Sponsorship and Event Management

The readings this week identify sponsorship as a 'hugely successful' public relations tactic. Sponsorship is defined by Johnston and Zawawi as "the purchase of specific rights and benefits associated with an event, organisation or individual." The readings go on to imply very clearly in their definition of sponsorship that it expects a return.

This concept rings true whenever you go to an event. Just on the weekend I attended the Olyroos V North Korea match at Energy Australia Stadium. Toshiba were a major sponsor of this event and used logos easily recognisable by attendees to generate a sense of awareness of the company. Through purchasing the rights of this event, Toshiba were able to generate a sense of goodwill and also attempt to strengthen their reputation and image through the association with the football match. The readings urge that sponsorship also provides potential sales for businesses through marketing their brand or product in ways that are highly visible to a target or mass group which may contain potential consumers. Toshiba clearly shared these objectives and attempted to achieve this through exclusivity, image association, signage rights, merchandising and media coverage- all of which are outlined in the readings as sponsor benefits.

I feel the most interesting aspect of the reading was the specific components of a sponsorship proposal and the emphasis on identifying target audiences, setting clear objectives and the subsequent evaluation of these objectives. The extensive work and preparation behind sponsorship became apparent in the Telstra sponsorship criteria and application guide. Also the potential for marketing ambushes complicates sponsorship proposals. It is something a PR practitioner must be aware of as a successful ambush may diminish the effectiveness of the main sponsors.

Similarly to sponsorship, event management takes on the need for extensive planning, evaluation and consideration in order to achieve the successful execution of an event. I found Rob Tounge's research about unsuccessful events interesting as a helpful guide of 'what not to do' when planning for an event. Although most of the characteristics of failed events listed are purely common sense, it made me realise that something as simple as the clashing of event dates or insufficient planning for undesirable weather conditions can be the underlying difference between a succesful event or a disastrous one. The various case studies discussed also demonstrates this point, highlighting that anything can go wrong and the ability to remedy sticky situations is vital in event management.


See Abby's blog for critique.