Small Event, Big Sponsorships

TECHNOLOGY FOR SPONSORSHIP PROSPECTING

Last year when all our event clients were having to cancel and postpone, I decided to use my unexpected extra time to get my Master’s in Hospitality Management with Specialization in Mega & Large-Scale Events through Florida International University. I just finished up a Hospitality Technology class where I was required to write a research paper. I chose a topic that centered around cloud-based sponsorship technology tools that allowed me to deep dive into several different products that are currently out on the market. After I finished the paper, I thought that my research might be beneficial for my colleagues here in the event industry. Here is a summarized snapshot of two of the most common tools that I get asked about when it comes to sponsorship prospecting.

Technology for Sponsorship Prospecting

Before an event secures a sponsorship, the event team must first find a prospect, also sometimes known as a “qualified lead.” Prospecting is done through research: first, by understanding what a company is doing in its marketing and how that could align with an event, then, the event manager faces the hurdle of finding the correct contact information. This information can be found on the Internet, but the process to locate it is time consuming. Most events are run by very small staffs who don’t have the proper time to canvas the world wide web in search of company happenings and sponsorship contact information.

Prospecting programs can make this task much simpler for event teams. Sales intelligence software is widely available and can provide companies with news, data, and contact and other important information; however, there are very few sales intelligence software programs that are focused on sponsorship. Of those available, most address professional sports. Currently, two software programs are the major players in the prospecting programming world: SponsorPitch and Winmo. Although they can be used for professional sports events, these software programs are adaptable to other live events as well.

There are three things that inherently make a “good” prospecting tool. The first is that it must have updated and reliable industry news. Knowing what companies are doing, and if they are making moves in the sponsorship world, is information that helps an event make efficient prospecting decisions and competing pitches. Second, the tool must have the most up-to-date contact information. If it doesn’t, then what’s the point? The reason to invest in a sponsorship prospecting tool like this is because it can save the event team time, by helping them find the correct contact information. The third factor is price: Is the tool worth the money? Is it providing information valuable enough that it pays for itself? Examining these two prospecting software programs gives event managers insight into how current technologies can assist with event sponsorship prospecting.

SponsorPitch.com

Sorrells (2017) describes SponsorPitch best: SponsorPitch is a real-time online recommendation engine for sponsorship that uses predictive intelligence and analytics to help members find new partnerships. [It] provides access to a searchable database with company profiles, reports, recommendations, analytics, and more. Members can filter through thousands of potential sponsors to get to a targeted list in a few clicks, instantly see those companies’ existing partnerships, and receive alerts about new sponsorship deals in targeted categories or locations. (“SponsorPitch” section)

The price range for SponsorPitch is $420 to $4,800 annually, depending on the number of people using the software and the features chosen.

SponsorPitch looks like it could be an amazing tool, at first glance. It has everything a sponsorship seeker would be looking for in this type of software. According to the SponsorPitch website (2021), the software is cloud based, so there is nothing to download and no hardware; it is subscription based, so there aren’t any financial risks; and it promises to help find qualified partners and identify key decision markers quickly (“Home” page, “Pricing” page). How does SponsorPitch do this? It uses a recommendation engine called “Suggested Sponsorships.”

The SponsorPitch recommendation engine analyzes a brand’s spending and business category to delineate the criteria used to suggest targeted sponsorship opportunities. The engine then uses that criteria to siphon through thousands of sponsorship opportunities and gathers the ones that have the highest parallel to the formed criteria. The SponsorPitch subscribers who match receive updated suggestions on a biweekly basis and have the chance to offer feedback to help strengthen the algorithm (Belzer, 2013). This use of data mining to generate possible opportunities and contacts could be a huge win, but does it actually work the way it says it does?

The key to SponsorPitch was buried in their website FAQ page (2021), and that key is the route by which they get their information. SponsorPitch retrieves their data from their members, and “publicly available resources,” which means press releases, social media, and websites (“Where does the information on SponsorPitch come from?” section). One thing potential clients should keep in mind when it comes to SponsorPitch is that the program might save an event team time, but it is not providing anything that the team cannot find for free. Another thing to consider is that by the time the information about a sponsorship deal has hit a press release, it is too late to have an impact; the information is essentially outdated. Reviews of SponsorPitch on their website “Success Stories” page (2021) reveal that most customers found it to be a positive industry tool for keeping up on stories and what’s happening in the market but not as useful for making deals happen.

Winmo

The SaaS review website Cuspera (2021) describes Winmo as: A sales intelligence platform supporting Agencies, Media Sales, Marketing Tech, and Sponsorship sales teams across various industries with sales prospecting information and new leads … [Its] database provides information on key decision makers including contact information, projected opportunity time-lines [sic] and other data that has been verified by researchers and filters enable filtering leads based on territory, title, revenue, industry and more. Winmo is equipped with a Sales predictor—Winmo Edge—which provides a list of lead opportunities, including new funding, product launches, new markets, and more, enabling quick action and deal closures. Winmo Alerts allow setting up of custom alerts to get information on changes in the prospects in the selected areas. The software integrates with all the sales systems in the business. (“About Winmo” section)

The price range is $6,000 to $25,000 annually, depending on number of people and features chosen.

First, the price for Winmo is a huge increase from Sponsor- Pitch. Interestingly, Winmo (2021) has several different landing pages on their website, which are targeted to different types of users. There was one landing page that was specifically geared to sponsorship seekers looking for a prospecting tool (“Sponsorship Events” page), and there was another landing page optimized for business to business (B2B) leads (“Agency New Business” page). There is yet another landing page for searchers who are looking for adverting sales leads (“Ad Sales” page).

Winmo promises many of the same things that SponsorPitch promises, but one of the one major differences is that all of the contact information in the Winmo database is verified by humans (“Targeted Contact Search” page). So, although it might be found initially on the web, similar to SponsorPitch, the contact information in the Winmo software is then double-checked to make sure it is current and correct, which accounts for the price increase. It also provides predictive information on upcoming trends in the industry so that an event team can anticipate a prospect’s potential buying pattern or reach out to someone they might not have thought of before. It does this by using its predictive engine, Winmo Edge, which tracks industry shifts and verified sales intelligence in order to forecast new opportunities months before they happen (“Account Insights” page).

After examining both Winmo and SponsorPitch, it appears that Winmo is the superior product because of its predictive technology for its trends and its human-based verification for data mining. However, the Winmo pricing may be prohibitive for some event management professionals. The software is expensive, and if sales are variable or insecure, the price tag won’t provide a suitable return on the investment for small and midsize events.

New technology is constantly being developed to meet the needs of various users, both in and aligned to event management and sponsorship.

While many software programs are still focused on meeting the needs of sports event management, there seems to be movement toward customizing event management technologies for many other types of events as well. Like any developing industry, the technology for event management needs to be honed; however, these programs indicate great progress toward workable, usable event management software that professionals can get excited about.

Teresa Stas is an author, national speaker, and the CEO of Green Cactus, an event sponsorship agency based in Fresno CA and Portland. OR. She has brokered millions of dollars in sponsorships working with regional and national brands throughout the United States. Teresa is the author of “Sell Your Event! The Easy to Follow Practical Guide to Getting Sponsors.” and her online course SellSponsorships. com has been used in university coursework.

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