V: Problem-Solving Sponsorships

Now is my chance to get up on my sponsorship soapbox. I find myself up here quite a bit. Sponsorships are an incredibly valuable piece of your trade show marketing strategy, but only if they are done correctly. If you haven’t taken full advantage of all the opportunities given to you as an exhibitor, then don’t even go here. Real sponsorships don’t just require you to write a check. When done the right way, they are an investment of employee time across your entire company, so make sure you are ready for that responsibility—a responsibility well worth the effort.

The days of slapping a company logo on a banner or lanyard and calling it a sponsorship have passed. Unfortunately, many show organizers are stuck in the 1990s, so that is all they are offering. When you ask about sponsorship opportunities, they give you a list of one-off opportunities such as badge branding, hotel key card branding, lanyard branding, banners (wrapped columns, outdoor, floor, lobby, and so on), registration banners, show bag branding, speaker intros, and web banners or ads. Things that are forgotten as soon as the show is over or they land in the garbage.

They probably also offer the completely useless platinum, gold, silver, and bronze packages. Sometimes they get creative and call them diamond, ruby, and emerald or president, ambassador, and diplomat. These sponsorships are created so the organizer gets what they need (money) with little thought about what the sponsor needs (return on investment). But they provide almost zero real value to the attendee. These sponsorships are also easy for the organizer to fulfill. All they have to do is check off items on the list of things promised. Logo? Check. Banner ad? Check. Speaker intro? Check. These are not sponsorships. They are branding opportunities.

A true sponsorship is one that is customized to meet the marketing needs of the company that is sponsoring. It should benefit both the organizer (sponsee) and the sponsor, but first and foremost, it should add value to the attendees.

The attendees who even notice your logo and advertising will find them infringing on their space, and what’s more, they will view them as annoying. They will do their best to tune them out, but it’s just so hard when your huge banner takes up half the stage and takes their attention away from the speaker they paid to see. If you’re lucky, they won’t remember you five minutes after they leave the event. If you’re unlucky, they’ll have a negative impression of your company.

Attendees understand that sponsorships help pay for their event, so at best they simply tolerate this assault on their enjoyment of the trade show. But let me tell you, they all hate sitting through your commercials before the speaker they are there to hear comes on stage.

At a recent conference, I was looking forward to hearing a particular keynote speaker. I arrived a few minutes early and settled in for what I hoped would be a fascinating talk. Much to my dismay, the first 20 minutes were taken up with association announcements and news. Next came the first sponsor, who was given commercial time on stage in exchange for a big check. He spoke for his allotted 10 minutes, but apparently what he had to say was more important than the keynote because he went over his time by about 5 minutes. The next sponsor who came up to give her commercial—not to be outdone by the previous sponsor—also took about 15 minutes.

By this time, those who were on Twitter were fired up and tweeting over and over again, “get off the stage,” “we came to see [keynoter], not listen to a commercial,” and some other tweets that were, shall we say, less than complimentary. A murmur was going through the audience that was full of complaints. People were getting up and walking out.

Then the third sponsor came up on stage. He also had commercial time and apparently wrote a huge check because he had the honor of introducing the keynote. He walked up to the podium and said, “You have all been incredibly patient, and I know you are not here to listen to me talk so I will not keep you any longer. Ladies and gentlemen, I would like to introduce today’s keynote speaker, [keynote speaker name].” There were hoots and hollers and a standing ovation. It was not for the keynote—it was for the guy who “got it.” He was on stage for all of 30 seconds, but the positive impact he made on the audience was astounding.

This sponsor understood that the audience’s needs were what were important. He created a positive impression of his company on about 2,500 people in that auditorium in a matter of seconds by placing the audience—his potential customers—first. A year later I asked a bunch of people who had attended this keynote speech whether they remembered that day. Every person knew exactly what I was talking about and they remembered who that third person was and which company he represented. He left a very positive impression on them. When I asked who the other two sponsors were, no one remembered. Lucky for them, I guess.

If you are working with a savvy show organizer, she will customize sponsorships to meet your company’s marketing needs. If you’re working with an organizer who thinks logos on banners are the be all and end all, not to worry. You can build your own custom offering and present it in a way the show organizer can’t refuse—and in a way that will get the attendees’ attention!