SMALL EVENT, BIG SPONSORSHIPS

With Teresa Stas

NO SPONSORSHIP RECAP MEANS MONEY LEFT BEHIND NO SPONSORSHIP RECAP

As we start a brand-new year – heck, a brand-new decade – thinking about how you will reach your fiscal event goals for 2020 is probably on the top of your mind. I know it is for our clients.

Just before New Year’s, I had an extensive conversation with a client after one of their sponsors asked for a recap of their sponsorship. My client contacted me because they had never done recaps before. They had never felt the need, and they weren’t really sure where to start. Yet, through our discussion, I learned the event planners were frustrated that they weren’t getting the money that they felt the sponsorships warranted. They didn’t understand why the sponsors wouldn’t increase their sponsorships. Well of course they aren’t getting the money they deserve because the sponsor doesn’t know what they have done for them because they have never seen a recap!

I run into this attitude all the time with smaller events and I can’t stress this enough: if you aren’t doing sponsorship recaps, you are leaving money behind and making your job harder. It may feel like you have a good relationship with your sponsors and a recap is unnecessary extra work, but that is, in fact, not the case at all. And if done correctly, a recap doesn’t have to be a daunting task.

Recaps Increase Renewals

In last Fall’s column, I went over how to increase your renewals. One of the steps I shared was to always do a sponsorship recap. The events we work with that conduct sponsor recaps re-sign at a 75% higher rate than those events that do not. Seventy-five percent!

I constantly preach to my clients that it’s essential for you to not only show proof of your performance, but also debrief with your sponsors so that you both know what did and did not work. In my experience, I’ve found that most small events do not debrief with sponsors, which is a major misstep. A company’s sponsorship of your event is looked at as an investment and it’s up to you to show them that they made a smart decision. Many companies must prove to their higher ups why certain marketing initiatives did or did not work. If they have nothing to show for their investment, or if you leave it up to them to do the research on their own, it’s easier for them to just say no to you next year.

If you don’t follow up with your sponsors after the event, how will you know what you need to adjust for next year or if you are in a position to ask for more? You can’t just disappear and resurface when it’s time for renewals. By then, it’s too late to fix any issues that might have arisen.

How to Do a Recap

Most recaps will be less than five pages with a lot of photos showing proof. Your bigger sponsorships may include more than five pages; it just depends on the amount of promotion and/or marketing the sponsor was involved in.

For those of you who may not know how to put together a proper recap or what information to provide, let me break it down what information you should include:

• Numbers: Include attendance numbers, along with demographics and other information collected through research. This also includes overall media reach and general event success info.

• Additional Assets and Bonuses: Highlight what the sponsorship agreement included versus what extras they received.

• Photos: Supply images of activations and assets, especially those the event was responsible for providing, such as banners, posters, billboards, display booths, t-shirts, etc.

• Media Value: Highlight everything that the sponsor was included in and affidavits of radio and/or tv. Include air-checks when possible.

• Advertising and PR: Provide copies of print ads and articles that include the sponsor. Include circulation numbers if available.

• Copies of Print Items: Provide copies of programs, posters, flyers, rack cards, etc. If the event was managing any sampling or distributing of literature, include numbers of how many were distributed.

• Other Promotions: If the sponsor was included in any off-site exposure or retail promotions, include photos and/or documentation.

Think of your recap as their receipt. You are showing them that they got what they paid for. When you take the time to do this, you are proving that their sponsorship is important to you and that you value the partnership.

Now, for a quick word of caution. When events do recaps for the first time, they often start to realize that they haven’t been holding up their end of the bargain. They also often start to recognize that this is probably a big contributor to why they aren’t getting an increase or renewal. It’s not enough to tell a sponsor that you did what you said you would; you must prove it! The process of a recap holds the event accountable for its promised assets.

Getting Started

The idea of doing recaps might feel daunting if you haven’t done them before but starting now will make things much easier for you in the future. What typically happens is the event doesn’t think about recaps until after the event is over, and trying to find and collect everything after the fact makes the process harder and more time consuming than it should be.

Our suggested process is simple. Create a digital folder for each sponsor. Any time there is a promotion, social media post, advertising spot, photo, or anything else the event does that relates to the sponsor, drop a copy or screen shot into the folder. If you do this throughout the year, it won’t make the recap so daunting after the event.

I promise that if you recap your event with your sponsors, you will not only see a growth in sponsorships, but also in your relationships.

Teresa Stas is a national speaker, consultant, and workshop facilitator on the topic of sponsorships and event marketing. She is an accomplished marketing leader and CEO of Green Cactus, a boutique agency that specializes in event sponsorship sales and marketing. She has been named one of the 20 on the Rise Event Professionals by Honeybook and RisingTide.com. You can check out Teresa’s online sponsorship course at sellsponsorship.com. If you would like to get sponsorship tips to your inbox, you can sign up for the GC monthly newsletter at GreenCactusCa.com.

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