Sponsorship Acquisition

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Sponsorship Acquisition

• Allan Grant
• March 24, 2008

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About Me

• Originally from Midland, Ontario
• Interesting story I once prevented Kirsten Dunst
  from being stalked.
• Zaniest job I ever had Concert Security
• Graduated with a degree in Political Science from
  the University of Toronto, St. George Campus
• Originally had hoped to graduate with a degree in
  Physics and Math
• Held just about every possible position that the
  University of Toronto has to offer
• Groundskeeper
• Janitor
• Registrarial Assistant
• Financial Aid Assistant
• Between March 2005 and December 2007, I was
  employed by the SCSU
• Originally hired to be a Health Dental Plan
  Coordinator
• Role developed into a Services Administrator and
  eventually a marketing and business development
  administrator.
• Since January, I have been employed by the
  Department of Student Life, University of Toronto
  Scarborough as the Assistant Coordinator, Campus
  Groups.

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Why is this important today?

• You shouldnt be intimidated by the fact you may
  not know what you want to do with your lives.
• The world is truly at your fingertips!
• The more experiences you become involved in, the
  more well-rounded and aware you will be of whats
  expected.
• Experiences allow you to find out what works, and
  doesnt work for you.
• Experiences also allow you to better understand
  and interact with your peers and colleagues.
• Experience allowed me to find my niche
  sponsorship acquisition.

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What is sponsorship?

• Sp0nsorship is the process of one entity
  acquiring certain benefits to assist with an
  event, activity, or initiative in return for
  providing equal benefits to a willing partner.
• Sponsorship can come in a number of different
  forms, but usually can be broken down into 3 sub
  categories
• Logistical
• Prize
• Monetary
• Acquiring sponsorship is entirely dependent upon
  building and maintaining mutually beneficial
  partnerships.
• Sponsorship acquisition for campus activities,
  events, and initiatives should aim to provide
  access to entities to develop continuous,
  trusting relationships with students (i.e. future
  consumers) not to generate immediate the sale of
  products and services.
• Sponsorship acquisition should follow a
  consistent process to establish value for
  potential partners and to sustain partners once
  they have been acquired.

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Planning

• All sponsorship processes should begin with an
  assessment of the event, activity, or
  initiatives purposes, values, and roles.
• The purpose of this initial assessment is to
  ensure all committee members are clear on who is
  responsible for each area of the event as well to
  identify which team members will be responsible
  for liaising, executing, and possibly approving
  how an external partner will be promoted relative
  to the event.
• The second step of the planning process involves
  designating one (1) team member to solicit and
  negotiate sponsorship contracts on behalf of the
  Committee and its various stakeholders.
• The third step of the planning process involves
  an assessment of the promotional opportunities
  available to potential partners participating in
  your event, activity, or initiative.
• The fourth step of the planning process involves
  an assessment of the logistical and monetary
  needs of the event, activity, or initiative.
  Sponsorship acquisition is really driven by this
  step.
• The final step of the planning process involves
  the development of materials to assist the staff
  designate in soliciting support from external
  organizations.

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Who to target

• Never let resources dictate who you will work
  with (i.e. Rogers vs. TELUS).
• Who you will work with depends entirely on who is
  appealing to the target audience (i.e. identify
  educational and social needs of students).
• Never let your groups needs interfere with those
  of the target audience.
• Assess your own past and current members to
  determine if any opportunities for networking
  exist.
• Do your research! Are the potential sponsors
  committed to corporate social responsibility?
• Assess the market where is corporate Canada
  most competitive (i.e. banks, telecommunications,
  entertainment, etc)?
• Be realistic your promotional opportunity will
  provide better quality promotion to a potential
  sponsor, but it will not likely reach a wide
  number of students. This removes core services,
  such as the TTC who are looking to appeal to
  millions of riders, from consideration.

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Negotiating

• Once the planning process has been agreed upon by
  all parties, the individual responsible for
  soliciting sponsorship is ready to solicit and
  negotiate sponsorship and partnership
  arrangements with external organizations.
• It is important to remember the values and
  purpose of the event, activity, or initiative
  when formulating a negotiating strategy with
  external organizations.
• Initial sponsorship for student-run events,
  activities, and initiatives should ideally be the
  opening gambit in a multi-year commitment by
  sponsors to empowering students for success.
• Be honest and flexible without sacrificing your
  values and principles! Above all else, the focus
  must always be your target audience.
• Always aim to incorporate additional promotional
  opportunities outside of what has been promised
  and throughout the year to ensure that the
  external organization is able to continuously
  develop existing and new relationships with your
  members or students in general.

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Who to speak with

• Who do you talk too?
• Marketing/Advertising/Promotions
• Business Development
• Community Development/Outreach
• Product/Account Managers
• What do you say?
• Introduce yourself and qualify your introduction
  by noting youre calling on behalf of Organization at the University of Toronto.
• Speak slowly and inquire as to whether theyre
  they representative to speak with regarding
  sponsorship opportunities.
• Provide the what, when, where, and how details of
  your event.
• Be sure to summarize how many people will be
  attending or be affected by the event,
  initiative, or activity as well as how it will be
  promoted on campus.
• Be prepared to answer how this particular sponsor
  will benefit from and strengthen their business
  by participating in the event, activity, or
  initiative if asked.
• Ask whether they would be interested in receiving
  your groups partnership package.
• Thank them for their time and ask their
  permission as to whether it would be okay to
  follow up in approximately a week to review the
  opportunity further.

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Executing

• Once the staff designate negotiates and secures
  support from external organizations, the
  management of the relationship becomes the focus
  of all interactions moving forward.
• Meet, meet, meet!
• The role of the individual who negotiated the
  partnership should be strictly as a facilitator
  at this point. This individual is not responsible
  for organizing and planning the details involved
  of how a promotion will unfold.
• Their role, however, is to ensure work is being
  completed properly in a timely and efficient
  manner.
• The individual who negotiated the sponsorship
  should also be establishing timelines for the
  rest of the team to ensure they know when work
  should be completed by.

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Sustaining

• A consideration thats often lost on organizers
  is the need to sustain partnerships once an
  event, activity, or initiative ends.
• All efforts are meaningless if the target
  audience forgets or loses focus of the fact that
  the external organization is a continued
  supporter of their studies.
• Always invite feedback from the sponsor to get a
  better idea of what worked and didnt work for
  them, and what future options exist moving
  forward.
• Conduct surveys and focus groups on behalf of
  your sponsors with students to provide
  statistical evidence that the students were aware
  of their presence and came away with a better
  understanding of the products, services, and
  benefits offered by their brand.
• Offer a sponsor appreciation event shortly after
  wards to demonstrate the impact of their support
  and reinforce that it was appreciated.
• Offer the sponsor a bone by expanding the
  initiative to an annual initiative aimed at
  developing consumer relationships with all
  students using multiple forms of media.
• Within reason, always offer your next promotion
  or opportunity free-of-charge in consideration of
  the partners past support.

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Dos and Donts

• Do deliver on what you promise and more.
• Do not cut corners.
• Do think outside the box and be innovative in
  what you can provide.
• Do not solicit sponsors using materials produced
  in Microsoft Word.
• Do tailor requests as long-term partnership
  ventures as opposed to a one-off sponsorship
  opportunities.
• Do not be unreasonable in your expectations.
• Do collaborate with other student groups on
  campus to broaden the level of support you
  receive.
• Do not quit!

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Activity

• Split into 5 groups of 5 people each.
• Imaginary Scenario
• Each September, the University of Toronto
  Scarborough holds an Orientation event over 4
  days that prepares first year/new students for
  the social, academic and residential aspects of
  university life. This event has various
  logistical, monetary, and prize needs.
• Given that the event has an operating budget of
  over 100,000, serves food, has nighttime social
  activities, and provides gifts and prizes to
  participants, please outline how you would obtain
  sponsorship and who you might approach for this
  event using the entire process discussed today.