Billions of dollars are spent globally on sponsorships each year. According to IEG, global sponsorship spending topped $65 billion last year, with the majority of the money going toward sports partnerships, followed by entertainment, causes, festival events, and association organizations.
Sponsorships offer a targeted opportunity to reach current and prospective clients on the consumer or business to business (B2B) side (or both). If you are new to leveraging sponsorships as an engagement tool, here are a few tips on crafting a strategic plan that I learned over the course of 25 years in sponsorship sales and activation with sports and entertainment properties.
Know Your Audience
Think of a sponsorship as a marketing asset that will drive your business objectives. Do you want to sell more stock keeping units (SKUs), engage prospective clients with VIP entertainment or increase awareness through media? These are a few of the goals that can result from a successful spo...
Way back in April, I had the pleasure of attending an etiquette session led by Patricia Rossi at the NASC (now called SportsETA) Women's Summit in Tampa. This was the second annual Women's Summit held in conjunction with the NCAA Women's Final Four basketball tournament. I wrote about my takeaways last year as well.
Patricia was the last presenter in 48 hours chock-full of wisdom and knowledge bombs. All 70 attendees were exhausted, and perhaps more than a little sleep deprived, to say the least. You might say she had drawn the short straw. Not to mention, she was presenting to a bunch of awesome women who work in sports...let's just say (and I'm just surmising here), but this industry may be a bit more casual on the etiquette side of things than say, corporate finance.
In a nutshell, Patricia rocked the house! She was engaging, hilarious, and an absolute delight. She is a southern belle that (if I'm honest) at first impression, intimid...
It’s back to work for those of us who went to the NASC Symposium in Knoxville last week. As you are getting back to your projects and events, don’t forget about all those contacts you met last week.
In the sports events and tourism industry, networking is key and we hope you met a lot of great people at the Symposium to help in future projects. So don’t let those business cards go to waste. Follow-up is key to developing a new professional relationship. Forbes has a few great tips to master the art of the follow-up.
Start with a quick email this week. Don’t feel it has to be something long and profound. Simply say you enjoyed meeting them and if you can, reflect back on a point from your conversation, even if it wasn’t about work.
Link in on LinkedIn. This is another way to connect days after meeting. LinkedIn also offers many free tools to keep your contacts front-of-mind for both you and them. Plus, you can send them a quick note on their work...
Milwaukee hosted some very big sporting events in 2018, and the whole city is benefiting. According to Visit Milwaukee and the Milwaukee Business Journal, sports tourism brought in additional revenue of $28 million for the Milwaukee region in 2018.
When calculating the monetary impact of the events, Visit Milwaukee considered dollars spent on hotel rooms, restaurants, and additional goods and services provided to visitors. Milwaukee hosted a plethora of events throughout the year, but some of the most impactful were the USA Fencing 2018 North American Cup ($2.2 million) and the Junior Volleyball Association MKE Jamboree ($1.6 million).
2019 is shaping up to be just as exciting for the Brew City. USA Fencing will be returning for the 2019 November North American Cup, while the Milwaukee Mile Speedway will host the ARCA Midwest Tour.
If you’re a fan of hockey, you probably watched the Columbus Blue Jackets’ monumental upset of the Tampa Bay Lightning in round one of the NHL playoffs. But for the city of Columbus, the win wasn’t just felt by the hockey team. The Greater Columbus Sports Commission celebrated a huge win as the nationally televised game on CNBC allowed millions of viewers to experience the sports atmosphere of Columbus, Ohio.
Jen Cartmille, the director of Marketing for the Greater Columbus Sports Commission celebrated the spotlight, telling Columbus TV station WBNS that “when we have an NHL playoff game or host an NCAA basketball tournament and it’s shown across the country people get to see what kind of city we are... [sporting events] help sell the city.” Although Columbus is still an emerging hockey town, the excitement for the Blue Jacket’s recent success has already captivated the local community.
The Blue Jackets are now the closest they have ever ...
People tend to fall on three sides of the networking spectrum:
The people that love socializing and meet all kinds of people
The people that hate networking and skip these sessions or don’t participate
The people that are good at networking and leave with a valuable lead and/or resource
Depending on the day, each of us usually falls into one of these categories when we must attend networking events. Many factors contribute to how we react to networking including the hours worked that day, what’s happening outside of work, and energy levels in general. Please take a moment to learn some networking lessons that may provide positive results while networking at the 2019 NASC Symposium.
Look at this stack of business cards! These are on my desk right now. Can you imagine if your card is located near the bottom of that stack? I’m sure my card is at the bottom of stacks on hundreds of desks around the country. This is a constant reminder that I’...
The countdown is on for the 27th annual NASC Symposium! Before your bags are packed, check the conference website. Then, as you prepare to meet event rights holders, vendors and destination representatives from throughout the USA in Knoxville, Tennessee May 6- 9, you might want to check it again. This will help you ensure the most efficient and effective use of your time!
NASC staff and volunteer members have worked diligently to provide several great resources to assist you as you get organized to attend the NASC’s annual meeting (for the first time or the 27th)! Follow the links below to find answers to many of your questions:
Hotel & Travel
Schedule
Education
Marketplace
NASC FAQs
Blogs
Hotel & Travel:
Traveling to a destination by yourself (especially for the first-time) can seem a bit intimidating. A little advanced homework will reduce potential concerns and set you up for a fun, successful conference experience.
Review your...
Sports tourism is a booming industry that continually brings in astounding revenue. Harford County, in Maryland, is a prime example of this revenue impact. In Harford County, sports tourism brought in nearly $50 million and supported 650 jobs, each year over the past three years. According to The Baltimore Sun, this revenue came in from three sports- youth baseball, lacrosse, and soccer tournaments- at three different venues.
Due to this steep incline in revenue, the Maryland Office of Tourism, did a study to see the true impact of tourism on the county overall. The study showed that Harford County gained $374 million in total or more than $1 million a day. With sports tourism bringing in $50 million, the county owes a lot to the sports industry for the more revenue.
According to the study, baseball averaged the most events per year with 39, and the most participants, 20,600. That brought nearly 55,000 spectators to the county’s Ripken Stadium. Lacrosse made a big imp...
NASC is sending a big congratulations to the Tampa Bay Sports Commission for hosting the most attended NCAA Women’s Final Four Tournament. During the April 5-7 games, Tampa had the highest all-time attendance, hosting 123,039 fans.
The Tampa Bay Business Journals says the event is a major economic driver for the area. It starts with celebratory events leading up to the game days including the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association Convention, which had a record attendance of 2,891. Then Amalie Arena played host to back-to-back sellout crowds totalling 40,189 on Friday and Sunday.
This was Tampa’s third time hosting the Final Four in the NCAA Women’s tournament. Tampa hosted for the first time in 2008, then again in 2015.
For any event organizer, selling more tickets can prove to be a challenge sometimes. If you feel like you hit a plateau with your ticket sales, try one of these marketing strategies from Prior Booking.com.
1) Convert Customer Loyalty Into Revenue
If you’re familiar with marketing, you may have heard of the 80/20 rule. This rule states that 80% of your business comes from 20% of your clients. These clients are your most loyal and powerful customers- they will engage with your brand online, write positive reviews, and endorse your events for their friends. Investing in a loyalty program for your best customers (discounts, early access to ticket sales) will keep your biggest clients happy, and give your brand a solid foundation of followers to grow from.
2) The Early Bird Makes More Profit
An easy way to get a jump start on ticket sales is by selling tickets at a discount the moment your event is publicized. “Early bird” packages...