot traffic from both international and domestic tourists, it is a fantastic location for a brand looking for high visibility.
Determine the Sponsor’s Marketing Objectives
Ideally, all marketing objectives will generate more sales and protect or improve the sponsor’s bottom line – but what else could a potential sponsor aim for?
Take time to learn about each potential sponsor’s specific marketing objectives; indicate the proposal is about their brand, wants, and how it can use your property’s unique marketing assets to reach its objectives.
Example marketing objectives:
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- Increase revenue by 10% in a specific region through on-site sales
- Increase customer loyalty and repeat sales through social media marketing
- Increase brand awareness and recall amongst 25 to 35-year-old females
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Find Property Assets That Do OR Could Fit Sponsor Objectives
Every property has standard assets proposed in every deal – we’re sure your property does too. However, most potential sponsors want to hear about assets beyond the ordinary; as your property prepares its proposal, brainstorm and include ideas that your property and your potential sponsor could partner on. Is there a program your property has been wanting to try but hasn’t been able to put all the pieces together? Could a sponsor help, resulting in success for both parties?
Determine Metrics for Success
There are two primary ways to measure sponsorship success. The metrics agreed upon by your property and potential sponsors will depend largely on the type of sponsorship activation and partnership objectives.
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- Quantitatively, with results measured using specific amounts, including ideal quantity, percentage or breakdown, and statistics. Examples would include participation tracking or social media measurement.
- Qualitatively, with results that improve the sponsor’s position, circumstance or perception that is more challenging to evaluate given a lack of numerical data. An example would include guests responding more favorably over time to questions about your brand.
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When establishing the marketing objectives it is important to agree with the sponsor how success will be measured. Conversations about measuring success prior to activation are necessary because there are multiple avenues to measure success, and both the property and sponsor should be placing importance on the same aspects to prove partnership success.
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