ENG - Learning Unit 6 - AR by AKETH

EVENT PLANNING AND DESIGN CONTENTS ANALYSIS

RAISING SUPPORT AND SPONSORSHIP - LEARNING UNIT 6

Learning Contents SUBUNIT 1: Definitions and Features of Sponsorship SUBUNIT 2: Purpose, Costs, and Benefits of Sponsorship SUBUNIT 3: Target Audience in Sponsorship

Learning hours:

Workload:

This project has been funded with support from the European Commission. This publication reflects the views only of the authors, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.

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Unit Objectives Actions / Achievements Design a plan to raise support for a specific event and implement a strategy to find suitable sponsors for an event Knowledge

Comprehensive on planning models and resources to raise support and find sponsors Fundamental to national regulations, codes, and standards of companies for supporting events

Skills Evaluate different types of companies according to their basic working field (purpose, target audience, etc.) and appropriateness for sponsorship Develop a detailed sponsor file based on given content and requirements for an event Draw up a sponsor meeting schedule, defining in detail the various steps required to implement it Adapt the event or event advertisements according to the needs of the sponsors

Competencies

Autonomously select the companies which are appropriate for event supporting Define the content for a sponsorship file based on its specificities Manage the meeting process with sponsors and adapt the process according to the situation

SUBUNIT 1: DEFINITIONS AND FEATURES OF SPONSORSHIP Sponsorship; supporting of a person or event by noble or royal families without any gain other than just reputation in ancient times defines the role of sponsorship in its historical development. Industry, developed with sponsorship organizations which have highly attracted the industrial enterprises in recent years and can be defined as a modern way of patronizing, now supersedes benevolent people who were living in the past. However; sponsorship does not originate just from doing a favour, but also the expectation that the money spent would somehow turn back even in a different form. Principally; under the concept of sponsorship which is based on receiving and giving, the person acting as the sponsor expects something in return for the money or equipment given by the same, from the person or entity for which it acts as the sponsor. This “return” may be in the form of either promoting a specific product or the entity in its advertisements or ensuring that the brand name appears on competitions. Under the scope of sponsorship organizations which require taking steps and executing agreements, which have been planned in detail, due to mutual expectations, it is of the question to leave such expectation to chance and wait for realization thereof automatically. Especially when sponsorship is utilized as a professional communication means, situation analysis should be conducted with respect each step to be taken, targets should be established, carried out and checked in an organized manner. (Peltekoğlu, 2005) As defined by Manfred Bruhn, German Academician, sponsorship is a business agreement which is executed to provide mutual benefits between the parties and which covers planning, implementation and checking of all activities carried out through supports in kind, cash supports or any other means for various persons and organizations in sports, culture‐ arts and social fields with the aim of ensuring that an entity attains its pre‐determined targets. (Okay, 2002) The concept of sponsorship is addressed, and defined as building a prestigious reputation for an entity or person by contributing monetary supports in a matter which is of concern to the public, or in a special event. (Inc, 2017)

Sponsorship is the provision of monetary support by any entity to any event which is not directly in relation to the field of activity thereof. (Gülsoy, 1996) It means supporting, by an entity or person, of any event on the financial and monetary basis in order to achieve such targets as building an image, performing sales, etc. (Tosun, 2000) According to Çeki sponsorship is a business agreement expected to yield benefits both for the sponsoring party and the sponsored party. (Çeki, 1998) Main features of sponsorship When we go through the main features of sponsors, we can see that they make their selections in these organizations based on their own corporate policies or the annual plans they plan to shift in the upcoming years. The link between the entity and organization should be essentially established in consequence of researchers before matching right sponsor with the right organization. Based on the above‐given definitions; we can define sponsorship as a communication means whereby not only social utility can be derived, but also the sponsoring party realized its own public relations, advertising, and marketing targets through the support provided to the event to be organized. We can conclude from all these considerations that sponsorship has a common ground with safeguarding and donation to provide support and create a social utility, and that it is different from them in that it expects a return and yield a commercial interest. The most important benefit that can be expected from a sponsorship organization by an entity is that the sponsored event appears on media, resulting in helping the sponsoring entity to reach a larger target audience. (Taşdemir, 2001) Of course; sponsoring entity for the organization, the fields addressed by the same, and the issues handled by the same are of great importance. The most critical consideration points for any entity intending to provide sponsorship is the manner in which it will appear in the sponsorship activity, it intends to undertake, in line with its own corporate culture and behavioural consistencies. The most important concern of the sponsor should be to reach the primary target audience directly and intensely. When considered in this context, sponsorship should be realized in line with communication activities. There are critical matters to be considered by the entity, to act as sponsor, are provided below: • Corporate culture, • Target audience,

• The extent of reaching the target audience. Main features of sponsorship can be listed as follows: Sponsorship is an agreement based on mutual duties. Under the scope of sponsorship; promotion of any activity in a sportive, cultural, social or any other fields. Promotion by a sponsor can be in various forms depending on the type of the activity. Sponsorship plays an important role in ensuring that the sponsor established communication with the public. Such communication function is set out by the sponsored party and/or by means of media or directly by the sponsoring party. Although sponsorship has many different features than the other communication means, it does not have an individual structure which is independent therefrom. Sponsorship is not a means to replace the well‐known communication means such as public relations, advertising, product display, etc. Due to the fact that one duty of the sponsored party is to promote the sponsor, and that a promotion can only be achieved by means of other communication means under the scope of sponsorship, sponsorship relation is essentially in combination with other communication means. Sponsorship is a highly important competition means in strategic terms. Sponsorship creates new competition fields for promotion as sponsorship eliminates the obstacles which are in question for other conventional promotional means and enterprises are allowed to promote in various fields and forms even if they all maintain their business operations in the same sphere of activity. On the other hand; sponsorship appears before the target audience in‐between entertainment and resting periods, affect and reach them by different means. Accordingly; it is stated that sponsorship breaks a new ground in the field of marketing. In the 1930s, the term “sponsor” was used as “godparent” while the term “sponsorship” was used to mean “to provide guarantee and warranty for any other person”. In the late 1950s, it was defined as “to act as guarantor for someone’s acts”, and “responsibility and sense of awareness for someone’s duties”. According to Sam Black; sponsorship is “a business agreement to yield advantages for both the sponsoring company and the sponsored company”. As for Barry Ball; sponsorship is “provision of support in kind or monetary support by any commercial enterprise or government in order to support an individual, organization, event or activity with the aim of gaining pre‐agreed commercial interest on the mutual basis”. This support covers a pre‐agreed relationship and does not constitute a part of the principal field of activity or business of the sponsor. (Okay, 1998)

SUBUNIT 2: PURPOSE, COSTS, AND BENEFITS OF SPONSORSHIP Under the scope of many types of research, purposes of sponsorship are divided into three categories: advertising, public relations, and marketing. It is very difficult to set sponsorship activities carried out by entities apart from each other. Purposes of such sponsorship activities are, sometimes, intertwined. Following ban of advertisements on cigarettes, tobacco in Europe, and even of alcoholic beverages in some countries (E.g; Spain, France, England, Ireland, Finland, Austria, Switzerland), the companies producing such products started to focus on sponsorship. Because, they needed to find a new field to replace advertisement, resulting in an increasing trend to focus on sponsorship. Cigarette and alcoholic beverage companies could appear on televisions as a consequence of their sponsorship activities despite the ban imposed thereon to appear on televisions and radios. For example; The company Philip Morris acted as sponsor for Virginia Slims, the first women's professional tennis circuit, and enabled that Virginia Slims be promoted widely on TV channels where it was banned to publish advertisements. Despite the ban, promotion of Philip Morris products appeared on TV thanks to the sponsorship provided to Virginia Slims tennis circuit. Through name sponsorship provided with the products such as cigarette, alcoholic beverage, sedatives, advertisements of which were banned, it was ensured that the companies became visible to the audience with their brands and logos placed on billboards and boards, and they broke the ban on advertisement and appeared on TV during the organization. (Okay, 1998) Purposes of Sponsorship for Advertising The cigarette and alcoholic beverage producing companies, advertisements of which were banned from being published on media, needed to find a new field to replace advertisement. Therefore; the companies maintaining their business operations in this industry predominantly turned their steps towards sponsorship. In this way, cigarette and alcoholic beverage producing companies started to appear on televisions through especially sports sponsorship organizations. (Avşar, 2002)The brand of Efes Pilsen can serve as a good example for such case. It could make its name through especially its contributions to cinema industry in Turkey.

To support products When Yamaha provided sponsorship to Snooker, it made use of such sponsorship to announce that they produced not only Yamaha motorcycles but also keyboards. Thereby; the different fields of activity engaged in by the entity were announced to the target audience by means of sponsorship (Okay, 1998: 46). Sponsorship of Uğur deep freeze and Uğur Mondial motorcycles to TV series to support the products of the brand of Uğur can serve as a good example. To Utilize Other Advertising Means This purpose covers free‐of‐charge advertisement programs or activities performed to display or promote a specific product at various stadiums. Daihatsu, for example, allocated its newly‐designed golf cart to the golf players at a golf tournament, promoting this new cart easily. Another entity, for example, gave some messages and codes during broadcast of a car race, for which it acted as sponsor, and awarded the people who guessed them right, in order to ensure that the race was watched on TV, and it was successful in drawing the attention of audience, and increased the awareness of people for the entity’s name and products. (Avşar, 2002) Sponsorship is provided for below‐given reasons: • To provide contribution to society, • To promote the corporate identity, • To develop the corporate image, • To establish the corporate culture, • To support sales, • To increase awareness of employees and public for the entity, • To entertain customers and opinion leaders, • To increase employee motivation and commitment, and to support the internal communication, • To establish a bond between the brand and customers, contributing to establishment of the brand, • To have a media coverage, • To boost social sensitivity, • To pull customers,

• To create a good‐will based positive image. Purposes of Sponsorship for Public Relations Purposes of sponsorship for public relations consist of such elements as the creation of goodwill, supporting the corporate image, reinforcing the corporate identity, promotion of the entity’s name, developing hospitality and employee relations, drawing the attention of journalists. The concept of public relations is efficient realization of a communication creation which enables to convey opinions to various groups in order to attain the desired results. (Tortop, 1993) The purpose of engaging in sponsorship activities is to ensure that an entity or organization is understood, promoted, and that goodwill is established across the public. (Okay, 1998) To create goodwill Enterprises may try to show that they are responsible for the society besides their principal field of activity, and to gain the sympathy of the public and to make them think favourably about themselves in this way by supporting some events or organizations in their own circle with the aim of creating goodwill. Although the supports and aids provided by the enterprises seem to be social‐oriental (without any profit‐making purpose), they will earn some gains in somehow. Since people consider the entities or enterprises, which deal with social events and which are responsive to the needs of the public, in good faith, they may choose such companies, considered good, while purchasing any product or service. (Yavuz, 2006) To Support Corporate Image Entities provide sponsorship, in addition to the other communication means, with the aim of supporting the corporate and product image, reinforcing the corporate identity, creating goodwill and understanding in the target audience, etc. (Peltekoğlu, 2005) Realization of sponsorship organizations by the entities in monetary terms enable that goodwill is created for the entity and that a positive image is generated in entity size, financial power and international status. (Akyürek, 1998) While sponsorship builds trust in society, it displays the corporate structure on the other hand. Accordingly; the entities generally provide sponsorship in the fields that are appropriate for their own images. (Rıdvan A., 2000)

Entities determine their sponsorship fields in line with the features of their target audience and not the quantity but the favourable quality of the images, created across the target audience, becomes important. (Taşdemir, 2001) Purposes of Sponsorship for Marketing Sponsorship becomes a high‐yield organization for a long‐term among the marketing activities when it is handled with due care and supported by necessary researches. Entities should understand the importance of sponsorship organization under the market conditions, and to direct their efforts to this field. Purposes of sponsorship for marketing include the following: to place a product on the market, to support vendors, to make a change in marketing policy, to introduce a new product, international marketing, supporting product use, etc. Let’s look into these elements: To place products on market When a new product is introduced on a certain market or when it is aimed to enable the product to attain a place for itself on the market, the demographic attributes of the target audience such as age, gender, income status, educational status, etc. are established, and product promotion can be realized effectively upon provision of sponsorship to the field that might draw the attention of the target audience. (Okay, 2002) To support vendors When a car becomes champion in a car race (engine, tires, fuel and other equipment of a car have its own sponsor), the sponsors of this car announces such sponsorship through advertisements, and provide an excellent support for car vendors. Vendors can publicize the advertisement of the champion car easily to buyers. Moreover, the photographs and posters of the champion car can be sent to vendors. (Okay, 1998) To establish marketing policies Sponsorship of events and activities provide a great many good opportunities for enterprises to publicize and sell their products. However; in case of any change in their products or services, they should announce such change immediately to their target audience. For example; when Yardley, producing women‐oriented products such as perfume, decided to

produce men‐oriented products to change its image, it acted as a sponsor at a car race, drawing the attention of young men, to announce such change. (Okay, 1998) To introduce new products When Volkswagen provided sponsorship to the European tour of Rolling Stones in 1995, it introduced Volkswagen combi bus van, the first tour bus van of VW, on this market upon arrival of Stones in England. Likewise; Sainsbury's entered into a sports sponsorship activity with a national basketball program in order to publicize the brand of Classic Cola, and national basketball matches were organized reinforced with local and regional programs supported by individual stores through the agency of England Basketball Association. (Okay, 1998) As for our country; the various sponsorship activities, realized by Ülker to promote the brand of Cola‐Turka, can serve as an example. International marketing; An entity, entering into the international market for the first time, may act as sponsor in local and national events, and show that its product is much better or as good as the other products available on the market. (Okay, 1998) Many enterprises such as Nestle, Shell, Toshiba, Mc Donald’s, etc. consider the world as a single market, and provide service to similar consumer groups in this market. The logic here is; The position held by McDonald’s customers in the USA is the same as the position held by McDonald's customers in Turkey. (İslamoğlu, 1999) To support use of products Some activities can be supported to develop the market. For example; pubs in London provided sponsorship to a dart championship to make pubs popular and made these matches broadcasted on TV, aiming to develop their markets. Reebok, US‐rooted sports, and healthcare company, acted as sponsor for Russian Olympics Committee with an aim to reach 200 million sports lovers in Russia. Reebok provided shoes and jerseys for sportsmen, coming from 20 sports federation in Russia, and 11 Russian athletes, dressed by Reebok, won medals in the last World Championships in Athletics held in Stuttgart. Establishing a bond between the sports heroes and the brand during this period, Reebok gained a great advantage. Opening its first store in this country thereupon, Reebok reached a sales volume that is even much bigger than the ordinary weekly sales in New York. (Okay, 1998) Any and all kinds of positive sponsorship activities, aiming to promote a product or a brand, and to increase awareness of such product or brand, can increase use of the product.

Consummation of 20 million Coca‐Cola, the sponsor of Olympics, show that use of products is supported through sponsorship. (Peltekoğlu, 2005) Pros and Cons of Sponsorship Reasons and purposes lying behind the development of sponsorship help us to see the pros of sponsorship. However; we should not forget that it requires an extensive preparation and planning extending from determination of purposes of sponsorship activities to organization of such activities in order to attain the desired targets and to make use of the pros of sponsorship. Therefore; it is good to consider the pros and cons of sponsorship activities. (Odabaşı & Oyman, 2003) Pros of sponsorship Being familiar with, and making use of pros of sponsorship is, undoubtedly, beneficial. We can specify the overall pros of sponsorship as follows. (Odabaşı & Oyman, 2003) There is an opportunity for coverage of sponsorship activity on various media organs, Sponsor increases awareness of other advertising activities, It creates a preference for the brand among consumers, It creates proud for the enterprise, It enables a competitive advantage, It creates a favourable association between the supported and supporting parties by establishing a bond between them, It does not have an apparent commercial appearance. This is one of the most important pros of sponsorship. It separates the relationship of the enterprise with the target audience from its commercial nature by engaging in such activities. Sponsorships might be highly interactive, offering the opportunity to establish experience‐based relations with customers. Cons of sponsorship It is good to look into the cons of sponsorship in line with the targets aimed to be attained at such stages as planning and conduct of sponsorship. We can specify the overall cons of sponsorship as follows. (Odabaşı & Oyman, 2003) Sponsorship is time‐consuming. It requires a long‐term preparation and planning. It requires intensive personnel source, efforts, and know‐how. The role of conveying message might become weak. Unless the board of directors proves the advantages of sponsorship in an integrated manner, sponsorship might be perceived as something to create differences or supporting any sponsorship organization that is irrelevant to the company. A sponsor might

be charged with making use of sponsorship for its own commercial interests in a just or unjust manner. Sponsorship relations mostly show a protective and permanent nature; it includes long‐term commitments which are difficult to change if your business or brand strategy is changed. Fields to Conduct Sponsorship Activities Entities can prefer different fields and types of sponsorship activities in order to reach their targets and target audience. Because, entities put some target at the forefront in sponsorship activities while they intended to provide an advantage for the other sponsorship targets. Sponsorship activities, conducted through financial support in a good many various fields, range extensively from arts to science, from education to sports and award ceremonies. (Peltekoğlu, 2005) Regardless of the field to conduct sponsorship activities, there are some factors to take into account while adopting the decision to carry out sponsorship activity. These factors include cost of sponsorship, duration of sponsorship, level of media coverage, reputability of the sponsor's person or entity, risks of the sponsorship activity for the sponsor. (Taşdemir, 2001) Moreover; conformance to the intended positioning policy (target, message, audience, and harmony between the targets provided under the positioning plan and the target market), new and creative nature of sponsorship should be considered. A great amount of expenditures of sponsorship is allocated to the activity‐related sponsorship, and sports are in the first place, followed by cultural and art activities in this type of sponsorship. (Tosun, 2000) The shares and fields of sponsorship activities, realized all around the world in 2007, are as follows: 84% in sports sponsorship, 6% in cultural‐art sponsorship, 5% in publication sponsorship, and 5% in the other sponsorship types. (Fenton, 2009) Due to the fact that it is less probable to see a team falling into disfavour despite the probability to see an individual failure, acting as a sponsor for a team rather than an individual is less risky for entities. (Peltekoğlu, 2005) Companies turn their faces towards social sponsorships in order to make a difference among the other companies under increasingly competitive conditions. We can consider the types of sponsorship as follows.

a. Environment Sponsorship b. Education Sponsorship c. Healthcare Sponsorship d. Culture‐Art Sponsorship e. Adventure‐Travel Sponsorship f. Online Sponsorship g. Sports Sponsorship

SUBUNIT 3: TARGET AUDIENCE IN SPONSORSHIP The requirement to carry out different sponsorship types and activities in line with its feature of attaining different purposes creates many different target audience of such activities. (Tosun, 2000) The different target audience may attribute different meanings and values to sponsorship based on different perceptions of a single activity. (Dolphin, 2003) First of all, entities try to reach their existing and potential customers, which are their target audience, and to increase the number of these customers since they intend to publicize an activity and to guide the sections of such initiative in line with the favourable and unfavourable results attained following this initiative. Reaching a part of existing and potential target audience is possible with sponsorship activities. The main target audience can be provided as follows: entity personnel, customers and potential customers, shareholders, employers, financial institutions, consumer organizations, pressure groups, local administrations, public leaders, service providers and government. It is required to pre‐ determine the target audience, to ensure that the target audience intended to be reached by the sponsoring party and the target audience of the activity are consistent, and to also to ensure that the field of sponsorship to be selected appeals to the target audience. Active Participants The persons participating actively in the supported activity and live their lives actively in such activity are considered as “Active target audience”. For example; active target audience of a football tournament comprises of football players while active target audience of a music festival comprises of musicians. The active target audience of an activity is naturally the persons who are mostly interested in such activity. (Tosun, 2000) Spectators The spectators, who do not participate actively in an activity but follow and watch such kind of activities at the respective locations, are another target audience of sponsorship. For example; the persons who watch a golf tournament at the respective locations are spectators. Being familiar with the visitors and spectators of sponsored activities will help us reach the target audience of the sponsorship activity easily. For example; the number of spectators who watch matches of a football club at their home stadiums and away stadiums can be determined. Or the number of spectators of an art gallery who come to see the artistic works can be determined on the approximate basis. (Okay, 1998)

Social media audience The persons, who are not active participants or spectators of any activity type but who follow such activities regularly on media, our target audience of such sponsored activity. Phases and Implementation Process of Sponsorship In order to ensure that any sponsorship activity yields the desired effects; sponsorship is required to be carried out as included in a planned process, and it is required to determine the sponsorship strategy to set out the purposes, target audience and types of sponsorship to be entered into. Upon determination of the sponsorship strategy, it proceeds with implementation phase, and finally, the evaluation phase is conducted in order to determine the effects of sponsorship. Such processes can be specified basically as follows:

The target audience is required to be determined in order to ensure that any sponsorship activity of an entity attains success. The more the intersection points of the target audience of an entity and sponsorship activity, the easier it will be for an entity to take a decision to enter into a sponsorship activity. The main target audience of an entity comprised of social environment, potential workforce, employees, raw material suppliers or service providers, This project has been funded with support from the European Commission. This publication reflects the views only of the authors, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.

distributors, financial target audience, consumers, product users and opinion leaders (customers and potential customers). Purposes of sponsorship policy should be determined to base on the target audience to be addressed. Sponsorship targets and sponsorship field should be well established in line with the entity’s expectations. Right projects should be selected in line with the entity’s strategy in order to reach the target audience, and such projects should be carried out for a long time in order to create a sufficient level of perception across the public. The target audience of sponsorship activities comprises of active participants, visitors/spectators, and media audience. Sponsorship Strategy Sponsorship strategy is a process during which the overall outlines of all sponsorship activities of an entity are reviewed, and multiple decisions are discussed simultaneously to realize sponsorship. This may cover the field of sponsorship, the persons and means to realize sponsorship, the messages to be conveyed to target audience, the way to integrate it with the other marketing communication means, and determination of budget. (Bay, 2007) Subject matters of sponsorship strategy comprise of: sponsorship activity to be carried out in order to publicize any entity or any product or brand thereof to the target groups, supporting of any activity, event, person or group by any entity or brand through any means such as its messages, sponsored events, slogans, etc. for a pre‐determined period of time, and any and all activities to be carried out. (Okay, 2002) Any sponsorship activity, carried out or to be carried out by an entity, can only contribute to the attainment of the desired targets if it is carried out for a long period of time. The selected sponsorship field and the person/group/event sponsored should be consistent. (Keykubat, 2006) Preparation of Sponsorship Budget You have discussed this topic in previous modules. A brief description of this is as follows: Although it is difficult to determine the expenditures, to be incurred for a sponsorship activity, exactly, this is required to be performed. It is required to separate the expenditures by months and years, and then to address them in detail in a manner to include sponsorship budget, sponsorship events, other supporting activities to be carried out during sponsorship period, and post‐sponsorship researches. (Argan, 2004) Preparation of Sponsorship Agreement

Sponsorship is such an agreement imposing obligations to both parties that under this agreement, in return for the warranty made by the sponsor to grant the incentive as needed by the sponsored party to achieve any activity in any field, the sponsored party promotes the sponsor favourably across the public while it performs its activity through the incentive granted by the sponsor, and it undertakes to achieve its communication purpose. (Grassinger, 2003) Generally, the entity may stipulate the following terms with respect to the sponsorship it undertakes. Name of the entity or the brand must be definitely available on any heading to be used. The term for renewal of the sponsorship must be indicated. The sponsoring company must have the right to reject the competitor companies. Different types of sponsorship agreement are available for each type of sponsorship. All sponsorship agreements regardless of sports, environmental, cultural or social types have some certain common grounds. (Soyer & Can, 2010) 1. Project: Clear description of planned activities. If the draft version that has been drawn up in advance is accepted by both parties, the main body of such draft version may be drawn up. 2. Time: Sufficient time must be allocated for preliminary preparations, and a timetable must be prepared for each initiative to be taken (Press release, placement of boards, sending of invitations, etc.). 3. Payment: This is the duty of sponsor, only. Payment will not be made only in monetary terms but may be made in the form of equipment and service to be provided by the sponsor. 4. Obligations of the sponsored party: The matters such as advertising areas of the sponsored activity, the activities which the sponsor is obliged to perform, any other party which might be included herein, and license rights of the sponsor, etc. are set out under this section. 5. Other advertising opportunities: Autograph sessions, TV programs, meetings, etc. 6. Term: In order to render an agreement official, the dates of commencement and completion of the sponsorship agreements must be set out.

7. Special Cases: Any act/action that might lead to a breach of the agreement must be determined in advance. Thus, the party acting in breach of the agreement is punished in legal terms. 8. Insurance/liability: It must be agreed upon ensuring the safety of visitors, and especially spectators during shows. 9. The requirement to act in good faith: During the terms of the sponsorship agreement, it must be avoided from any and all acts/actions that might give damage to the sponsoring entity or product. If the sponsorship is accepted, the product or the service must also be accepted. The requirements of such case are required to be determined in advance. Evaluation of Sponsorship Events Evaluation of the effectiveness of the sponsorship event is one of the most difficult phases of sponsorship management. Evaluation of the effects of sponsorship generally constitutes a problem for two reasons. Firstly, a company mostly utilizes other marketing means in addition to sponsorship, which makes an evaluation of only the effects of sponsorship difficult to evaluate. Secondly; activities of a competitor, irregular change of economic conditions, and other external factors lead to uncontrollable variables. Such external variables, with an effect on sponsorship programs, might be either favourable or unfavourable, and it is difficult to exclude such kind of factors. (Argan, 2004) There are several methods to be used for evaluation of the effectiveness of sponsorship. As a result of the researchers on this matter, it has been found out that the sponsoring companies focus on several different methods. (Argan, 2004) Research Methods Used in Evaluation of Effectiveness of Sponsorship Several forms of researchers can be conducted with the target audience in order to understand the effectiveness of sponsorship. Asking questions to, and making observations on the target audience regarding effectiveness are utilized. (Okay, 1998) Asking questions: Researchers are carried out by asking questions to the target audience in person, in writing or by telephone. Telephone calls have arisen due to lack of time. It is especially utilized to carry out research on the level of awareness. Face‐to‐face contacts can be performed in the form of the interview at the venue.

Making observations: It is tried to determine the number of spectators who watch the event either on TV or at the venue of sponsorship event, and to find out the level of interest as shown by the target audience to the sponsored event. In this way, the number of spectators can be determined only on an estimated basis. It is not possible to determine whether the spectators perceive the sponsoring entity or what kind of an effect is left on them by such entity. (Argan, 2004) Researchers Conducted Basing on Time of Sponsorship Sponsoring entities can conduct researches before, during and the following sponsorship in order to evaluate the effectiveness of sponsorship. Through preliminary tests: The research forms, prepared before initiation of sponsorship activity, can be used in order to obtain information about the status and attitudes of the target audience for sponsorship field and sponsor. Detailed information about recognition, image, products, etc. of the sponsor can be obtained. (Okay, 2002) Researchers conducted during sponsorship: During sponsorship activity, spectators of the sponsored event can be interviewed in order to obtain information about recognition of the sponsor and the opinions regarding the same by asking questions them as to whether they are aware of the sponsorship, or not, and whether they think favourably about the sponsor, or not, and also whether they plan to purchase the products or services of the entity which acts as the sponsor of such event, or not. (Argan, 2004) Post‐sponsorship tests The company can either conduct the tests, to be performed in order to establish whether the sponsorship targets of the entity are achieved, or not following the sponsorship activity, or have a market research company conduct such tests. Through the evaluation to be performed following the sponsorship activity, the level of recall of the sponsor is determined. (Argan, 2004) Returns of Sponsorship Events Direct economic returns, gained from a sponsorship event, can be rarely measured. It is possible to yield benefits in line with the successful results obtained from the sponsorship

event such as increase of awareness regarding the entity in long‐term, and favourable perception of the corporate image by the target audience, and to obtain economic gains upon reflection of them on sales and service operations of the entity, like the case in public relations. However; it is highly difficult to measure the net results of such yielded gains. Generally; market research methods are utilized to evaluate the effectiveness of any sponsorship event while cost‐benefit analysis is utilized to determine the attained achievement. However, not only returns of sponsorship event are measured here. There are many factors other than sponsorship which affect the cost‐benefit analysis. Moreover; it should be considered that the targets to ensure the effectiveness of sponsorship are generally perceptual, and that perceptions change from one person to another. In case of provision of sponsorship to any event which has concrete deliverables (a case that we do not encounter in social sciences), the below‐given sponsorship pyramid can be applied, and the results of such activity can be observed.

It may also not be possible to evaluate any sponsorship event with results that cannot be measured clearly. Only the coverage of sponsoring company or brand on mass communication means and the level of accessibility through such means can be traced. A consensus cannot be created even in this phase; while some of the authors suggest that only the coverage extent and coverage time of sponsorship on TV or media are not criteria in the evaluation of sponsorship, some of them suggest that coverage extent and coverage time on mass communication means are criteria in the evaluation of effectiveness. This project has been funded with support from the European Commission. This publication reflects the views only of the authors, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.

EXERCISE Please conduct the below‐given case study based on the information as provided above regarding sponsorship, history of sponsorship, fields of sponsorship and any other scope. You, as a PR agency, will hold meetings with a technology company for sponsorship with respect to a new product to be introduced soon. This new product will enable to make phone calls by means of an in‐vehicle apparatus. This product and the company have such a feature: They will donate % of the returns, to be yielded from the first 1 million sales to hearing‐impaired families. With which companies would you get in touch with such company, and what kind of a sponsorship activity would you enter into? TRADE NAME(S) OF

FIELD OF

PURPOSE