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00:00:01
Sponsorship That Sticks
17 Plays9 days ago
In our latest episode Tanita get to grips with all things sponsorship as she chats to leading industry expert Victoria Giordano from The Sponsorship Team.
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Transcript
00:00:05
Speaker
Hello and welcome back to Inventful Encounters, the podcast where we get into the real conversations happening around the events industry. brought to you by the East Side Rooms here in Birmingham. I'm your host, Anita, and today's episode is going to be a really interesting one. So I'm joined here by Victoria, Director of Partnerships at the Sponsorships team, and we're getting into the world of event sponsorships, what's changed, what sponsors really want, and what you as an event planner can build, how you as an event planner can build partnerships that genuinely work for everybody.
00:00:31
Speaker
So welcome to Eventful Encounters, Victoria. Oh, thanks for having me. So i'm really excited to get into our discussion, but I think as a whole, the kind of the events industry has really changed over the last few years post-COVID. But what has that meant for sponsorships and how have the sponsorships landscape shifted and what do sponsors actually want beyond visibility? Sure. I think that, you know, we've been doing this for 10 years, focusing on sponsorship sales, but, you know, I've been in the events arena for 30, so this is not, it's all, it's not new. But noticeably, the noticeable shift for the last, you know, five years or so is um mitigation of risk. It's this nervousness around where the sponsors want to invest and at what point they do that. Typically, they used use to be able to entice people with great early birds and lower rates and incentives. They'll still hold out now. And yeah the percentages, I had a quick look on art. We keep a lot of trend data. And it used to be, you know, you could get half of your revenue in within six to 12 months out from the conference. So straight after, the last one when you start marketing the next. And nowadays, really, it's almost evenly split 30% in that early time, 30% six months out. And then nowadays, it's more like 40% of that revenue will come in in those last three months. That's a noticeable shift for event planners. It's terrifying for them because they have to there's no reassurance. And they obviously, they're making decisions on spend and on the event look and feel and shape. and they need those that commitment. without having to said yeah and that's the big That's the big one that that impacts the planners. on top of that, I think that um the budgets are much tighter. um
00:02:16
Speaker
There's a lot more events. When people wanted to start coming back together again in face-to-face environment, which everyone was really keen do so, all the numbers were fluctuated again, ah they were very adamant that the they wanted to support their associations, their institutions. So We work for associations or event planners that are representing associations. So those people care about the profession within their association. They care about their community. Whereas what then happened was people, the marketing ah factories, if you like, that put together risk events where they don't have necessary commitment to that industry, but they see an opportunity to build a big event. Because let's say in one sector, there's an event that's attracting 5,000 people Somebody will come along and say, let's let's put a risk event together, compete with that event. So there's more events for the same sectors um yeah with slightly different thematic areas.
00:03:15
Speaker
Most of our sponsors are very, very... cautious about stepping out into those other events because they are just numbers game but they have to be there often if somebody does come along and do a great marketing effort and build ah an event that's bigger than the association event all of their big competitors are there they can't afford not to be there so we have a mix then of those that are ethical and say no I only support this industry and I'll only put my money there because I know the association's reinvesting it in the profession in the development of those that work in our industry versus, well, my three big competitors are at the other event. I might need to go there too. So the budget is spread.
00:03:57
Speaker
Yeah, and that's another big change is those that used to be able to rely on their support because ethically they wanted to be at the association events as well. They can no longer afford to make that decision just on that. They want measurable impact and we have to provide that at the association events for sure to keep them coming and and make sure they get a return.
00:04:17
Speaker
So what conversation would you recommend that event organisers are having before they even pitch a package? Is there ah a conversation they should start with to try and get that way in? Yeah, so what we normally do is and we advise our clients to do is to really understand from a sponsor's perspective, what are their participation objectives? Typically, people might be asking that of their audience as they're generating the audience, the delegates and attendee numbers.
00:04:40
Speaker
But sometimes it gets overlooked a little bit to stop and think about the sponsors and exhibitors. and to give them a bit of account management. So we would always be asking them, why are you coming? Why did you come last year? Or why didn't you come last year? What are your participation objectives? What's your objectives in the wider marketing frame? And how might we be able to help support you reach one of those goals by you participating at this event?
00:05:04
Speaker
If we get an idea of their desired outcomes, and if we count their budget that they've allocated, then we stand a better chance of building some tailored packages that are tailored yeah yeah and do you find that works better when it's tailored or other than just a standard kind of off the shelf 100 and you know we do have we've spent some time with some of our clients that are that just would like you know, three tiers, let's offer them three tiers and you buy in at one of those tiers. It just doesn't work for everybody because if everybody, oh we find all of our sponsors pretty much have a completely different rationale as to why they're there. So yeah we we know what the trunk chief is different.
00:05:44
Speaker
and So it's good to start with a guideline. So you're not starting with a blank sheet of paper, but I think letting them be able to be flexible and tailor just to meet their their needs So you can completely shy away from names for this one, but can you share an example of a sponsorship that's landed really well and maybe one that didn't land so well?
00:06:05
Speaker
Yeah, so I wrote a few notes because I thought I might forget. Okay, so we've just done something recently where last week, actually, that recently, I've just got back from an event now that we do every year and we like to get on the ground so we can get some feedback there and then. yeah This is a client that, they're big tech client and they're not allowed to put their logos willy-nilly. They're not allowed to just spoil some things where their logos might go into a third party. So if a venue wants to do something or if we want to put them on multiple websites. However, we were given one logo that we were allowed to use in a very restricted manner. So they shied away from having any sort of exhibition space, any sort of big crowd floor. But we really wanted them to be there because they're prestigious and we wanted the alignment for the association. so they need
00:06:54
Speaker
attendees to know they're there so we did a headshot booth and we would use that one logo and the write-up it was we were able to then give it a bit more content and part of the main program part of the delegate experience come and have your professional headshot taken and they supported that and I think that for everybody that became that that will be memorable the queues around the exhibition hall were huge this is a conference where there's a big contingent of young talent that are looking to be employed by this these tech companies. So that's a perfect opportunity. But it just, rather than they say, it's easier, let's just not have an exhibition stand. It doesn't have to be an exhibition stand. You don't have to mount something different outside of the box, yeah. That really worked well last week.
00:07:39
Speaker
Yeah, we try and come up with different ways for, as long as they get the engagement, they get the brand exposure, they get some method of interaction if they want it. And we get to use that brand exposure if it's a prestigious one especially to align with the association so that everybody knows they're involved it just takes everybody's lucky yeah and can completely say no one that maybe didn't land so well i think for us it's standalone branding so our clients will always go oh here goes a media pack from the conference venue It's just a normal, yeah. A banner on the escalator, it's five grand. Hold on minute. Before you even go anyway, the venue want five grand off you. They're the only ones making any money here. So what we're looking for is lower cost, effective, high value presence and engagement. Not, I would, I mean, we do it. Occasionally somebody might buy something like that, but I think it's empty. You can't measure it. You can't measure how effective how many people have seen it yeah most of the money i can't charge much more than that no matter how many thousand delegates are there so typically the venue are getting all that money or most of that money and i just think the venue are earning enough money out of the conference of course yeah it's always that way um so moving on now what about audience data do sponsors care about who's seeing it how many people are seeing it what kind of demographics are seeing it or is it more just about
00:09:06
Speaker
a number is it is it a vanity thing it used to be more of a numbers game but now again because they need measurable impact they need a return on investment yeah know that they're in everything is to be justified absolutely we have to justify that so we do encourage our clients to really delve down into that data year on year and see if there's any shifts tell us what that those audience profiles look like because then we might notice an influx in a new type of delegate we you know we nowadays have launch pad zones or something for entrepreneurial startups that meet that sector because which nobody would be marketing to them before but we can look at the demographic and think actually they'd be up for that so yes they really need good demographics and that isn't always the same isn't always senior decision makers it can be like i say that conference we just came back from there's a big recruitment contingent there so they're looking for talent they're not decision makers they might not even be employed so But that's what works for them because their objective is to get great people on their internship program. So it really goes down to what do your sponsors want? What are their participation objectives? Who do they want to get in front of? And matching that to your attendee demographics. Numbers always help because if we promise 5,000 and only 2,000 arrive, then we walk in there on a back foot, you know, and that could be out of control. It's happened. It's happened. We did an event last year in a particular country that just wouldn't accept another contingent from another country, and they were a big contingent. So we were 2,000 people down.
00:10:43
Speaker
And then all I've got it all to do to justify to them how we're going to bring them back next year and why they should try again and what else we could do for them throughout the year to make sure they stay engaged and get that bang for their buck. So it is a numbers game, primarily, I would say, in terms of being able to say, we're going bring you 6,000 or whatever that number is.
00:11:04
Speaker
helps but then you've got to be able to justify the quality as well and how do you go about finding the right partner for the right event Do you have ah a kind of a bank of thing of events and a bank of partners? Do you go out for each event and find different partners? Well, we're constantly filling the bucket, if you like. So we're lucky that we've retained all of our clients for many years. So we learn we've learned a lot about some really random industries that we work across. um And we know who the key players are. And it's the those that merge and those that are up and coming that we don't necessarily, as much as we try and keep an eye on their LinkedIn posts and Other thing, read some of their industry press. It's not our bag. We work in sponsorship strategy. We don't work in, you know, zeolite stones or whatever it might be. And it has been.
00:11:51
Speaker
Our plan's complicated. We take the programme, we look at the thematic areas in the programme, look at the topics, and then we consider who are the big industry players. We always say to our clients right up front, when we're sitting here at Debrief, Who would you like to be so grateful that came and supported your conference? Who's your top five? Who would you love to have there? So we kind of start with that as well. Then we look at their competitors and we look at the thematic areas. If we know it's a medical event and we know there's a whole track on nutrition, then we're going to go out. We're going to go and speak to Nestle. We're going to go and speak to Nutrition. You know, we we have some good business acumen across the team, but um they're all they're all different. But the concept is the same. And we quite enjoy all that bit, all that strategic bit up front to make sure we're on the right track. It's the right people, yeah. Yeah, it's important.
00:12:45
Speaker
I can imagine. Sounds like a big job, though. Yeah, and we do it constantly because you can't rely as much as, you know, we let our retention rates are good for our conferences, but sometimes they'll drop because... yeah so and there might be a visa issue, for example, and then next year, people are a bit more wary. So their numbers might drop, the the stats might change. But we, um i tell you yeah, the retention rates, you should be aiming for about 70. Well, ours is 73% across as an average of our clients. um And that's not all us, you know, that's because they're delivering great events as well. But we that is only 73%. So we do need Most targets for us grow every year because most costs associated with event management grow every year. So everybody needs a bit more money. So we are always looking for the new. So that's when we're looking at who's running a comparable event in this sector, who's sponsoring that, who's a competitor to our top 10, tapping in again to the local organizing committees and asking them, who do you know? Who do you know that's senior? Who and the movers and shakers? you know So we're constantly doing that as well and reaching out and introducing. And those ones take a bit longer to to fulfill but we have to do it at the same time as the retention just going in off script for this one but i'm really interested is what's going on in the world at the moment affecting kind of the sponsorships that you're getting you're finding people are pulling out you know i can imagine it's quite difficult given what's going on and people getting certain places it is but i think that people are a very um very keen to mitigate their risk anyway right these days because get because because of everything else that happens. So that is also having an effect on the late bookings because the travel is so tripp so tricky for people and so expensive for people. So they're not only having to consider whether it's the right conference, but then they're saying, okay, well, it's in Singapore. Our head office is in Tampa.
00:14:44
Speaker
Can we justify the team and the design of the stands and the materials and collaterals that we need to ship? um A lot of stuff getting stuck everywhere around the world. a lot of stuff.
00:14:55
Speaker
few weeks uh that's been impactful which is yeah exhibitors because they spent all this money and time and got prepared and then they get there and they're collaterals get there and you've got problem yeah lot so yes for sure it's not making it any easier but i appreciate that it's not making any easier for anyone in the events industry of course it's just one another thing that we all have to deal with so what's the minimum an organizer should know about the audience before approaching any sort sponsorships um Well, I think if yeah if you take them back to registration form, I think they always need to ask those the really, really relevant questions from the reg form.
00:15:36
Speaker
So it's got to be job title or seniority. It's got to be geographic location. um But really, you know, those are the ones. I mean, we ask things like how many years in industry to try and gauge. what level they're at in terms of their education what's going to be important to them in terms of content but really the demographics the obvious ones are the obvious ones just that many clients don't don't even ask for a job title so then when you're it's amazing in today's day and age that you don't even yeah we've got we've got another one that i think is there's about 3 000 and they say well you know half of them are industry and half of them are academia well
00:16:15
Speaker
what industry are they in? You know, so. I can't imagine that makes your job easy. No. So, but that, you know, we we work with them. It's just sometimes when we first start, we don't have the historic data. And so it really kicks in after year one, because we're able to then say, you see how much easier this would have been if we had just asked this question or that question. So, you know, most of our clients take our advice and and we work collaboratively. So it's a team effort.
00:16:48
Speaker
can imagine. So you touched earlier on kind of the importance of tailoring packages based on the needs of the client. How do you balance that level of flexibility without devaluing what the offering is? Like, how do you make sure that everybody is still getting the best out of the package?
00:17:06
Speaker
um Again, it's just all about case by case, really. So we we are really hands on team. We don't do a lot. of We do do some mass training. eShots and, you know, to get our stats and things and know who's opening what and what copy is working. But when it comes down to people in the pipeline, people that are warm, we we are a team of eight and we've got two or three people on each.
00:17:30
Speaker
event, because we need to talk to those people and and find out with what they've got, what's important and tailor it. So we tend to, by the time they get through the filter, their package might not look anything like anything that was in Australia. First of all, in terms of fairness, I don't think people would ever be able to say, oh, well, you know, I paid three grand for for this and you paid five grand because they wouldn't know everything that was involved so different from that yeah people that might say you know what i want to do we would say to we'd be offering new sponsors why don't you do a couple of um e-shot campaigns in the run-up and and we'll help you with some social media to start the curiosity of your presence in this industry and at this point it's get the engagement going early so that you start to engage with our community before you even get there. Even got there. Yeah. Longevity helps them get the best out of their budget.
00:18:24
Speaker
Otherwise, mean, we will always have the people that go, okay, I'm a publisher. I just need this much space. And and we would charge them a per square meter rate. Otherwise, I think it might be important for someone to have 10 people on the ground. So they might say, i don't want the escalator branding that's in my package, but I do want, another line of classes so I think it's fair we try and because we're event professionals at heart we know what things cost so yeah to make sure that it works for our clients budgets it's not going to have too much of an impact on their bottom line equally we feel like it's fair if somebody else asked us we would be able to say if they keep things right down but they've got no people here so you know everybody is different we prefer to keep it different
00:19:09
Speaker
Which is great. And what are the most common mistakes you see when people build their packages? I think being too prescriptive. So we do start with packages with some clients and there's a lot of entitlements in there because that helps keep the price up and it helps keep the value. It's starting point, isn't it? Yeah.
00:19:26
Speaker
Honestly, when you the more you put in there, the more you're opening yourself up for them going, well, I don't think I want. And it'll be a tiny thing. You know, nobody wants obviously bag inserts anymore. You know, everyone's got more sustainable. But I do want sandwich truck outside the entrance which happens as well you know and i think everything personally we're very flexible and we think everything's negotiable as long as it there's an enhancement for the delegate and as long as it's going be and we think it's a good use of their money they're go to get a good return and it's not going to upset anybody else then then we let them do it but so i would say typically being too perspective being inflexible and that doesn't have to be we we we have lost people over clients being inflexible for sure And it's frustrating because we put all of the effort in. We know what's coming. And if they say, and there's just no movement, not changing it for them. no because it's not fair on everybody else. And even if I'm saying, well, this year is let's do this and tell them it's a one off. Just want to get them to come, get them to come and feel what the conference feels like. And and then they'll buy in, you know, we'll chaperone them and then they'll buy in. and sometimes some clients don't see the value in that usually only in the first year once we've worked together for one or two years they've kind built that stuff and I think those big um those high priced brand exposure stuff like come and I think the the other mistake is often the pricing so people might say okay, let's get sponsorship for the welcome reception. It's going to cost us 50 grand because we're going to do some champagne and canapes and stuff.
00:21:00
Speaker
And they're not going to pay 50 grand for it because first of all, you only get maybe 50% of the audience there because it's the night before the main program has started. And secondly, they often won't let them speak. So they don't have any direct engagement. It's just brand. It's just a logo. Yeah. Logos or branded napkins or whatever they let them do. It's a very short duration. It's not associated with any thematic area. They're not showing themselves being thought provoking.
00:21:29
Speaker
And it's just not really, it doesn't make sense. And I appreciate sometimes from event planner perspective, you think, okay, well, you're sponsoring the welcome reception. You've got pay, how much it costs. And it's not that from our perspective, we look at the opportunity. What's the likely return on investment? Where are Are we going to be able to sell the value and price it accordingly? And I suppose for the other end of the spectrum, you could consider when people take a symposium, they take a workshop. and you The event planner's already paid for the space, already paid for the meeting room, paid for the AV. It's very, very little cost, but you can charge much more money for that because that's what they want. They want to get in a room. They want to get people. With the people, yeah. actually They want to present to them. Have a direct engagement.
00:22:13
Speaker
solve a solution for them with their products and services. They can lead retrieval scanners and make sure they know so they can continue who was in the room. They will pay a lot more money for that, but it doesn't cost the event much more money. So it works both ways. And I'm always a bit like, right, well, tell us what you need from the sponsorship budget. We'll go out and get that. And don't worry that I've sold your Wi-Fi for two grand because I know it's cost you 15,000. but no one's going to pay 15 to sponsor the wifi, yeah but I'll make it up in other places. Yeah. So that's a, that's a big one to really do that pricing exercise and think, I know what it costs, but if I put all of it down together, what's, what, what is somebody going to pay for these, for these opportunities? Yeah.
00:22:59
Speaker
So we all know we have to justify the spend, but what metrics do sponsors actually care about beyond football? Yeah. um There is a numbers game again. So first of all, if we've said there's going to be 5,000 people, then they'll want to see at least 5,000 people. So that's always a big And I do find that if you've got great numbers, everybody's just in a great mood straight away and the pressure is off.
00:23:23
Speaker
If you've low numbers, then people are asking a lot more questions. on why they're not here yet We struggle to get the stats that we want because it does involve the sponsors giving us this feedback. And once they're done and done, they're so busy. So it's only going to be the next thing. yeah We stop and do we do do industry consultation process sometimes with our clients and where we'll just take the top 10 and talk to them once a year or once every other year to see, is this still important? What have you got from it? How has it been? But it will be things like if they've come for a recruitment purposes, we'd be asking them, how many interviews did you have? How many appointments did you make? That's the KPIs that we want so that we can tell others. And equally, product sales...
00:24:06
Speaker
new product and right development, they are looking for lead generation, number of orders, number of leads. So everybody's got a different objective. But yeah there's some things that can't be measured as well. They'll say, oh, networking is the most important thing to me. And so you can say, well, how many did you scan? But you don't know what you can't really quantify the quality. suppose So we try and get those post event stats. And if you're lucky enough to have the same sponsors each year and you build a relationship with them, you start know, you start to get that a bit more informally, but you ask people to fill in evaluation forms and, you know, the percentage that you get back there, that it's just not priority for them. But I would say, yeah, we try and look down the line. Why did they say they wanted to come? Did we deliver that? um Where's the KPI to prove it so that we can go to others in that sector and and and tell them the success.
00:24:58
Speaker
And how do you handle that conversation when the value value is is so hard to quantify? When I work in marketing, I find it hard to quantify some of the things that I do, and it's it's quite a difficult conversation to have.
00:25:09
Speaker
Yeah, it is hard. And the the key is really that we can't guarantee anything because, you know, we've all had conferences when there's been an ash cloud or, you know, there's been all sorts of stuff thrown our way. yeah There are no guarantees, but the best we can do is is establish the stats that we already know, those year-on-year facts and figures that we can give them, the re retention rates of the audience arriving, the typical number of leads someone might get, the typical number of people that will attend a workshop. We can give them all of that, um but only really from historical stats. And then we do that also in a qualitative manner as well. We're trying to get people to say, Why did you come today? Because it's easier. The the ones that aren't there often don't tell us why they're not there. But if they're there, then why did you come today? And they'll say, because this is the best quality conference in this sector or this is the one where I always get the best leads or I meet most of my customers at this event. And it helps me forge relations with all of my customers and keep my retention levels up anything that we hear that sounds remotely like a stat we're all over it and saying can we quantify it what can we do with that yeah yeah we try and get a good qualitative testimonial and we use those as well so we will build all of that into our conversations and our communications with prospects well well think that's a wrap on today's episode thank you so much victoria for coming on it's actually been really interesting chat i hope you've enjoyed it as well yeah it's good it's on chat
00:26:41
Speaker
Good. And if you've enjoyed today's episode, please do give us a follow on Instagram, Facebook and LinkedIn. And you can catch eventful encounters on all your usual podcast platforms, including Spotify and Amazon.
00:26:54
Speaker
Thank you.