How to Create a Sponsorship Strategy that

Will Maximize Your Event Revenue

Introduction
As an event planner, you likely depend on several streams of event revenue such as selling tickets,
merchandise, hotel bookings, paid workshops or/sessions and sponsorship.

While it’s feasible to patch together money from these sources to cover the cost of your event, what can
really make the difference to your budget is generating dependable, ongoing revenue through sponsorship.
Developing strong relationships with sponsors who are interested in reaching your attendees can make the
difference between having enough funds to run a decent event versus an incredibly unique, memorable
event, while turning a profit.
7.1%

The challenge is that today’s sponsors are becoming more discerning in the opportunities they choose to
invest in. Some are overlooking traditional sponsorship benefits that can’t deliver clear return on
investment, focusing sponsorship spend on more directly measurable activation opportunities like
sponsored event games, wifi, or mobile-apps that can show a clear return on investment, whether it be
increased attendee engagement or brand awareness.

Brands are seeking a deeper relationship with properties rather

than a transactional relationship. Additionally, they are looking
for properties [associations] to present unique, creative ideas
for activation

— IEG, The State of Association Sponsorship: What Sponsors Want and Where Dollars WIll Go in 2016

But as you can imagine, developing creative,

measurable sponsorship benefits and building new
packages that are attractive to sponsors can take
more time and energy than relying on traditional
benefits or packages.

If your sponsorship packages have been virtually

identical or the same year-over-year, your sponsors
may be tired of the same routine offers, having
started to lose interest or pull out entirely.

Valuable insights from a Sponsorship.com survey

called The State of Association Sponsorship revealed
the following results:

How to Create a Sponsorship Strategy that Will Maximize Your Event Revenue 2
 46% 71% 56% 43%

Ranked presence in State developing new
digital/social/mobile sponsorship packages
media the most valuable was the primary
sponsorship benefit strategy to increase
sponsorship revenue
Are in the process of Are focused on finding
developing new new sponsor benefits
sponsorship that were previously
categories unavailable

Whether you’re seeking to attract new sponsors or looking to hold onto your well-established high-value
relationships, it may be time to redesign your sponsorships so they offer a range of creative options that help
sponsors achieve their goals.

Anticipate Your Sponsors’ Goals

Let’s talk about how event technology fits into the bigger picture of your sponsorship strategy.

As we noted, sponsor needs and expectations are changing. In response to this trend, many event
professionals are stepping up to the plate and developing new, creative sponsorship opportunities and
categories. And event technology is becoming a key focus for planners as a new revenue channel, and
enables them to redefine and expand their sponsorship offering.

Technologies that were previously unavailable, such as digital signage. mobile applications, games, social
media activations, and other digital platforms, yield data that is much more obtainable and immediate than
some forms of traditional sponsorship. Metrics such as downloads, click-throughs, and survey responses can
be delivered to sponsors in real-time (or soon afterward), providing proof of the return on investment and
actionable intelligence. And technology sponsorships can go beyond just achieving brand awareness
objectives. It has the ability to enable real engagement with a target audience.

So now you know that investing more time and budget in event technology will help you create robust,
creative and measurable sponsorship packages that are irresistible to sponsors AND deliver the kind of
results they’re looking for. But where do you start?

In this guide, we’ll start by discussing some key principles to guide you in crafting a sponsorship strategy that
integrates event technology. You’ll get some ideas on how to incorporate and price event technology
benefits into practical sponsorship packages. And finally, we’ll talk through how to write a killer sponsor
recap report post-event.

How to Create a Sponsorship Strategy that Will Maximize Your Event Revenue 3
Table of Contents

Section 1: Crafting a Sponsorship Strategy 4

Sponsorship vs Advertising 4

What are Sponsors Looking to Achieve? 7

Anticipate Your Sponsors’ Goals 7

Profile Your Attendees like a Target Audience 7

Elements of a Strong Sponsorship Program 8

Why Event Tech is a Critical Component of your Sponsorship Strategy 9

Questions to Consider 10

Section 2: Creating Event Technology Sponsorship Packages 11

Event Technology Sponsorship Ideas 11

Other Types of Event Technology 27

Section 3: How to Value/Price Event Tech Sponsorship 38

Section 4: Communicating Sponsorship Results Post-Event 40

How to Create a Sponsorship Strategy that Will Maximize Your Event Revenue 4
Section 1

Crafting a Sponsorship Strategy

Sponsorship vs. Advertising

Recent trends show that North American (and global) organizations are shifting dollars from traditional
advertising and marketing into event sponsorships. But why? Why are companies beginning to invest more in
event sponsorship than other forms of promotion?

For a few reasons in recent years the effectiveness of traditional marketing and advertising has diminished,
while the price has increased. With many more channels to reach consumers, audiences are becoming
extremely fragmented, and it’s becoming harder to reach specific demographic niches. Ratings and
readership of TV and magazines are in decline, while cost-per-view (and per-reader) has increased. And--as
we’ve all experienced-- consumers are becoming much more selective about where their attention goes and
are zoning out when they’re not interested.

By contrast, event sponsorship offers marketers an opportunity to align their messaging with a greater cause
and impact consumers in a way that’s interactive, emotional, relevant and immersive.

Interactive
Creates a dialogue, while
sponsorship creates a monologue

Emotional
Taps into events, places, and causes
that consumers are passionate about

Relevant
Reaches consumers in places they
choose to be

Immersive
Makes an impact through multiple
touchpoints and components

How to Create a Sponsorship Strategy that Will Maximize Your Event Revenue 5
William Rosen, President & Chief Creative Officer of global marketing giant Arc Worldwide, foresees that
sponsorship marketing will continue to star a leading role in activating consumer behavior:

“Done properly, sponsorship marketing can offer much more than mere
affinity and eyeballs. As marketers continue their shift from building
brands to activating them, sponsorship marketing’s ability to connect
with people’s passions and deliver inherently social content is only going
to make it a more important tool in marketers’ arsenals.”

— William Rosen,
Six Steps to Successful Sponsorships,
Harvard Business Review (2011)

Event Spillover Effect: Studying the Impact of Sponsorship on Stock Prices

There’s a fascinating study conducted a few years ago that aimed to prove the impact corporate sponsorship
from a sporting event had on stock prices and coined a new concept called “Event Spillover Theory.”
Researchers George Filis and George Spais looked at 28 listed companies, that had sponsored 15 major
sports events between 2000–2009.

In a nutshell, they discovered that stock returns and volatility changed significantly during and after the
sporting event, compared to the pre-event period! Ultimately, they proved that:
“Sponsorships can help associate corporate and brand names with a specific event or experience, allowing
the organization or the brand to transcend its characteristics, values, and physical attributes and instill
additional meaning and value. Through sponsorship, an event’s image will become associated with the
sponsoring brand and/or corporate name”

— George Filis & George Spais, The Effect of Sport Sponsorship Programs of Various Sport Events on the
Stock Price Behaviour During a Sport Event (2012)

How to Create a Sponsorship Strategy that Will Maximize Your Event Revenue 6
What are Sponsors Looking to Achieve?
Now that you know that there are more sponsorship dollars to go around, to benefit from this situation you
need to get into the heads of your sponsors and understand what they want to achieve. While money is being
shifted away from traditional advertising and marketing channels, it’s important to remember that those
spending the money are still marketers. So, these individuals will be held accountable for justifying how they
spent their budget to their boss or executives, and for the business results they’ve achieved. To create
sponsorship packages that will truly be attractive to potential sponsors, you’ll need to be able to
demonstrate how the sponsorship can help reach their ideal target audience, and help enable the broader
marketing objectives and goals they’re trying to achieve.

Anticipate Your Sponsors’ Goals

Sponsors are likely to be working towards one or many of the following goals. Your job is to ask strategic
questions to identify what they’re trying to achieve, and then start to formulate creative ideas for activation.

Increase awareness Reaching out to a Increase brand

around a new product new target audience awareness with an
launch existing audience

Build relationships Reposition or Social

and engage with rehabilitate a responsibility
community struggling brand /CSR

Profile Your Attendees like a Target Audience

Another key piece of information you need to understand (and be ready to communicate to sponsors) is a
detailed breakdown of your attendees’ demographic and psychographic profiles. This may sound a bit
creepy, but marketers and advertisers are quite accustomed to accessing tons of data on their target
audiences that makes it possible to drill down and run campaigns to very segmented groups.

How to Create a Sponsorship Strategy that Will Maximize Your Event Revenue 7
Important attendee characteristics could include:

Demographics (age, gender, income, marital status, language, job, company size, academic background)

Psychographics (attitudes, aspirations, work/life challenges, work/life goals, workplace responsibilities,

brand preferences, etc.)

If you don’t already have this information internally, you can capture some details in a pre-event or
post-event survey and use it to laser-target the attendee profile section in your sponsorship proposals. With
a clear understanding of how to articulate the profile of those with whom your sponsors could interact at
your event, you’re well on your way to crafting a solid strategy.

Next up, we’re going to look at the key elements that characterize a strong sponsorship program.

Elements of a Strong Sponsorship Program

In The Future of Event Sponsorship, Julian Solaris of Event Manager Blog cites several traits of innovative
sponsorship programs. You should consider these principles as you’re building out your sponsorship program:

Attendee Comes First Good Matchmaking

The best sponsorship programs start by looking at
the needs of attendees. For example, how can you
solve the issue of attendees walking too much on
your trade show floor? Get a sponsor to pay for
scooters. How can you solve the challenge of
attendees leaving the conference during breaks
to hit the local coffee shop? Have a sponsor pay
for a portable coffee bar. These are incredibly
practical ideas that add value to attendees while
delivering relevant sponsorship messages.
Clear Metrics
While traditional logo placement may still appeal
to some brands, most marketers/sponsors will be
interested in more measurable metrics like banner
ads clicks, sponsor profile views, leads generated,
game or survey participation, or booth visits.
This connects back to the point in the previous
section: if you profile your attendees like a target
audience this will help your sponsors identify and
connect with the audience segment that is most
closely matched with their ideal customers.
A la Carte or Tiered Model
Some of your sponsors may want the flexibility to
pick and choose in which sponsorship benefits
they invest. Others are likely a bit more open to
the power of suggestion. That is why it’s smart to
have both an A la Carte as well as a Tiered model
for sponsorship packages.
Authority
The best way to set yourself apart is to run an
incredible, unique and memorable event that
delivers true value to the community. Of course,
this is easier said than done! The benefit though is
that it changes the dynamic from push to pull, so
instead of chasing sponsors, they’ll be breaking
down your door to be part of next years’ event.

How to Create a Sponsorship Strategy that Will Maximize Your Event Revenue 8
Why Event Tech is a Critical Component of your Sponsorship Strategy
Now that you’re starting to piece together a strategic framework for your sponsorship program let’s talk
about how event technology fits into the bigger picture. As we noted earlier, sponsor needs and expectations
are changing. In response to this trend, many event professionals are stepping up to the plate and developing
new, creative sponsorship opportunities and categories. And many are exploring event technology to
redefine and expand their sponsorship offering.

Valuable insights from a Sponsorship.com survey The State of Association Sponsorship revealed that:

46% 71% 56% 43%

Of respondents ranked Of respondents’ primary Are developing Are focused on finding

presence in strategy to increase new sponsorship new sponsor benefits
digital/social/mobile media sponsorship revenue was categories that were previously
as the most valuable to develop new unavailable
sponsorship benefit sponsorship packages

If your sponsorship packages have been virtually identical or the same year-over-year, your sponsors may be
tired of the same routine offers, have started losing interest or are even pulling out. Whether you’re seeking
to attract new sponsors or looking to hold onto your well-established high-value relationships, it may be time
to redesign your sponsorships to offer a range of creative options that help sponsors achieve their own goals.

“Brands are seeking a deeper relationship with properties rather

than a transactional relationship. Additionally, they are looking
for properties [associations] to present unique, creative ideas
for activation.”
— IEG, The State of Association Sponsorship: What Sponsors Want and Where Dollars Will Go in 2016

With new forms of communication and technology from social media and event apps becoming the norm at
many events, this can be a great time to refresh your offerings and deliver more value to sponsors.

How to Create a Sponsorship Strategy that Will Maximize Your Event Revenue 9
Questions to Consider
Before you roll up your sleeves and start rejigging your sponsorship packages, read through the following
four questions and start jotting down some answers. This will help you apply what you’ve learned about what
sponsors want and who they want to reach.

What are your sponsors’ goals? Do they see more value in pre-event
exposure, prominent onsite logo placement, or engaging with their target
audience?

Are your sponsors interested in reaching or engaging with your entire

attendee list? Or just certain segments?

Are your sponsors interested in becoming a tiered title sponsor or would

rather choose sponsorship opportunities a la carte?

Do you have an opportunity to obtain an exclusive event technology

sponsor, or will you split event technology benefits into tiered packages?

How to Create a Sponsorship Strategy that Will Maximize Your Event Revenue 10
Section 2

Creating Event Technology Sponsorship Packages

Before you start creating sponsorship packages that integrate event technology benefits, you need to have a
clear understanding of the following factors.

Your sponsors’ goals

Whether they’re seeking shared

vs. exclusive partnership

Whether they prefer an A la Carte

or a Tiered model

Which segment of your attendees are

most similar to their target audience

Event Technology Sponsorship Ideas

To get your creative juices flowing, next, we’re going to look at some creative ideas on how to leverage
sponsorship opportunities in your event app, registration or digital signage. At this stage, you’ll also want to
consider how you’re going to measure the ROI of each benefit. This is so you can let sponsors know from the
get-go what type of results they can expect.

Try and view these ideas through the lens of your sponsors’ goals. If they’re more interested in building brand
awareness with your audience, banner ads and sponsored registration might be the right suggestion. But a for
a sponsor who is interested in engaging with an audience, sponsored surveys or live polls may be a better idea.

How to Create a Sponsorship Strategy that Will Maximize Your Event Revenue 11
Event App Homescreen: HOW TO SELL IT TO YOUR SPONSOR?
Make a Powerful First “First impressions are lasting impressions.

Impression Maximize your exposure by being the first thing

everyone sees.”

Every app has a customizable Home Screen that

DESIGN TIP
serves as an introduction to the app, often
featuring core event details like an agenda and Don’t be afraid to change branded images each
speaker bios. With every attendee starting his or day. When attendees go to their app on the
her mobile experience on this page, there’s no second or third day of the event and see a new,
better place to offer exposure. Putting your main eye-catching graphic, it may pique their
sponsor’s logo on the Home Screen will ensure curiosity to engage further.
that every attendee who accesses the app will
HOW DO I ADD BRANDING TO THE
have a direct, impactful interaction with the
sponsor’s brand. HOMESCREEN?

EventMobi provides easy, drag-and-drop

Home Screen creation that allows you to
upload dynamic images that can link to
information about the sponsor, either within
the app or the sponsor’s website. You can
even underscore the impact by adding their
branding to the loading screen or by using it in
a splash screen.

How to Create a Sponsorship Strategy that Will Maximize Your Event Revenue 12
Banner Ads:
Every Page can be a Point
of Contact
On-screen banners ads are the standard in
mobile app sponsorship. You see them
everywhere, it’s true, and for a good reason:
they’re impactful. Banner ads give your sponsors
an opportunity to generate brand awareness by
sending attendees a strong message on the pages
where they’ll be spending the most time.
Whether static or rotating, banner ads are
powerful and dynamic, allowing you to link to a
sponsor’s profile, website, or promotions, along
with a custom-designed image and message.
Banner ads can be placed at focal points
throughout the app – at the top of a menu,
throughout long lists, and at the bottom of other
high-traffic sections.
How to Create a Sponsorship Strategy that Will Maximize Your Event Revenue
HOW TO SELL IT TO YOUR SPONSOR?
“Every page can be a point of contact – an
opportunity to reach your attendees and expand
your audience.”
HOW MANY BANNER ADS SHOULD WE RUN?
Determining how many unique banner ads to
run in your app comes down to whether you’re
going with a shared or exclusive sponsorship
strategy. Whether your banners rotate on the
same page or randomly throughout the app, the
more banner ads you have, the less exposure
each will get. We recommend keeping the
number of banner ads under five.
HOW TO MEASURE ROI?
Because the objective of banner ads is typically
to generate brand awareness rather than
engagement, it’s best to measure banner ad
effectiveness by looking at the number of page
views instead of the number of clicks.
13
Notifications, Updates & Alerts: HOW TO SELL IT TO YOUR SPONSOR?
Give your Sponsors a Voice “Send a branded, custom message to every
attendee that they’re guaranteed to open. Or, you
Most of your attendees will be opening your can go a step further and use Direct Notifications
event app frequently throughout the event to to reach the segment of attendees you care about
help navigate to sessions, connect with other the most.”
attendees and participate in games and other
activities. This makes the app an excellent place DESIGN TIP
to deliver time-sensitive announcements which
Direct Notifications allow you to include images
offer another substantial opportunity to
as well as a message. If your sponsors would like
generate revenue.
to include a logo or branded image in the
message, you can charge a premium.
If one of your sponsors is looking to draw more
foot traffic for a live product launch or promo,
you can send out a sponsored alert with details
to direct attendees to their booth. Direct
Notifications also provide event professionals
with the ability to send notifications to specific
groups of attendees with special interests or who
are attending specific sessions. For example, you
may want to offer your technology sponsor the
chance to send a notification to everyone
attending the technology- specific sessions. This
is a sure way to help sponsors reach very specific
segments of attendees!

How to Create a Sponsorship Strategy that Will Maximize Your Event Revenue 14
Map Sponsorship: HOW TO SELL IT TO YOUR SPONSOR?
Eyes on Your Map = Eyes on “Maps are consistently one of the top five

Your Sponsor most-used features! Attendees are constantly

accessing the map to see where they’re going next,
so why not take advantage and brand it?”
Whether they’re looking for the registration
desk or the route to their next session, attendees HOW TO MEASURE ROI?
will routinely reference your map. With all those
Check out the number of times attendees
eyes looking for directions, you can place
accessed your map; that’s also the number of
sponsors’ logos near the title area of the map –
times attendees saw your sponsor’s logo.
somewhere eye-catching that doesn’t interfere
with the map. Or, you can help drive traffic to
sponsor booths or tables by highlighting and
labeling them on your map, in addition to
including their logo on the map itself.

How to Create a Sponsorship Strategy that Will Maximize Your Event Revenue 15
Lead Gen: HOW TO SELL IT TO YOUR SPONSOR?
Converting Session “Reach your target audience, segmented by

Attendance into Audience personal or professional factors...like professionals

interests or pain points.”
Segments
HOW TO MEASURE ROI?
Many event apps offer the ability for attendees You can measure ROI through leads generated
to favorite sessions and exhibitors. Luckily, for for sponsors (email addresses and contact
sponsors, as an event planner, you will have names). If you do plan on using your app as a
access to all of this information. In turn, you can lead generation tool though, make sure your
export favorited session lists to see exactly who privacy policy reflects this and is duly
went to what session. For example, perhaps communicated.
your AV sponsor would appreciate getting in
touch with everyone who attended the session,
“10 Things you Need to know About the Future
of AV’. At the event, you can offer sponsors
Direct Notifications, to reach out and end that
group of attendees targeted alerts from your
sponsors about deals and promotions on offer.
Or, you can export lists of session attendees
and share email addresses with sponsors for
post-event follow-up.

How to Create a Sponsorship Strategy that Will Maximize Your Event Revenue 16
System Emails: HOW TO SELL IT TO YOUR SPONSOR?
Showcase Sponsors in “Use branding to make every attendee touchpoint

Pre- and Post-Event count--from downloading the event app to

rounding up their notes post-event”
Communications
HOW TO MEASURE ROI?
To help increase app downloads before your The number of emails sent pre-event will
event, we suggest sending attendees an email indicate logo impressions to sponsors.
inviting them to access the app and fill out their
attendee profile. By simply including a logo in
the email template, you can introduce
attendees to one of your key sponsors right off
the bat.

Post-event when your attendees have taken

notes on sessions and highlighted attendees or
speakers to follow up with, they can use
EventMobi’s Quick Export function to send all
these details back to their inbox. This email is
typically a pre-built template, but a few tweaks
here and there and your custom email can
contain your sponsors’ logo too.

How to Create a Sponsorship Strategy that Will Maximize Your Event Revenue 17
Group Discussions:
Spark Conversations and
Capture Insights
Maybe your sponsors need to capture customer
feedback on a new product that they‘re
launching at their tradeshow booth. Or perhaps
they’d like to continue a hot topic conversation
that spawned off a sponsored speaker’s
keynote. Either way, Group Discussions are an
invaluable attendee networking and knowledge
sharing tool that curates event discussions into
channels, so attendees can discuss the topics or
join the social conversations they care about
most. Used effectively, this private social
network can become a hotbed of insightful
conversation during your event.
How to Create a Sponsorship Strategy that Will Maximize Your Event Revenue
HOW TO SELL IT TO YOUR SPONSOR?
“Imagine you had the opportunity to catalyze
topical conversations with your target audience
and discover actionable insights?”
HOW TO MEASURE ROI?
As a quantitative measure, you can look at the
number of participants in the Group Discussions
channel. The most valuable insights are likely to
be the qualitative learnings that will come out
organically from these discussions.
WAIT, WHERE DOES SPONSORSHIP COME IN?
You could create sponsored discussion channels
for attendees with common interests,
professional specialization, geographic location
or chapter membership.
Your sponsor could pay for the privilege to
moderate topics of conversation around specific
insights they’re looking for from this audience.
Suggested topics can range from brand-specific
to broader industry topics, including product
feedback, Ask the CEO, industry best practices,
what’s broken in ___(your industry), biggest
challenges as a ___(job specialization), etc.
18
Exhibitor Profiles: HOW TO SELL IT TO YOUR SPONSOR?
Make your Exhibitors More “An enhanced exhibitor profile sets you apart

than Just a Booth from other exhibitors and transforms your

profile into a valuable resource for attendees. It
can also help generate interest and drive foot
At any event, exhibitors are competing for
traffic to your booth.”
attention to promote themselves and any new
product launches. Here are a few strategies to
enhance the profile of main sponsors within HOW TO MEASURE ROI?
your event app: Check the number of times attendees have
accessed your exhibitors’ profiles.
Reward higher-tier exhibitors with a
competitive edge by offering enhancement
packages that allow them to improve their
presence in your exhibitor listing.
Offer exhibitors richer profiles, which
might include their logo, social media links,
ribbons, and attached resources.
Bolster their profiles with product
presentations, PDF brochures, inventory
lists, flyers, and videos.
Enable sponsors to pass around exclusive
coupons and discount codes, which have
been a hit at many consumer shows.

How to Create a Sponsorship Strategy that Will Maximize Your Event Revenue 19
Sponsor Listings: HOW TO SELL IT TO YOUR SPONSOR?
Stand Out From the Crowd “A small change can make a big difference! And a
splash of color is all it takes to stand out from the
Highlighting the top sponsors or exhibitors in competition in sponsor listings.”
the listings is a great way to raise their profile
with your attendees. Offer them the chance to
enhance their appearance in the list with
ribbons, category banners, and placement at
the top of the list. Remember, mobile users
normally spend just 3-5 seconds looking at a
page before selecting what to do next, so
anything higher up the list stands a better
chance of being seen.

How to Create a Sponsorship Strategy that Will Maximize Your Event Revenue 20
Attendee Networking: HOW TO SELL IT TO YOUR SPONSOR?
Creating a Personal “Instead of being just another brand, give your

Connection with Sponsor on-site a name and a face so that attendees can
create real, lasting relationships.”
Staff
DESIGN TIP

The Attendee Networking feature allows Check the number of times attendees have
attendees to create and manage their own accessed your exhibitors’ profiles.
online presence at the event. Since profiles can
be built out with everything from social media WAIT, WHERE DOES SPONSORSHIP COME IN?
links to a profile picture, personal interests to a
While this feature is usually exclusive to
professional title, this is where attendees go to
attendees, for a price, you may want to allow
see who else is coming to the event.
sponsor staff to create profiles. You can even add
a link from their personal profile directly on their
This functionality also makes one-to-one
company’s exhibitor page too. This can make it
in-app chat more engaging. While viewing
possible for sponsors to follow up directly with
another attendee’s profile, one can simply click
attendees who stopped by their booth and
“Send a Message” and a private chat box is
expressed interest in their product or service.
opened between the two parties. At the same
time, both attendees’ information is protected
as the messenger service functions through
the app without sharing a phone number or
email address.

How to Create a Sponsorship Strategy that Will Maximize Your Event Revenue 21
Sponsored Surveys & Contests:
Engage Attendees and
Collect Qualified Leads
Sponsors need to understand their customers.
To do so, they love to ask questions and collect
important data that will help them understand
the needs and desires of prospective clients. As
the event organizer, you can greatly enrich your
sponsors’ experience by providing them with a
platform to engage attendees.
Allowing your sponsors to design and promote
their own survey provides them with a tool they
can use to engage attendees in fun and exciting
ways while at the same time collecting valuable
customer data that helps them in the future.
How to Create a Sponsorship Strategy that Will Maximize Your Event Revenue
HOW TO SELL IT TO YOUR SPONSOR?
“Gain valuable insights into your customers by
asking key, defining questions. With that data,
you’ll be able to segment customer profiles for
future marketing opportunities!”
HOW CAN I INCENTIVIZE SURVEY
PARTICIPATION?
It can sometimes be a challenge to elicit survey
participation, but we’ve seen great success with
draws for a prize to incentivize survey
completions. “Answers 5 quick questions to be
entered into a draw for an iPad!” With attendees
participating and entering details, sponsors will
have a wealth of information to work with.
Remember to be clear with your attendees by
indicating that it’s a sponsored survey.
22
Expo Games:
Directing Attendee
Behaviour
You’ve probably heard of event gamification,
or maybe you’ve even participated in games
at a recent event. The idea of applying gaming
mechanics – like points, badges, and
leaderboards – has been growing in
popularity in the world of events. Think of
gamification as a tactic to guide attendee
behavior, and you’ll be sure to come up with a
whole host of ideas on how sponsors may
want to prompt attendees to take action at
your event. Our event app offers a high
degree of customization, and there are
endless possibilities for creating games and
challenges pre-, post- and during your event!
How to Create a Sponsorship Strategy that Will Maximize Your Event Revenue
HOW TO SELL IT TO YOUR SPONSOR?
“While all the other exhibitors attempt to attract
eyes, attendees will have a reason to come straight
to your booth first.”
DESIGN TIP
Use QR Codes in your scavenger hunt as a visual
cue for attendees to engage and to promote the
game to those passing by exhibitors.
CAN YOU GIVE ME SOME EVENT GAME IDEAS?
One exciting way you can integrate a
sponsorship strategy into your event games is by
incorporating your top sponsors in the games.
Create a check-in style challenge to drive
traffic to specific sponsors’ booths or ask
questions about a top-sponsor’s product
presentation.
While all the other challenges in your event
game might be worth 10 points each, attach
50 points to a visit with your sponsor.
Take it a step further and create a challenge
that prompts attendees to start a
conversation. For example, “For ten more
points, what’s the name of the new product
the company is announcing today?”
23
Live Display: HOW TO SELL IT TO YOUR SPONSOR?
Make a Big Splash with the “Want to sneak in as a last-minute sponsor and get

Partners Screen some significant real estate? No problem --with Live

Display, it’s still possible to make an impact!”

One of the features that make our digital

signage solution, Live Display, truly unique is DESIGN TIP
that it offers real estate for five sponsor logos While the Partners screen has room for up to
within the rotating screens--from Agenda to five logos, if you’ve gone with an exclusive
Social to Games and Partners. sponsorship model, you could also offer this
entire space to one sponsor, for repeated logos
Gone are the days of locking down a firm or even an ad with event-specific messaging.
sponsor deadline before so you’d have enough
time to print their logos on physical signage and
lanyards. With digital signage opportunities like
Live Display, you can accommodate even the
most last minute sponsorship decisions.
Because let’s be honest--you never want to
have to turn away an offer for event
sponsorship. Of course, it’s a great inclusion in
your planned sponsorship packages as well!

How to Create a Sponsorship Strategy that Will Maximize Your Event Revenue 24
Live Polling: HOW TO SELL IT TO YOUR SPONSOR?
Follow your Attendee’s “Everyone likes to see the results of live polls! Get

Eyeballs your logo up, front and center where everyone’s

attention will be.”

Attendees are always fascinated to see each

other’s opinions’ translated into stats on the big
screen. If a live audience response system is
integrated with your event app, you have a
golden opportunity to use it for revenue
generation. Poll results tallied on a large
presentation screen are great attention
grabbers and a well-placed logo is guaranteed
to attract some eyes.

Those few seconds of exposure are valuable,

and you can offer them to your sponsors at a
premium. Our digital signage solution-- Live
Display--integrates with our event app to make
this possible.

How to Create a Sponsorship Strategy that Will Maximize Your Event Revenue 25
Registration: HOW TO SELL IT TO YOUR SPONSOR?
Put Sponsors in the “Capture the attention of your target audience

Spotlight from one of their very first touchpoints with the

event: the registration email and site.”

You can offer branded registration to sponsors

who want to be in the spotlight from the very HOW TO MEASURE ROI?

beginning of your event. Adding a logo to the To identify logo impressions, you can look at
registration site and the registration email number of emails sent and number of
invite is a smart way to offer pre-event registration pageviews.
exposure.

How to Create a Sponsorship Strategy that Will Maximize Your Event Revenue 26
Other Types of Event Technology
Of course, in addition to registration, event apps, and digital signage, there are many more types of event
technology that you could turn into creative sponsorship opportunities. Here are some examples to inspire
you, but you should also look to your competitors’ events for more ideas!

Virtual Booths Digital Gift Walls and WiFi

Sponsors post video clips
and specification sheets
in online directories
Goodie Bags
Sponsor logo link appears
Sponsors provide coupons before user login on the
and collateral for download splash page, or in
designated kiosks.

INSPIRATION
High Tech meets the Herd

In this example from Britain’s Glastonbury Music

Festival, telecommunications company EE
sponsored a herd of life-sized fiber-glass cows,
which doubled as free Wi-Fi spots to keep
attendees connected. EE specializes in building
high-speed wireless networks for remote areas,
so choosing to created “Moobile Hotspots” was a
smart strategy to tie in their organization’s value
proposition with this zany tech sponsorship.

Caption: Moobile Hotstops sponsored by EE at the

Glastonbury Music Festival, 2014.

Source: New Atlas, 2014

How to Create a Sponsorship Strategy that Will Maximize Your Event Revenue 27
 Interactive Show Twitter Vending Social Photo
Floor Plans Machines Booths

Sponsor logo links Sponsors deliver gifts in Sponsors post guest photos
appear on maps exchange for tweets on social media sites

INSPIRATION
Toy Cars for Big Kids

At the 2013 Canadian International Auto Show,

Chevrolet Canada celebrated the limited edition
Hot Wheels-inspired blue Camaro with a
giveaway of a Mattel collectors-edition blue
Camaro die cast from a vending machine in
Chevy’s booth. At the “Hot Wheels
Camaro-matic Trending Machine” consumers
standing nearby tweeted what they liked about
the car with a hashtag and Twitter handle,
#ChevyCIAS and @HotWheelsCanada.
Consumers had a 1-in-2 chance of receiving the
die cast giveaway in a special acrylic glass
display case.

Caption: Moobile Hotstops sponsored by EE at the

Glastonbury Music Festival, 2014.

Source: New Atlas, 2014

How to Create a Sponsorship Strategy that Will Maximize Your Event Revenue 28
 Beacons Device Charging
Stations
Sponsors deliver push
notifications and Sponsors deliver video or
content to attendee’s surveys as attendees wait
mobile apps for phones to charge

INSPIRATION
Toy Cars for Big Kids

Having access to a mobile charging station has

become a must-have at most events. The last
thing you want to happen is for your attendees’
smartphone or laptop to run out of batteries
while they’re on the go! You can strategically use
charging stations to direct foot traffic to some of
the less-frequented corners of the tradeshow
floor. The placement of these stations could be
even more impactful than the traditional food and
beverage station, because when people are
charging their phones, they have little else to do
besides walking around these dead zones and
visiting booths.

Caption: Drop-and-Go Charging Station sponsored by

Sprint at the International Builders’ Show in Orlando, 2012.

Source: FreshWata, 2014

How to Create a Sponsorship Strategy that Will Maximize Your Event Revenue 29
Tiered vs. A la Carte Sponsorship Models
With a solid understanding of how you can monetize event apps, registration, and digital signage to deliver
sponsorship benefits, now you can begin mapping your technology offerings to your sponsors’ objectives.

There are two main approaches to creating sponsorship packages: A la Carte model or a Tiered model. The
traditional approach is to bundle technology sponsorships into a Tiered Model, where different features
are included or excluded, depending on the sponsorship level. But some sponsors will seek out more
flexibility and customization, and so you should also be ready to offer sponsorship benefits in an A La Carte
model as well.

How to Create a Sponsorship Strategy that Will Maximize Your Event Revenue 30
Tiered Sponsorship Model
If you’re looking for some ideas on how to split out event tech benefits across a tiered sponsorship model,
here’s an example of how it might work.

Platinum Gold Silver Exhibitor

Company Profile - Name, Logo, Description, Website,

✔ ✔
Social Media Links

Sponsor Ribbons - On sponsor listing page ✔ ✔

Downloadable PDFs - On company profile ✔ ✔ ✔

Live Display - Dedicated screen with company logo ✔

Live Display - Shared screen with other sponsors ✔ ✔

2 Banner Ads - Shown throughout the app (speakers,

✔
agenda, main menu)

1 Banner Ad - Shown throughout the app (speakers,

agenda, main menu) ✔ ✔

2 Alerts - Sent to all attendees (can include sponsor

✔
logos and links)

1 Alert - Sent to all attendees (can include sponsor

✔ ✔
logos and links)

Home Screen Advertisement - Custom home screen

✔
ad (links to company profile)

Audience Response - Logo on Live Polling results page

✔
(displayed at opening ceremony, sessions, etc.)

Questions - Included in post-event survey ✔ ✔

Booth Information - Logo, Description, Interactive

✔ ✔ ✔
Mapping

Downloadable PDF - Included on Sponsor profile ✔ ✔ ✔

Gamification - Included in check-in game ✔ ✔ ✔

How to Create a Sponsorship Strategy that Will Maximize Your Event Revenue 31
A la Carte Sponsorship Model

Pre-Event Brand Awareness Engage with Brand Direct Messaging Post-Event

Exposure in Mobile Attendees and Awareness to Targeted Mentions
Event App Gather Insights Onsite Attendees

If your sponsor is seeking…

Pre-Event Exposure

Offer these sponsorship options:

Logo on event registration site

Logo and/or mention in your pre-event

registration invite emails

Social media shout outs (Facebook,

Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, etc)

Promoting your sponsors’ speakers

Competition and giveaways pre-event by

your sponsors

Caption: Event Registration Invite with Sponsor Logos

How to Create a Sponsorship Strategy that Will Maximize Your Event Revenue 32
A la Carte Sponsorship Model

Pre-Event Brand Awareness Engage with Brand Direct Messaging Post-Event

Exposure in Mobile Attendees and Awareness to Targeted Mentions
Event App Gather Insights Onsite Attendees

If your sponsor is seeking…

Brand Awareness in Mobile

Event App

Offer these sponsorship options:

Short or enhanced company description

Highlighted or standard logo on sponsor section

Listing in sponsor tab

Sponsor ribbon

Link to company URL

Social media link (Twitter/LinkedIn)

Logo on Live Poll results on screen

Link to downloadable resources (brochures,

company collateral)

Link to branded video

Banner ads

App banner placement on home page or map page

Link to special offers/giveaways

Caption: Sponsor Ribbon on Event App

How to Create a Sponsorship Strategy that Will Maximize Your Event Revenue 33
A la Carte Sponsorship Model

Pre-Event Brand Awareness Engage with Brand Direct Messaging Post-Event

Exposure in Mobile Attendees and Awareness to Targeted Mentions
Event App Gather Insights Onsite Attendees

If your sponsor is seeking…

Engage with Attendees

and Gather Insights

Offer these sponsorship options:

Branded survey or poll to capture audience

insights

Gamification points and prizes to encourage

attendees to visit their booth and interact with
sponsors onsite

Sponsored giveaways to be redeemed via

gamification challenges and activity onsite

Profiles for sponsor staff to connect via chat with

berbers one-on-one

Sponsored Group Discussion channels

Shoutouts and special messages in Group

Discussions

Caption: Sponsored Challenge and Prize

How to Create a Sponsorship Strategy that Will Maximize Your Event Revenue 34
A la Carte Sponsorship Model

Pre-Event Brand Awareness Engage with Brand Direct Messaging Post-Event

Exposure in Mobile Attendees and Awareness to Targeted Mentions
Event App Gather Insights Onsite Attendees

If your sponsor is seeking…

Brand Awareness Onsite

Offer these sponsorship options:

Logo on event registration site

Logo and/or mention in your pre-event

registration invite emails

Logo on Live Poll results screens

Social media shoutouts (Facebook, Twitter,

Instagram, LinkedIn, etc)

Promoting your sponsors’ speakers

Competition and giveaways onsite by your

sponsors

Logo on Live Display digital signage

Caption: Sponsored Live Poll Results Screen

How to Create a Sponsorship Strategy that Will Maximize Your Event Revenue 35
A la Carte Sponsorship Model

Pre-Event Brand Awareness Engage with Brand Direct Messaging Post-Event

Exposure in Mobile Attendees and Awareness to Targeted Mentions
Event App Gather Insights Onsite Attendees

If your sponsor is seeking…

Direct Messaging to
Targeted Attendees

Offer these sponsorship options:

Targeted segment or mass Alerts/Notifications

with/without logo

Targeted segment or mass email

Caption: Branded Direct Notification

How to Create a Sponsorship Strategy that Will Maximize Your Event Revenue 36
A la Carte Sponsorship Model

Pre-Event Brand Awareness Engage with Brand Direct Messaging Post-Event

Exposure in Mobile Attendees and Awareness to Targeted Mentions
Event App Gather Insights Onsite Attendees

If your sponsor is seeking…

Post-Event Mentions

Offer these sponsorship options:

Logo/Mention in Post-event Email or Survey

Caption: Sponsored Live Poll Results Screen

How to Create a Sponsorship Strategy that Will Maximize Your Event Revenue 37
Section 3

How to Value Event Tech Sponsorship

Once you have a list of event tech sponsorship benefits, organized into a Tiered or an A la Carte Model, next,
it’s time to assign a price to each asset, otherwise known as “valuation.” And according to sponsorship expert
Chris Bailey, it’s at this step of the process that many event professionals slip up.

"A majority of event organizers have no idea what the market rate is
for their sponsorship properties, so they tend to guess their value.”
— Chris Bailey
How Much Should you Charge Event Sponsors?
Sponsorship Collective (2017)

He notes that this “wild guess” strategy may help you win over a few sponsors, but you could be leaving
money on the table. Instead, here’s what he suggests:

Research the market value of similar assets

Why not take a peek at your competitors’ events? You can do a bit of research and find out how much they
charge for an exclusive branded event app or logo placement on digital signage, for example. Remember that
you’re competing for dollars that marketers are investing in campaigns on a daily basis, so they know exactly
how much an email or ad is worth. So should you.

Get into the heads of your sponsors

Once you have gathered your research and ballpark numbers around the market rate, it’s time to get into the
headspace of your sponsors. As a marketer, they’ll be thinking about this commitment like a business
investment. What value can they get out of it?

How to Create a Sponsorship Strategy that Will Maximize Your Event Revenue 38
 If your sponsor’s perceived value is higher than your activation price,
then they’ll decide to sponsor. And if your cost for activation is lower
than that price, you’ll make money”.
— Chris Bailey
How Much Should you Charge Event Sponsors?
Sponsorship Collective (2017)

Sponsors will spend money if they see that it will deliver value for their business. So as long as you can prove
a return on investment, the only barrier will be their budget.

Value-based Pricing Model

Cost Price Perceived value

Your margin Why a brand

sponsors your event

This method also provides this side benefit: Instead of being focused solely on your margins, you’ll care more
about ensuring that your sponsor gets the value to which you’ve committed. Sponsorship is a partnership,
and it’s important that you genuinely care about your sponsors’ goals, and are willing to help achieve them!

How to Create a Sponsorship Strategy that Will Maximize Your Event Revenue 39
Section 4

Communicating Sponsorship Results Post-Event

After your event, it’s crucial to make sure you deliver on the value you promised to sponsors, by sharing the
results from your event in a well-structured report. But as you well know, the challenge is this: post-event,
you’re toast. After the event build-up, the last minute crazy changes, and the days onsite...the last thing you
feel like doing is exporting data! So, have a glass of champagne with your team and celebrate the success of
your event. But be sure to tackle your sponsorship reports shortly after that, so you can update your
sponsors within at least 30 days of your event.

“Post-event reports are absolutely necessary. Partnerships are harder to

put together nowadays, and proof of performance is no different than
when I buy media to promote my events. I want to get what I pay for,
and something more.”

— Kevin Camper,
Sales & Marketing VP, Las Vegas Motor Speedway
The Key to Sponsor Servicing, 2013

Figuring out how to measure and communicate event sponsorship ROI to sponsors is a critical part of the
process and will help you build the foundation for future work together. These reports also offer the
opportunity to emphasize areas where you may have over-delivered on results. Here are some guidelines on
how to structure your report.

How to Create a Sponsorship Strategy that Will Maximize Your Event Revenue 40
How to Write a Stellar Recap Report

1
Start with an executive summary

Outline a few paragraphs on the value of the event and summary of results relevant to the
sponsors’ goals.

2
Reiterate the attendee profile

Summarize overall attendee demographics, psychographics, attendance numbers, purchasing

habits and any survey results that help paint a clearer picture of attendee profile. Data
visualizations can help here.

3
Detail onsite exposure

Now that you’ve set the context include your event technology metrics to prove the value
delivered through this sponsorship, alongside other onsite results.

Brand Awareness Metrics Attendee Engagement Metrics

Banner ad clicks Leads generated through session

attendance
Clicks to company URL
Survey or poll results
Clicks to social media link
Game/contest/sponsored giveaway
Clicks to downloadable resources
participants
Branded emails sent/opened
Increase in foot traffic to booth
Branded landing page visits
Sponsored activity participants
Exhibitor profile views

Branded map views

How to Create a Sponsorship Strategy that Will Maximize Your Event Revenue 41
4 Celebrate off-site exposure

Social Media Print TV

LinkedIn, Twitter, Ads or articles in which Public service
Facebook or Instagram sponsor’s name/logo announcements, News
posts that mention event appears coverage. Ratings and
and feature sponsor rate card values

5
Visuals

Don’t forget to include screenshots or photos of your event app, registration, or any other
branded collateral. Capture photos of attendees engaged in experiential marketing, screenshots
of social media posts, and any visual documentation that your sponsor may be looking for.

Conclusion

With sponsors seeking more measurable, customizable opportunities to interact with their audiences,
forward-looking event planners are exploring event technology as a way to build sponsorship into a more
robust revenue channel.

Designing and building out creative activation opportunities that demonstrate clear return on investment is
the key to building and maintaining strong sponsorship relationships. Be clear about what you can offer, and
be honest about the results generated.

Ready to see how an event app can maximize the ROI of your sponsorship
strategy?

Sign up for the next product webinar to learn more.

How to Create a Sponsorship Strategy that Will Maximize Your Event Revenue 42
EventMobi provides technology that empowers event marketers and
planners to create incredible event experiences. Founded in 2010,
EventMobi has been the trusted event technology platform of over
10,000 clients in 72 countries. One of the fastest growing tech
companies in North America, EventMobi has received worldwide praise
for our people and our platform. From planning to marketing,
management to measurement — at every stage of the event life cycle —
we’re there when you need us.
For more information, visit Eventmobi.com.