In days gone by, sponsorship has sometimes been seen as rigid, where a client shares how much money they have, and the rights holder tells them what they’ll get for that. Today, the most progressive sponsorships are where both parties work in unison to develop and build a partnership together. This is in the interest of both the rights holder and the sponsor and forges successful, longer-term relationships.
To get the best from a sponsorship many brands forget it is also crucial that the rights holder is clear and cognisant of the sponsor’s needs, motivations and success measures, and vice versa. It is in everyone’s interest, because the more the rights holder understands about the sponsor’s motivations, the more they can support the brand and a better relationship can form between the two parties.
The ideal situation being that the relationship can be described as a true partnership. We include partnership building with rights holders as a factor to consider in sponsorship measurement, as its value is often overlooked.
The most successful sponsorships are where sponsor and rights holder strive to build a true partnership.
If we stand back and look at the bigger picture we can see that the rights holder can offer access to important stakeholders such as new customers, (potentially both consumers and business customers) and investors. If a sponsorship affords either direct access to investors, or exposure to them, this can lower the cost of doing business by making the sponsor seemingly more accessible or attractive to work with.
Rights holders may also have access to useful data, providing a sponsor with additional information by which it could make it easier for them to measure the success of their sponsorship and reach their desired business objectives. Getting to know the rights holder and taking the time to build a relationship is key to activating this avenue.
To read the rest in this series, or our previous ‘Power of Sponsorship’ series, you can find them at https://sqn.agency/sponsorship
And to speak to us about how sponsorship can help your organisation achieve its goals, get in touch on +44 (0) 1491 845 420 or hello@sqn.agency
