Gone are the days of seeking sponsorship benefits that provide just brand awareness. No-one wants this visual bombardment and it does nothing to engage your audience. Sponsors need to ensure the people who really matter in the relationship are the end consumers of the event experience. It's these consumers after all that we're chasing! To do this we need to really hear what the consumer has to say. They will let us know what's working and what's not because as we all know, in our transient digital world, it's in the numbers.
As mobile continues to be our channel of choice, both in our personal and working lives, we must ensure the content we put out there is relevant, timely and valuable.
One of the best ways to better understand your audience is to survey them. After all, if they are truly engaged with your brand, they will want to give you their opinion. The Remarkables Group surveyed their audience to see the impact their bloggers were having on their target market. The survey produced some interesting findings sponsors should consider when next assessing a sponsorship opportunity.
- 1.Mobile dominates as the preferred channel for receiving content. It's therefore really important that the sponsorship seeker has a mobile-optimised site to ensure your brand receives full exposure. The future of content is mobile so website mentions and logos are no good if they can't be readily viewed anywhere, any screen, any time.
- 2.Branded content is acceptable to your target market on the proviso that there's transparency around its use and trust has been established. This is really good to know, especially for sponsors who seek to promote their products and/or services through branded content. It actually seems many consumers don't take the time to differentiate between branded and non-branded content as long as the branded content delivers on value.
- 3.Social platforms are the primary channel for most consumers. When The Remarkables Group asked followers to choose just one digital channel to access each day, the response was resoundingly in favour of social media (56 per cent) followed by blogs (26 per cent) and news/lifestyle sites (8 per cent). Sponsors, this means it's really important that you make sure the property you're sponsoring is active across social platforms so you get the most out of your sponsorship agreement.
So what does all this ultimately mean? When you leverage your sponsorships, you need to make sure you create strong content that is easily accessible via mobile; that you build trust with your audience so they accept your branded content; and that your brand is highly visible across relevant social platforms.
Want to know more? Feel free to email me at caroline@eventsponsors.com.au or phone 1300 366 306. I provide the full range of sponsorship management solutions from sponsorship strategy to identifying the right event and sponsor opportunities to leveraging, measurement and proposal writing for sponsorship success.
