Drafting a new sponsorship strategy is hard work. It’s usually done in response to a crisis in an organization. Whatever the circumstances, drafting up a new sponsorship strategy often requires making meaning out of a mess.
The entertainment industry has been deeply affected by the disruptions cause by the global COVID-19 pandemic, and its repercussions will continue to be felt in the short to medium term.
Within this context, how can partners agree on the best course of action to minimize the negative consequences of this global crisis?
A growing number of brands are promoting themselves as leaders of positive social change and positioning themselves as beacons in a storm. They participate in social debates and have had the courage to take controversial positions even if it has meant alienating some their customer base.
While men are often applauded for looking “handsome” or “well-dressed”, fashion has typically been considered too frivolous or eccentric to be a truly masculine interest. Twenty years ago, the idea that a famous designer or clothing brand could play as big a role in the life of a sports team or popular musician would have seemed absurd. And yet, among the younger generations of men today—both Millennials and Gen Z—this is exactly what is happening.
Recreational cannabis manufacturers had a unique opportunity to make their brands known before cannabis restrictions were put in place following legalization during the summer of 2018. Some brands used sponsorship, associations with celebrities, experiential marketing, event licensing, and derivative products to build awareness among potential audiences.
Montreal consulting firm The PNR recently interviewed Jay Hébert, Elevent's CEO, to talk about marketing, the future of sponsorship and the challenges of building a new kind of agency. We thank Nectarios and The PNR for this opportunity.
What started as a small music festival in Austin, TX in 1987, is now a massive event, conference, festival, trade show and everything in between, with a declared attendance of 432,000 people for 2018.
While we don’t want to overstate this issue, it is a sad realization that both event promoters and brands need to take new security threats into account. Promoters and local police forces have been quick to make adjustments in the wake of recent events. At South by Southwest, where police cars blocked street access near pedestrian areas, and in Europe, where giant (branded) sandbags were set up to prevent vehicles from entering crowded areas.
Sponsorship is the Swiss knife of marketing communication. Great sponsorship programs usually leverage multiple activation channels, which requires broad knowledge. While communication professionals tend to be experts in one channel, sponsorship experts must think across multiple platforms. And yet sponsorship is seldom taught in school, or only in passing, and a lot of people working in the industry landed there largely by accident and had to learn things on the spot.
Just a few years ago, standard, and often rigid, sponsorship structures set most sponsors on the same level. But as brands get better at crafting their own narrative, generic platforms with properties are no longer working to create goodwill. Brands need to find a clear positioning for their sponsorship portfolio as well as within each property.
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