Sponsoring Events

[Blacktalon]

Good Afternoon,

I've recently decided to sponsor a hole at a special golf tournament as fund raising for someone participating in a Walk for the Cure for a local hospital.

By doing this, I'm getting excellent publicity and name recognition.

Have any of you decided to do such a thing before? My particular event happens at the start of May this year.

[KristineS]

We've done things like this before. A lot of the success depends on the dedication of the people holding the event toward publicizing their sponsors. If they do a good job you can get a lot of nice publicity and goodwill from sponsoring events. If they don't, it may not do as much for you as you might hope.

[Blacktalon]

If it's for cancer, and in part for a major cancer research hospital and research facility here in Southern Ontario, I'm sure it will come with at least a decent amount of recognition and media exposure.

How has it gone for you before?

[KristineS]

There is a difference between recognition for the event and recognition for the sponsors. Most events that offer sponsorships give you some sort of agreement, they will feature you in ads or on signs, you'll be mentioned in press releases and so on. If they live up to their end of the bargain, it can generate some nice publicity.

It also kind of depends on for what you're looking. Are you just working to get your name out there, or are you hoping to pick up new clients. Also, are you going to be participating in the event itself? That can really help boost your recognition level.

As for us, we've sponsored a local banquet for Friends of the NRA through our hunting products company. It worked fairly well, although they didn't do as much as I would have liked to publicize the sponsorships. They also weren't very good at motivating their membership.

It does pay to check out the organization offering the opportunity. A hospital, especially a major one, should have a good Marketing and PR department, so you should get good coverage and publicity.

[Blacktalon]

I am getting a sign with its own stake at a specific hole on the course. So that right there should help somewhat.

I would like to think that they'll be doing some sort of publicity for it and the sponsors (i.e. a mention on their website and in papers).

[Patrysha]

If they aren't publicizing it as much as you'd like, jump in and offer your own help to get them (and you) some publicity. Many fundraisers (even if done by the hospital) are volunteer led :-)

It's easy to write a press release and get some extra traction from good sponsorship deals...

[Blacktalon]

I've been working on a PR to indicate my efforts, as that would definitely help my exposure.

[KristineS]

Helping to spread the word yourself is always a good idea. The more people talking about the event, the better.

[Vivid Color Zack]

I've never sponsored an event like that but I've printed sponsor signs for a golf tournament that sounds a lot like the one you're doing. Car dealerships, dry cleaners, mechanics, a local cell phone shop, and a few others had a lot of signs made up. I think each sponsor had 6 signs that would be shown at every third hole, or something like that. I didn't attend the event (I should have) so I really don't know how much benefit the sponsors received.

I have done pretty well sponsoring events at chamber of commerce events. NOT the meetings, I think chamber meetings are a waste of time, but that's getting off topic.

We try to sponsor a table and give out 5 or ten orders of business cards + free design (number depends on size of event) and since they always attach a dollar value to what we give away it always seems like we give out a thousand dollars or more in product, when in actuality it's only maybe 100 in product, + design time of course.

This gives us a chance to prove ourselves to new clients and make friends with other business owners. Also it's very personal and they get to WIN something, so we don't have people coming onto our site just to get their free business cards and leave.

If you're going to have a table by a hole I highly recommend some kind of exciting contest, game, raffle, clown? whatever it takes to get people interested and coming over to talk with you. Also if there is media coverage there and you stand out from the other sponsors you'll be the one they come talk to.