Front and Center

Guest post by Andrew Meader, President & Promoter, Applause Factory, Inc.

Event sponsorship is a marketing investment, not charity.

We’ve all read about the legendary costs of Superbowl™ ad space or witnessed the preponderance of product placement in movies and cross-promotion leading up to events. It’s easy to write these things off as something available only to those with multi-million dollar budgets. The truth is high profile and even higher impact opportunities are available at affordable rates for small businesses on a local or regional level.

My experience with event production and promotion has run the gamut from theatrical productions featuring Gwyneth Paltrow and Roger Rees to touring, one-night gigs with Last Comic Standing, the Texas Tenors  and more. Are you murmuring that I just name-dropped? It’s true, but the intent here is to demonstrate that the formula is the same. For every act there is an audience, the more effectively the audience is targeted and courted, the more potent the dollars invested in the show will be. My success is in sales, which benefits the performer, the agency behind them, the venue, the community and the sponsors.

Sponsorship is an integral part of event promotion. As I see it, it is vastly more rooted in marketing than philanthropy, which is why as I explore sponsorship partnerships I turn to Directors of Marketing. These individuals are trained to identify opportunities that offer the greatest return on investment for their company. Today’s media landscape makes standing out and stretching ad dollars more complicated than ever.

Companies big and small are trying to get found—online, on shelves and in conversation, but how do you do it? Companies that connect the dots in event sponsorship value are reaping the rewards (and returning to the stage time after time.) All you have to do is turn on a Nascar event for 10 seconds to see how many companies are doing this. If it didn’t work, would they still be investing there? It isn’t as different as you might think when compared to event sponsorship at a local level. 

The specificity of target demographics for events can be very strong. While some events may draw a diverse audience, others have beautifully narrow demos. I call it beautifully narrow because if a small business can match their target demographic with an event, the association garnered from a sponsorship will far exceed the return from a traditional advertising source.

Sponsorships have the potential to greatly affect a geographic area surrounding the event. 1. A company sponsors a concert, enabling the organizers to make the event a reality. 2. The event is promoted drawing people to the area (and advertising title sponsors). 3. Patrons of the event fill local area restaurants and shops (including the sponsor’s) before and after the event. 4. The area is busy as a result of the event. 5. Investment in the area follows to leverage all that traffic and attention. 6. The successes are tied to the events, and in turn, tied to your company as a sponsor of the event. Trampoline Design has supported the efforts of the Adirondack Theatre Festival for the past several years, in fact, these photos, taken by Jim McLaughlin are of ATF audiences, enjoying a performance, and spending in nearby downtown establishments.

The crux of the impact is in emotion. Entertainment is something that is intended to trigger a response from the audience‑ make them think, make them cry, or make them laugh. Associating your brand with the emotional impact of an event is an incredibly effective way to shape the way a group thinks of your company,

The approach to sponsorship is similar to advertising in that you want to put yourself in front of the right people and, once you have their attention, you need to craft the message so that it achieves the desired result—sales, buzz, loyalty. You can’t just slap a name on top of an event and wait for customers to start flooding in. Leverage your sponsorship to gain the most ROI. 

• > Promote your association with the event. Let your current customers know that you are involved
     with the event. Use your social media outlets to inform your customers, followers and friends.
     The more successful the event is, the greater return. 
•  
• > Get involved. Use those sponsor tickets as sales incentives for employees, client incentives
     or to show your gratitude for doing business with your top clients. 
•  
• > Display your products or services and give samples or demonstrations at the event.
     This is like having your own trade show, and you are the only booth! 
•  
• > Allow their tickets to serve as a coupon or special offer. 
•  
• > Do not be afraid to try and negotiate with sponsorship, if you have an idea, pitch it to them.
     They just may say yes.

Investment shows strength in a company. Sponsorships are marketing investments that have a trackable rate of return and provide valuable benefits that far exceed the cost of the investment. 

It would seem that if played well, sponsorships, no matter the event, are really a sponsorship of your company.

Aren't you worth it?

Social Media Soufflé

Which came first the spin or the egg?

The egg* recall has, to some, shown a flaw in a national system to others it has highlighted the positive in the local system. We can appreciate most of the news stories as we endeavor to protect our families. There can be a kind of community in a shared fear. The reality is that eggs were maybe going to take a back seat on the old shopping list. Monitoring the growing recall list as newscasters speak in hushed tones and point dramatically at charts and maps—suddenly you wonder if there is poison in your very refrigerator.

The ding of the email caught my attention and I opened the new message. It was from an Eggland’s Best representative. I immediately remembered joking with their people in the BlogHer Expo. They really were genuine and listened, a rarity in some of those sponsored booths. The email was a succinct update on the relationship between Eggland’s Best and the egg recall, namely that there isn’t one.

Lainie Fiszer, the woman from Eggland’s Best who sent the email, quickly shared the key points:

• EB eggs are safe
• EB eggs are not produced in Iowa
• EB has the most comprehensive food safety quality assurance program
  and will never compromise when it comes to consumer safety

I’d like to believe the 3^rd bullet is a given, but the first two, those two spoke to me. I felt good knowing that the eggs in my fridge bore the cheerful red EB stamp. I felt lucky to be on the list, in-the-know and I felt gratitude. I responded to the email and let Lainie know that I would be blogging about this.

I told my family.

I emailed a friend.

I reaffirmed my commitment to the brand.

I played a role in the power of a relationship established via a social media mechanism—BlogHer + blogging  + Twitter. 

Eggland’s Best isn’t breaking new ground, they are simply using tools effectively. They found a receptive audience in women at BlogHer, they figured out how, where and when their audience wants to be addressed and, most importantly, they identified something that had huge significance to their audience, their brand and beyond, then, they acted. Swiftly, effectively and memorably.

I will buy Eggland’s Best, I will recommend it to others and I will retell this story again and again. That, is the power that can be found in social media.

Don’t fear it, use it. 

*Random mostly unrelated link that could not not share. See why. 

The Sell

Mack Collier (@mackcollier) was tweeting that the issue most companies have with blogs (after "not having one") is this: Failing to deliver relevant or quality content and an inability to use it for business development. We have certainly been guilty of the blog as press release or portfolio approach.

Mulling what Mack said, it occurs to me that we might be able to talk a bit about "the sell." It really doesn't matter what the product or cause is. Seriously. Just like social media doesn't have a back door secret to being a cure-all for your marketing woes, the sell cannot be a sham. There are charts and graphs, how to books and lecture series presenting all the ways in which you can magically do x, y or z, but when it comes down to it, it's just like losing weight.

It's about the person.

The honesty.

The accountability.

Resolve. Tenacity. Willingness. Focus.

The sell is knowing who you are talking to and how what you are selling pertains to them. I'm not talking about amortizing the cost of a vacuum cleaner out for 3 years so that it is really only 23 cents a day. That's crap for a person on a budget— smoke and mirrors, nothing more. The sell shouldn't be speculative or projecting some feel good thing that at the end of the day does not benefit the person.

Do you believe what you are selling? Do you really believe that if I do what you are asking— wear it, eat it, buy it, give it— that I am genuinely going to reap the benefits?

Or, when the door is closed and the camera is off is the truth that you are just chasing a number, a goal and I am but a direct line or an unfortunate detour along that run?

We are people. Each of us with our own insecurities, capabilities, advantages and capacities. If, when you offer the sell, you do not sincerely take those things into account, if you put your own motives ahead of how I feel, you will fail. You may get me this time, but when the buzz of your potion wears off, I'll be left feeling used or swindled.

Social media, consumers and your bottom line will all eventually reveal the truth in whether you are offering something of value or are just one more snake oil salesman trying to steal my last dollar.

How you do what you do is up to you, but if relevance and quality are central to success, are you on a course to fail?

Added Features

It's fascinating to track waves, whether it's Lists to Twitter or campaigns to add a dislike feature to Facebook, it's interesting to see the landscape evolve. The thrust of change, easy or hard fought, seems to be coming from consumer or individual demands as opposed to business models or internal strategies.

"I want my phone to do this."

"I want this out of my plan."

"I choose not to work out of the office."

Whatever it is, people are taking the initiative to make demands and initiate a kind of compromise that is leaving some businesses behind. You can use advertising as an example in a very general sense, the idea of sticking to the same approach despite an evolving consumer preference creates a dead end. You cannot corral people into digesting their information a certain way, there are simply too many variables. The three or four tried and true arenas for marketing oneself are diluted. Mechanisms exist to circumvent advertising, preferences are honored and, quite simply, people are opting out in the literal sense.

So, does this mean a hamster-on--a-wheel existence of catering to external elements? 

Hasn't customer service on some level always translated to that?

Or are we not thinking about it the right way?

What about imagining a way for it to work? A way to make the business run smoothly as it met, and maybe even exceeded, the expectations? I mean, when you get down to it, it's really kind of simple. The marriage is— your bottom line, your fulfillment and your clients. 

The way to a harmonized trio would involve considering each one and taking pains to make sure the balance always stays fairly close. Can you think ahead and find ways to please people as you accomplish your own objectives? 

So instead of running just to keep up, you veer a little off course, look ahead and carve a new way. Better, stronger, faster, cuter. Whatever. Just don't do it in a vacuum, don't pedal furiously only to find yourself alone. You are as entitled as anyone else to demand a better way, leaving behind what hasn't worked.

We're working on this. Strengthening relationships where it makes sense and extending our capabilities where we anticipate people (ourselves and our clients) needing to go.

It is scary and challenging, but the alternative is a much darker place, don't you think?

Forgetiquette

We preach risk taking, or at least risk trying. We say things like, "If you don't stand out, where do you stand?"

And yet, call it a throwback to etiquette, some of our most wickedly delicious ideas for self-promotion go unshared. Or even just blog posts. The snark. The cattiness. The restraint we demonstrate.

I mean, we gave you Papyr-annoyance, but we didn't share the post, which sits as a legitimate draft in our cue, that goes a little something like, "Colored spectacle frames do not a creative make." 

Then there's the Ultimate Design Rant Showdown that has in the left corner, weighing in at an impossible-to-quantify-level-of-professional-agony: Microsoft Publisher.

And in the right corner, decked out in head-to-toe, "Look, ma, I used the Photo Shop filter myself ," a logo created by a client's wife's stepson's girlfriend.

Cutting through this exceedingly dense exposition, we're done.

No more pussy footing around it. No more staidness for the sake of who-knows-what, or who.

They say we're too young. Fine, I'll take it after getting "Ma'am(ed)" one time too many at Hannaford.

They say Glens Falls is too little. Done, keep the congestion and queues.

They say we're too expensive. Between office-in-my-garage and mahogany and glitz-windowed excess, we're sitting just right.

They'll do it themselves. Have at it.

We're Tramps, whether we're your Tramps or not doesn't change the who or the how of our process. 

What it will change is whether or not you have us working for you, or for your competition, instead.