Lesson 3 Topic 5: Marketing and Sponsorship I.

Students should be able to

I. Nature of event marketing identify the different natures
II. Develop marketing strategy of event marketing.
III. Implement and monitor II. Students should be able to
marketing activities develop and implement
IV. Sponsorship
different marketing strategies
to expand the marketing
reach.
III. Students should be able
device a mechanism to
accurately implement and
monitor crucial marketing
strategies.
IV. Students should be able to
identify sponsors for their
events and
V. Students should be able to
create sponsor letters to be
sent to targeted
companies/organization.

Why This Lesson

In this lesson, you will be exposed to various marketing strategies including sponsorship management ability to
further strengthen the reach of the event to the public.

Nature of Event Marketing

What is Event Marketing?

The goal of event marketing is to inform people that you are having an event and how much it would mean to
you if they attended. It's a multi-channel strategy for promoting an online or physical event. Whether it's a Mobile
Blood Donation Camp, Online PUBG championship, Meet & Greet Session, Language Conference, Instagram
Live Talk, Workshops, or any other event, properly marketing it will generate buzz and encourage people to
attend.

Event marketing can help your company in a number of ways. You can produce leads and new prospects in
addition to helping to enhance brand visibility before, during, and after the event. In addition to generating
leads, event marketing may be used to advertise a specific product or feature while also improving customer
satisfaction, retention, and engagement. Planning events can also provide a tactical and visible engagement
point for your partners and sponsors to enforce their own return on investment (ROI).

“Not all events are created equal. Companies must consider live events an extension of their brand
and content marketing and build events that really engage. For me, that means thinking about the
customer experience you REALLY want to portray. A 6x6 static stand is unlikely to meet that need!”

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- Craig Hanna, EVP North America, Econsultancy

Why should you consider event marketing strategies?

The reason for this is straightforward: an effective event marketing campaign attracts the attention
and footfall necessary to attract guests to your events. Budgets for marketing are crucial.
Understanding your resources and budget will aid in the development of your strategy.

There are a variety of other reasons why event marketing methods work, such as effectively contacting
the proper target demographic, knowing how to make an impression, and, most importantly, raising
knowledge about your event. It all starts with a well-thought-out event marketing strategy. The correct
event marketing techniques are essential along the entire journey, from the moment the idea to host
an event is created to the point when the event actually takes place.

Develop Marketing Strategy

What should be evaluated to develop proper marketing strategy?

Depending on its purpose, objectives, and target markets, each unique event should be promoted differently.
The target market, or potential attendees, must be the focus of marketing. The team must assess whether the
target market is a certain demographic or the entire public, as well as whether special interest groups can be
enticed. The catchment region refers to the physical area and population from which an event may draw visitors.
The importance of an event usually determines the target market's catchment area, which grows in proportion
to the event's size and ties the marketing complexity to the event's complexity. The organisers can reach and
influence the target market if they have knowledge of it.

Event marketing strategies to try for your next event

Now that we know who target are we want to reach, consider some best strategies to reach out to them to
promote your event.

So, how do you ensure that your event marketing is both persuasive and non-obtrusive?

1. Mass Media - Inform the media about your event.

Using press release is an excellent technique to get the attention of those who can assist you achieve your event
objectives. Inviting local journalists to attend your event by issuing a formal press release could be a fantastic
method to expend the reach to people. Influencers, new sponsors, and brand ambassadors can all benefit from
these efforts.

2. Socializing
This strategy might help you attract the correct attention because social media is one of the best locations to
engage with local influencers and people with a strong presence. Seek for influencers who operate in your
sector and have a large following on social media. Never undervalue the value of word-of-mouth advertising!

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3. Live Event – To advertise
Yes, it's back to being sociable! Facebook or Instagram is a vast space with a lot of potential for spreading the
news about your event. A Live Stream is a new trend in event marketing that allows you to communicate with
and invite your target audience directly. Use this chance to give your audience a sneak peek into what's
coming up and make a convincing case for why they should attend the actual event.

4. Online Marketing – Pop-ups/Landing sites

To drive potential event attendees to a dedicated event page, create a pop-up form on your event website.
Pop-ups might be obnoxious, but their efficacy cannot be underestimated. The material you utilise on
To begin, you may attempt some of the following event marketing ideas and strategies:

5. Email - promote event to a targeted demographic.

Email marketing campaigns are still the most successful way to communicate with your customers and invite
them to an event. Email marketing is the most popular event marketing method among persons who routinely
conduct events, with a 70 percent success rate, N. and Kitchin, P. (2012).

These are examples of marketing strategies which could be used to increase the efficiency of reach
to enable more target audience to know your event.

Implement and Monitor Marketing Activities

Upon confirmation of a marketing strategy, a team should move into implementation as well as monitoring the
marketing outcomes periodically. A decent timeline should be structured and leads from the marketing effort
should be recorded periodically to obtain a legitimate data for analysis.

By using poster as a tool of marketing, the following example can be used to formulate a basic implementation
monitoring of marketing activities:

1. Implementation

In UNITAR, usage of posters as a marketing effort could significantly increase the reach of your marketing effort
to students within the university and as well as the regional centres.

Consider using poster as the main marketing aid with email as a main channel to reach the targeted
participants:

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***
UNITAR’s Standard Poster Creation Guidelines:
• The following logo can be used together for your poster creation:
1. Use of unitar.my to be added at the bottom left corner of the poster. Ensure the font used is “Century
Gothic”.
2. The use of UNITAR’s latest #hashtag : #AccelerateYour Future. This hashtag would need to be checked
from time to time to get the latest updates.
3. UNITAR Logo – to be added either top left or right corner of your poster using the following format:

By choosing email as a channel, you may need to draft an email and later attach the poster into the email.

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Sample: Email Blast Draft:

Dear UNITARians,

STROLL A KILO (INDOOR EDITION)

Staying healthy and being fit is crucial especially during this pandemic season. Therefore, we are
pleased to invite all UNITARians to join our Stroll A Kilo indoor event and begin your journey into
maintaining a heathy lifestyle.

Simply download an app such as Pacer or Nike Run Club or anything similar and start collecting your
steps now!

Send us a screenshot of your total steps which will be calculated from 12th June 2021 - 18th June
2021 to any of our contact numbers listed below (via WhatsApp) and stand a chance to win prize pool
worth up to RM160.00 by simply collecting steps!

Details of the event are as follows:

Date (Day) Event Venue Apps Required

12 June 2021 (Saturday) - 18 June Stroll A Kilo At your own place Pacer or
2021 (Friday) (Indoor (Indoor - to adhere to the Nike Run Club
Edition) SOP's of MCO) (NRC)

Make the most of the current situation by participating along with us!

Fill in the registration form via this REGISTRATION LINK and we would add you into our Telegram
Broadcast Channel to keep you posted.

Please do not hesitate to contact us +6013-257 xxxx (xxxx) or +6012-xxxx (xxxx) for more information.

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Organized by
Recreational Event Planning April 2021 Students
Faculty Of Education and Humanities (FEH)

Upon drafting the email, this template could be sent to the marketing department who may have the authority
to send the email to all students within the organization. However, a strict rule may follow especially on content
sensitivity, grammar, and overall appropriateness of the event. Only if the event passes all these checks and is
deemed to be inline with the policy of the organization, the email will be approved, and an email blast will be
performed.

*** if you choose to use email blast as a marketing strategy, be sure to double confirm with your class tutor the
overall event and email content, before requesting for an email blast from the marketing department from
UNITAR.

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2. Monitoring

Monitoring of event marketing goals is crucial to ensure that the targeted number of leads are met accordingly.
For an example, if the targeted number is set to 100 participants within a 3-week duration, the number of leads
must be monitored from time to time. This will enable the organizers to determine whether the information from
the marketing strategy devised and deployed are sufficient and effective to reach the potential target user.
Halfway within the timeframe, 1.5-weeks for this instance, you must already reach a certain goal (let’s say at least
60 participants). Failure to reach a certain percentage from the main goal of 100 leads may mean that the
marketing strategy deployed are not entirely effective and the organizer may choose to deploy different
marketing strategies to reach the desired outcome.

Sponsors

1. What is a Sponsorship?
When a firm donates money or resources to a non-profit event or programme in exchange for certain
promotional benefits, it is known as a sponsorship. In exchange for their support, the corporation receives its name
and brand on items such as:
• Posters
• Logo
• Banners
• Cash/Prizes
• T-shirts, lanyard, or customized wearable swag
• Brochures
• Other marketing and communications collateral

Sponsorship's business goal is to entice a certain target demographic while also earning some
“acknowledgement” for supporting a good cause. Sponsors gain a competitive advantage that extends
beyond product and pricing by partnering with purpose-driven organisations. This is a form of marketing, but with
a social conscience. Sponsorship is a win-win situation that also requires hard work. The relationship benefits both
the non-profit and the for-profit, but its success is contingent on them working together to secure the success of
the other.

2. How to Get a Sponsorship?

Sponsorships are beneficial to both the sponsor and the non-profit. However, there's another factor to consider:
a strong sponsorship also benefits your audience. Knowing your target demographic is essential for securing the
right sponsor and putting on a successful event.

Audience is the biggest asset to your sponsors. Therefore, you must know how to frame your audience correctly.
By demonstrating to your sponsor, the range and depth of exposure their brand can receive, would be a win-
win situation for both them and you.

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The easiest way to get a sponsorship is first by identifying the potential organization who would be able to benefit
from the audience you are organizing your event for. By sharing the details of your target audience to your
sponsors, such as their age, occupation, education background, audience interest and more could secure you
a decent sponsorship. These data will then be analysed by your sponsors as they would be able to analyse these
data and determine if your target audience might fall under their targeted audience as a soft marketing strategy.
This would be a win-win situation for your event, as you will be getting the specific type of sponsor item for your
event and at the same time provide marketing for your sponsorship during your event.

3. Key Components of a Sponsorship Pitch

An effective sponsorship pitch is about giving your prospect a clear picture of your business that they can relate
to. Include the necessary details, but from the perspective of how a collaboration will benefit them and align
with their beliefs.

You may want to consider the following area:

• Your programs and services
• Your mission statement and values
• Data about your following/supporters/donor base including demographics
• Stories of organizational wins:
- People or vendors who support you
- Events from years before
- Stories about your impact, etc.
• Information about your event or what is getting sponsored
• What you need from your sponsor (i.e., the type of sponsorship you’re looking for)
• Benefits for your potential sponsor
• Your sponsorship tiers
• History of sponsorship (past and present)

Using email would be the most recommended choice to extend a sponsorship as this will would be the fastest
way to accelerate and entrap a prospect.

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***Refer to the sample of a sponsorship letter below for reference purposes.

Ref. No: xxxxxxxxxxxx

15 June 20xx

Xxxxxxxxxxx (Be specific to the person being addressed to)

Sales and Marketing Department (Mention the department being addressed to)
Gardenia Bakeries
Lot 3, Jalan Pelabur
23/1 Kawasan Miel
40300 Shah Alam, Selangor

Dear xxxxxxxxxx,

SPONSORSHIP FOR RAMADAN GOODIE BAG GIVE AWAYS

We refer to the subject above.

On behalf of UNITAR, we would like to seek your consideration to be a sponsor for Ramadan goodie bag
giveaways event in conjunction with the holy Ramadan month this year. The details for the event are as follows:

Date : Thursday, 23 June 20xx

Time : 3.00 p.m.
Venue : xxxxxxxxx

Should you agree to sponsor, we hope to receive sponsorship in the form of Gardenia bakery products such as
your signature bun (Twiggies, Muffins, etc). In return, we will promote your company’s product during the goodie
bag giveaways as we are planning to invite the Malaysian media to cover the event as well.

We would appreciate it if you could provide us about 1,500 products for this event which will be distributed by
our students and staff to the community around xxxxx as well as locations mentioned above.

Should you have any further enquiries, please do not hesitate to contact xxxxxxxxxxxxxx.

Your consideration is greatly appreciated, and we look forward for your favorable reply.

Thank you.

Sincerely,

xxxxxxxxxxxx
Head, Corporate Communications Office (Include your full name and your credential/position)

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BIBLIOGRAPHY

• Nicole, F. Paul, J, K. (2022). Events Management: An International Approach. 3rd Edition. Sage
Publications Ltd.

• I.T. Christopher, G. Leigh, A. D. David, S. (2019). Managing Sport Events. Human Kinetics Publishers

• Donald, G. (2019). Event Studies: Theory, Research and Policy for Planned Events, 4th Edition.
Routledge.

• Fyall, A. Wanhill, S. (2017). Tourism, Principles, and practice. Pearson Education UK

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