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Budweiser Wins Gold, Best in Show
It was with true pleasure that I accepted a Sponsorship Marketing Award at the Sponsorship Marketing Council of Canada’s annual conference last week on behalf of our client, Labatt. The Budweiser sponsorship activation of the Winnipeg Jets won Gold in the Sports Category and Best in Show at this year’s SMAs. It was particularly special because I was able too accept the award alongside Dan Chubey from Labatt. Dan is now Sales Director, Ontario, for Labatt but during the 2011/12 hockey season, he was the District Sales Manager, Manitoba,...
read moreReport from 2013 IEG Sponsorship Conference
I was very pleased to be in Chicago this week for the 30th annual IEG Sponsorship Conference. It is quite an accomplishment that the conference has held that kind of longevity. Although IEG was acquired by WPP several years, IEG is still guided by co-founder Lesa Ukman and Lesa’s sister, CEO Laren Ukman. IEG is the organization that pretty much defined the sponsorship marketing industry and continues to lead thinking in the space. If I could point to one weakness in this year’s conference, it would be that there seemed to be a lack of...
read moreReport from EventTech 2012
I was in New York last week for the two-day EventTech Conference. EventTech is staged by Event Marketer Magazine and was promoted as focusing on the ever increasing role of technology in experiential marketing initiatives. This was the second annual EventTech and my first. The event was held at New World Stages, an off-Broadway multi-stage theatre two levels below West 50th Ave., between 8th and 9th Streets. Sessions were held in the venue’s five main theatres. Speakers presented from stage backed by the sets for whatever productions...
read moreIntermediary Sponsorship Metrics
When I spoke at the Canadian Sponsorship Forum a couple of weeks ago, my focus topic was A Passion for Measurement: Optimizing Sponsorship ROI. As part of the talk, I discussed the importance of knowing the difference between intermediary sponsorship metrics and true return on investment (ROI) sponsorship metrics. Intermediary metrics against your sponsorship activity include things like audience size, impressions, number of consumers engaged, number of customers entertained. Easy to count Intermediary metrics tend to be easy to count. ...
read moreCanadian Sponsorship Forum – Day Three
I remember the story of then 12 year old Craig Kielburger and his only slightly older brother Marc Kielburger co-founding Free the Children in the mid- 1990s, Craig inspired by a newspaper article he read about child labour in developing countries. I also vaguely remember hearing about a We Day rally in Toronto some years later, also created by Craig and his brother Marc. I’m embarrassed to say that I never followed either story beyond that, because the stories and the brothers are exceptional. Marc keynoted on Day Three of this year’s...
read moreCanadian Sponsorship Forum – Day Two
After a great night of networking in Old Montreal, day two of this year’s Canadian Sponsorship Forum kept driving in high gear. Highlights for me included Ipsos-Reid’s Jordan Levitin presenting research which tracked Canada’s most valuable sponsorship properties according to surveying done in-market this past June. The research graded a set of 100 preselected properties against so-called ‘Drivers of Connection’ for consumers. These included: Personal Involvement Creating Memorable Moments Impact Sponsor Fit Responsible...
read moreCanadian Sponsorship Forum – Day One
It is a real pleasure to be attending the annual Canadian Sponsorship Forum, this year being held in Montreal in conjunction with the Just For Laughs Festival. Mark Harrison and the team at Trojan One do an incredible job with the Forum each year, and it only gets better. Forty nine speakers and 290 delegates are here in Montreal, this event has become Canada’s pre-eminent gathering for sponsorship professionals annually. My own presentation session, A Passion for Measurement: Optimizing Sponsorship ROI , wound up being standing room...
read moreThe Importance of Syndicating Sponsorship Value
Whether you’re working in a business environment focused on a B2C or a B2B market, you’re likely very busy working at moving the needle on your business’s dashboard around sales and brand health. Hopefully, your sponsorship investments are helping towards that end. Consider the importance of syndicating the value of the collective sponsorship assets in your portfolio of sponsored properties across your organization and not just in the areas you’ve traditionally looked to. This syndication of sponsorship value and benefits is key for...
read moreShare of Voice
It’s One Year Plan (1YP) season, the time of the year when brands are building out their marketing plans for the following calendar year. Assess Marketing Pressure Whether you’re already deep into it or whether you’re just getting ready for planning how you will market your brand, product or business in 2013, consider this: From an overall marketing communications perspective, what is your share of voice versus your competition? What are they spending and how far is it getting them? What are you spending and how far is it getting...
read moreBuild or Buy
We like to think of consumer (or target audience) connection platforms in one of two ways – build or buy. Build is where you create a proprietary engagement property – effective in a lot of ways, but expensive and potentially challenging to get traction with. Buy is more in line with a traditional sponsorship – you’re getting access to your target audience through something they already care about, you’re getting the associative benefits from the brand equity in the property you’ve ‘bought’ and you’re able to use that equity...
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