HOW TO AMPLIFY YOUR MESSAGE THROUGH SPONSORSHIPS

When it comes to marketing your business, sponsorships have a positive impact on your company. Brand sponsorships provide an excellent opportunity to increase credibility, improve your overall public image and build your reputation. Not only is this a great way to publicize your business and what it stands for, but you can give back to the community or support a purpose that your business aligns with. While there is no doubt that brand sponsorships are beneficial, it’s important to keep a few key points in mind:

Brand sponsorship 101

Brand sponsorships come in many shapes and sizes and include financially or materially supporting an event, business seminar, cause organization, sports team, association, etc. First, the most basic form of brand sponsorship is donating money to a nonprofit cause or an event in your community. This is an excellent way to increase local audience awareness of your brand and its overall message. You may support a local sports team or nonprofit organization that helps those in need. Other forms of brand sponsorship can include the donation of promotional items, supplying products to help a cause, or even contributing branded prizes or exclusive offers to event attendees to support audience engagement.

But for businesses, it is about sponsoring a business event or speaking opportunity where you can communicate a key message. With sponsorships, you can increase your brand awareness through email marketing, banner ads, pop-ups or other advertising. Brand sponsorships can look different for every business, and you can amplify your brand and key message by carefully selecting to sponsor events that align with your company’s core values.

Build mutually beneficial relationships

Brand sponsorships provide a mutually beneficial relationship in the business world, and they have the power to positively influence your brand awareness and drive sales opportunities. Should your brand choose to sponsor an event or cause, you can expect to:

Shape consumer and business attitudes

Increase brand awareness and credibility

Generate positive PR and social responses

Direct and expand access to key markets

Differentiate from competitors

Improve B2B, B2C and key relationships

Choose brand sponsorships with intention

Brand sponsorships allow you to reflect your business’ values directly through the type of event you choose to sponsor. When your business is deciding what events to sponsor, revisit your messaging and core values, and then seek out events and sponsorships that align with your business’ overall goals and brand identity. By choosing your brand sponsorships with intention, you are not only amplifying your messaging for your audience but also solidifying your own credibility by demonstrating how you endorse your brand’s message firsthand.

Present your business in a positive way

Brand sponsorships allow you to present your business in a positive manner, showing the audience how you give back to your community. Consider giveaway prizes that allow attendees to sample your products, which allows them to explore your business — brand sponsorships give your business the positive PR it deserves.

Promote your brand’s message

Brand sponsorships are also a great tool to establish your business’s messaging to a wide, potentially new audience. When your brand sponsors an event, you are highlighting a part of your business to an audience that has mixed awareness and varying views on your brand. This opens you up to an exceptional opportunity to take the time to incorporate key messaging into your efforts, using your unique selling proposition, value points and logo on signage. To supplement your efforts, you can include marketing material (or full-size booths if you are really looking to stand out), run a contest, have giveaways and more; the brand spon-

sorship possibilities are seemingly endless. Sponsoring an event is a great way to engage new customers who otherwise may not be exposed to alternative marketing efforts in a low-pressure, positive environment that inspires organic relationships and sales opportunities.

Business event audiences want to learn through education and insight and want to be engaged, and harnessing that knowledge, understanding the audience and channeling your brand’s messaging makes you stand out from the competition. This shows your business as a community member that likes to be engaged in the community and give back.

Does brand sponsorship work?

Many brand sponsorships include the announcement or display of your business and its likeness in appreciation for your contributions. Use this opportunity to your advantage. You have direct access to a connected, diverse, community-based audience, and you want to make sure that they leave engaged in your brand. Over 90 percent of consumers leave brand-sponsored events feeling positive towards the business, and to top that, about 85 percent of those consumers will engage in business with you after the event. Sponsoring an event positions your business as a generous community member, empowering customers to shop local and “give back” by association.

Make sponsorships a part of your plan

With the exclusive opportunity to shape attitudes, build awareness, differentiate from competitors and generate new opportunities, sponsorships are a winwin. Brand sponsorships are advantageous not only to the event or cause sponsored but also to the business, particularly when it comes to positive media exposure, which is often underestimated. When done correctly, brand sponsorships can gain community support, generate more leads, and amplify your business’s messaging and what you stand for. Sponsoring an event or cause that is close to your business benefits your brand, while also helping your community.

Linda Fanaras is CEO/strategist for Millennium Agency with offices in Manchester and Boston.