Paper: Events Sponsorship: Managing a Mutually Beneficial Partnership

Transcription

1 5th Iteratoal Scetfc Coferece Toursm Treds ad Advaces the 21st Cetury May 30-Jue 2, 2013, Rhodes, Greece Paper: Evets Sposorshp: Maagg a Mutually Beefcal Partershp Dr Maros D. SOTERIADES Departmet of Toursm Idustry Maagemet, TEI of Crete, Greece, marsot@staff.tecrete.gr Dr Chrstos D. SARMANIOTIS, Departmet of Marketg, ATEI of Thessalok, Greece, xsarma@mkt.tethe.gr Dr Stelos I. VARVARESSOS, Departmet of Toursm Idustry Maagemet, TEI of Athes, Greece. E-mal: svarsos@teath.gr ABSTRACT Durg the last two decades the evets dustry emerged ad the corporate sector fully recogzed the tourst ad promotoal value of evets. Evet sposorshp s oe of the most challegg topcs to be addressed by evet orgasers ad maagers. The am of ths paper s twofold: () to exame the ma ssues the terrelatoshp betwee evet orgasatos ad sposors, ad to hghlght the factors determg a mutually beefcal partershp; ad () to suggest a framework for effcet maagemet of evet sposorshp. The paper dscusses the beefts that evet orgasatos ca attract from recprocal partershps wth sposors. It argues the eed to develop strateges to maage evet sposor relatoshps ad acheve postve ad edurg relatoshps wth sposors. Fally, t dscusses the maagemet of evet sposorshp ad proposes a framework for effcet maagemet. It cocludes by formulatg recommedatos for evet maagers. Keywords: Evets, Sposors, Marketg ad Facal Perspectves, Partershp, Maagemet Framework. INTRODUCTION Evets perform a powerful role toursm dustry. Durg the last two decades the evets dustry emerged ad the corporate sector fully recogzed the ecoomc, tourst ad promotoal value of evets (Bowd, Alle, O'Toole, Harrs, & McDoell, 2011). Nowadays there s o doubt that the evets dustry s facg a seres of challeges. It s estmated (e.g. Crompto, 1994; Goldblatt, 2008; Masterma, 2007) that evet sposorshp s oe of the most challegg topcs to be addressed by evet orgasers / maagers. Over the past decade, there has bee a mportat crease lterature relatg to sposorshp (Geldard & Sclar, 2002; Grey & Skldum, 2003; Jeffres-Fox, 2005; Masterma, 2007; Sker & Rukava, 2003), dcatg the creasgly sgfcace of the topc. Ths paper exames the evet sposorshp terrelatoshp. It begs wth the ma stakeholders volved ad a bref presetato of busess perspectve. I the secod secto the ma ssues of sposorshp are outled. I the followg secto the partershp betwee evet orgasatos ad sposors s dscussed. I the forth secto a framework of maagg evet sposorshp s preseted by hghlghtg the polces, strateges ad actos eeded for successful evet sposorshp. The paper cocludes by formulatg a seres of recommedatos for mutually beefcal partershp betwee evet orgasers ad sposors. EVENTS MANAGEMENT: STAKEHOLDERS AND CORPORATE PERSPECTIVE There s o a uversal, stadardzed defto of evets. Bowd et al (2011, p. 17) suggest as more approprate the defto of The Accepted Practces Exchage (APEX) Idustry Glossary of terms. Accordg to APEX, a evet s a orgazed occaso such as a meetg, coveto,

2 exhbto, specal evet, gala der, etc. A evet s ofte composed of several dfferet yet related fuctos. A prcple applyg to all evets s that they are temporary ad every evet s uque, stemmg from the bled of maagemet, program, settg, ad people. It s o loger suffcet for a evet to meet just the eeds of ts audece. It must also embrace a plethora of other requremets, cludg govermet regulatos, meda requremets, sposors eeds ad commuty expectatos (Adersso & Getz, 2008; Getz & Adersso, 2010). Oe of the ma tasks of evet maagemet s to detfy the rage of stakeholders a evet ad maage ther dvdual eeds, whch wll sometmes overlap ad coflct (Adersso & Getz, 2008; Bowd et al., 2011). There are varous perspectves to cosder evets, amely govermet, destato, commuty/socal, evrometal, ad corporate (orgazers/busess). Our terest focuses o the corporate /busess perspectve ad Table 1 presets the corporate actors volved evets. Table 1 Evets The Corporate Perspectve Corporate Actors Ivolved Role & Goals (1) Orgazers: evets are orgazed by: 1.1. Prvate sector Marketg purposes; Attractos ad mage makers Govermet ageces ad publcprvate groups apprecato ad partcpato; to create jobs. To foster sports, health, or socal tegrato; 1.3. No-proft or volutary sector To attract reveue ad support for multple commuty beefts. (2) Sposors ad Other Parters Provde moey ad grats retur for specfc beefts. (3) Customers: Audece Marketg oretato. Pay for the evet experece. SPONSORS AND SPONSORSHIP The last two decades have see eormous creases sposorshp ad a correspodg chage how evets are perceved by sposors (Masterma, 2007). There has bee a shft may large compaes from approachg sposorshp as prmarly publc relatos tool geeratg commuty goodwll, to regardg t as a mportat part of the tegrated marketg commucatos approach. What s mportat s that sposors must be see as parters evets (Bodw et al., 2011; Getz, 1997; Goldblatt, 2008). The Iteratoal Chamber of Commerce Iteratoal Code o Sposorshp (ICC, 2003, p. 2) defes sposorshp as: ay commercal agreemet by whch a sposor, for the mutual beefts of the sposor ad sposored party, cotractually provdes facg or other support order to establsh a assocato betwee the sposor s mage, brads or products ad a sposorshp property retur for rghts to promote ths assocato ad/or for the gratg of certa agreed drect or drect beefts. (cted Bowd et al, 2011, p. 442). A rage of treds fluece the growg worldwde terest sposorshp, cludg (Bowd et al., 2011; Crompto, 1994; Getz, 1997; Shoe & Parry, 2004): sococultural factors (e.g. popularty of evets as lesure expereces; growg terest sports ad arts); busess (e.g. reduced frm s promotoal budget, mperatve for effcecy); marketg ad meda (prolferato of brads; eed for brad awareess; chage marketg tself wth the shft to relatoshps; seek for effectveess). I ths cotext, the evet maagers task of makg strategc decsos about a evet s portfolo of sposors becomes eve more crtcal. All these evrometal treds uderle the eed for evet maagers to perform a tegrated ad comprehesve aalyss of the sposorshp evromet. It s estmated that the role of sposorshp s twofold, amely a commucato tool ad a source of come (Crompto, 1994; Jeffres-Fox, 2005; Rowley & Wllams, 2008), as t s brefly outled hereafter. Marketg perspectve, sposorshp as commucatos tool: Sposorshp has become a crtcal elemet the tegrated marketg commucato mx of may busesses (Goldblatt, 2008). It s ow a commoly used compoet ad amog the dfferet types of tools, t s cosdered to be oe of the most powerful meda ow used to commucate ad form relatoshps wth stakeholders ad target markets (Grey & Skldum-Red, 2003). Creatg a successful evet or gag evet sposorshp meas establshg a recprocal relatoshp betwee

3 the orgasato provdg the sposorshp ad the evet. However, t also meas a emotoal coecto must be made wth those cosumers targeted by both the evet ad ts sposors (Corwell et al., 2005; Nadav et al., 2010). Ths three-way relatoshp, whch uderps the success of sposorshp, s called the trty of sposor, evet ad audece (Bowd et al 2011, p ). Sposors use evets to emotoally te ther product or servce to a market segmet that detfes wth the evet ad cosequetly detfes wth the sposor s product. Facal perspectve, sposorshp as source of come: Most orgazatos have to work hard to acqure ecessary resources to fud ther evets. Oe of the sources of come s sposorshp (Getz, 1997; Jeffres-Fox, 2005). Sposorshp s cetral to the reveue ad resources of evets (Bowd et al., 2011; Shoe & Parry, 2004; Sker & Rukava, 2003). Evet maagers are usually actvely egaged tasks such as detfyg potetal sposors, preparg sposorshp proposals ad maagg ther ogog relatoshps wth sposors. The ma maagemet task s to atta mutual beefts for both the evet orgaser ad sposor. It s worth stressg that the two perspectves are smultaeously true for both partes volved: () sposorshp s a commucatos tool for sposors ad a marketg varable for evet orgasatos; t s used by both of them for marketg purposes; ad () sposorshp s a source of come for evet orgasatos ad a vestmet for sposors. Obvously ths fact costtutes a postve ad favourable factor determg a commo groud for mutual ams ad actos, a cooperato platform wth a busess partershp. EVENTS AND SPONSORS: A PARTNERSHIP It s estmated that part of esurg the success of the evet s sposorshp strategy s deeper uderstadg the rage of beefts avalable to sposor parters, ot just the beefts to be accrued by the evet (see e.g. Crompto, 1994; Nadav et al., 2010). Potetal beefts for evet orgazers ad sposors: Sposorshps are pursued by evets ad purchased by corporatos, meda ad govermet based o a thorough assessmet of the beefts to be derved. Evet maagers must therefore obta a good kowledge of the potetal beefts that a sposorshp wll brg to ther evet ad ther sposors so they ca customse ther strateges. Accordg to the exchage relatoshp betwee evets ad the sposorshp parters, as suggested by Crompto (1994), evet orgaser seeks: facal vestmet, -kd servces, marketg expertse, evet brad ehacemet, product ad servce offers for evet goers. O the other had, busess seeks: creased brad awareess, brad mage ehacemet, product tral/servce exposure, sales or hosptalty opportutes, market teractvty. I a smlar approach, Getz (1997) suggests the eed for creatg sposorshp platforms ad provdes a framework for uderstadg ad developg evet sposorshp. Ths system must be balaced ad mutually beefcal to sposors, orgazers, ad partcpats. Evet maagers should systematcally audt ther orgazato ad evets to detfy ad value platforms ad potetal beefts to offer, ad the target them to ether geeral types of sposors or to specfc compaes. For may evets, sposorshp brgs a valuable opportuty for log-term busess partershps. However, evet orgasatos have to fully uderstad the maagemet mplcatos (Geldard & Sclar, 2003). Sposors marketg beefts: A apprecato of the sposorshp effects o evet attedees helps to uderstad the egagemet of busesses wth evets. Kowledge ad famlarty wth a corporate or product brad, as well as atttudal ad behavoural effects have bee lked wth evet sposorshp. The sposor s vestmet assstg a festval or sport s beleved to create goodwll amog attedees, whch tur flueces ther atttude ad behavour towards the sposor s brad (Meeagham, 2001; Roy & Corwell, 2004; Rowley & Wllams, 2008). There s a array of marketg beefts of evet sposorshp gaed by corporate sposors, cludg (Bowd et al., 2011; Getz, 1997): access to specfc markets; corporate brad ehacemet; buldg brad awareess; fluecg cosumer atttudes about a brad; mprovg relatoshps wth dstrbuto chael members; achevg product sales ad merchadsg opportutes; ad creatg goodwll ad a clmate of coset for a orgasato s actvtes. Leveragg the sposorshp vestmet: It s well documeted that sposorshp s a vestmet (see e.g. Goldblatt, 2008; Jeffres-Fox, 2005; Masterma, 2007). To fully captalse o a sposorshp vestmet, most busess develop a leveragg strategy (.e. addg value to the vestmet) or a rage of marketg actvtes that exted the sposorshp beefts well beyod the

4 evet s promsed offer. Lterature (see e.g. Corwell et al., 2006; Gwer & Beet, 2007) suggests a seres of factors cotrbutg to a successful leveragg of a sposorshp, cludg: dedcated teral marketg strategy; tesve cosumer-bradg campag; dedcated busessto-busess marketg campag; ad careful aalyss of the ft betwee the evet orgasato ad the sposor s market (Soterades & Dmou, 2011). The ft pheomeo leads to sgfcat elemets ad results, cludg: good brad cohesveess, favourable atttude towards the sposor, hgh goodwll, ad purchase tetos (Corwell et al., 2006; Gwer & Beet, 2007). From the above dscusso t s estmated that arses a eed to suggest a framework for evet sposorshp maagemet. EVENT SPONSORSHIP: A MANAGEMENT FRAMEWORK Just as most corporate wll establsh a sposorshp polcy to gude ther decso makg, Grey & Skldum-Red (2003) strogly recommed that all evets seekg sposorshp desg a polcy to gude ther actos. A polcy must lead to a strategy ad the approprate maagemet plas. A strategy meas kowg the drecto whch the orgasato s headed, whch also apples to the evet s sposorshp (Okumus, Altay, & Chathoth, 2010; Soterades & Dmou, 2011). Developg a evet sposorshp strategy s a very mportat task. It wll have a teractve relatoshp wth the evet s marketg strategy, ad evet maagers have to tegrate the sposor s brad wth the evet s marketg plas. For evet maagers, ths volves thkg about evet attedees ad the ft they mght have wth corporate brads. It also volves thkg about the attrbutes ad values of the evet ad compaes that mght share those values, other words, ehacg the ft (Bowd et al., 2011). The steps developg the evet sposorshp strategy are: proflg the evet audece (the target markets), establshg the evet s offerg (evet s beefts offered to sposors), buldg the evet sposorshp lst (establsh a lst of potetal sposors), ad matchg evet beefts wth potetal sposors (ft / mutual terest). Followg to the strategy formulato s the stage of mplemetato. Oce sposorshp has bee secured wth a agreemet, t must be effectvely maaged order to esure that the beefts that were promsed are delvered (Geldard & Sclar, 2002; Masterma, 2007). A sposorshp maagemet pla s essetal for successful evets, allowg the effcet maagemet of marketg eeds lsted the sposorshp agreemet ad to buld a qualty, log-lastg relatoshp wth evet s sposors. Effectve maagemet of sposorshp agreemets volves effectve relatoshps betwee two partes, bult o a strog foudato of commucato, commtmet ad trust. I other terms, there s a eed for sposorshp maagemet plas to servce sposors, as well as for motorg, evaluato ad feedback. The latter costtutes a shared resposblty of the evet ad ts sposor. Based upo the above preseted aalyss t appears possble to suggest a framework of recprocally beefcal partershp betwee evet orgasatos ad sposors. The startg pot/corerstoe of ths approach s a mutual uderstadg of marketg ad maagemet eeds. The ma steps determg a maagemet framework for evet sposorshp are based o a ratoal sequece of steps (Okumus, Altay, & Chathoth, 2010; Soterades & Dmou, 2011) cosstg of polcy, strategy, ad maagemet of evet sposorshp, as preseted Table 2. Table 2 Maagg Evet Sposorshp: Stages, Tasks ad Outcomes Stages Tasks Outcomes 1. Evet sposorshp 1.1 Proflg the evet s audece Determe the target markets strategy formulato 1.2 Establshg the offerg of evet Evet s assets / beefts offered to sposors 1.3 Buldg the evet sposorshp lst Establsh a lst of potetal sposors 1.4 Matchg evet s beefts wth Sposorshp ft / mutual terest 2. Implemetato of sposorshp strategy potetal sposors 2.1 Preparg sposorshp proposals Preset draft proposals 2.2 Udertakg the sposorshp Select a short lst of sposors screeg process

5 3. Maagg Evet Sposorshp 2.3 Negotatg evet sposorshp cotracts Effectve sposorshp maagemet of marketg eeds lsted the sposorshp agreemet Maagg sposorshp relatos Assessmet of the overall mpact of the partershp Sposorshp agreemets A sposorshp maagemet pla to servce sposors Implemet the approprate techques Feedback o effectveess of maagemet Measurg the cosumer-related marketg objectves set by the sposor (.e. cosumer effects of sposorshp) The compoets of the suggested framework are better llustrated to the followg fgure. Fgure 1 Evet Sposorshp: a Maagemet Framework EVENTS Facal & Marketg Cocers (seekg for fuds / come) M a r k e t g CORPORATE / SPONSORS Marketg Commucatos & Ivestmet (seekg for promoto) Evaluato & Feedback F a c a l BUSINESS PARTNERSHIP E f f c e c y Evet Sposorshp Maagemet (1) Polcy: gudg decso makg ad actos. (2) Strategy: kowg the desrable drecto to go. (3) Maagemet: effcetly orgasg ad drectg sposorshp agreemets. The above maagemet framework s takg to accout the key factors determg the evet sposorshp s maagemet. It equally hghlghts the mutual terest of both partes volved

6 sposorshp ad smultaeously focusg o two perspectves, marketg (evet s marketg sposor s tegrated commucatos) ad facal (source of come for evet vestmet for sposor). Obvously the evet sposorshp must be effectvely maaged order to esure that: () the promsed beefts are properly delvered; ad () postve ad edurg relatos are developed wth sposors. Oe of the crtcal tasks of maagemet s the assessmet of acheved outcomes. Ths volves evaluatg the partershp s effectveess ad the mutual ad separate cotrbuto of sposor ad evet orgasato. Ths assessmet ecompasses two compoets to evaluato: the effectveess of sposorshp maagemet ad a fal assessmet of sposorshp marketg outcomes through a market research. CONCLUSIONS: SUMMARY AND RECOMMENDATIONS Sposorshp s ow a commoly used compoet of the tegrated marketg commucatos of may orgasatos. From a evet s perspectve, sposorshp represets a sgfcat potetal source of reveue. Furthermore, sposorshps are fast becomg busess partershps that offer resources beyod moey. I ths paper we have explored the key ssues maagg evet sposorshps ad provded sghts uderstadg the beefts for evets ad sposors. Fally, the paper has proposed a framework for effcet maagemet of evet sposorshp takg to cosderato the marketg ad facal perspectves ad the key factors determg a successful partershp. Ths framework llustrates the eed for uderstadg, developg ad applyg a maagemet approach for obtag strategc beefts for evet orgasatos ad sposors. I cocludg ths paper t s worth formulatg a seres of recommedatos to evet maagers order to reder the busess partershp mutually beefcal. A crucal ssue s to uderstad the potetal costs ad beefts of sposorshp to evet orgazers ad sposors. It s equally ecessary to buld attractve sposorshp platforms to the evet orgazato that provde sposors wth beefts lked to vsblty, etworkg, ad effectve commucato mx. To succeed attractg ad keepg the sposorshp agreemets, evet orgasers must thoughtfully develop polces ad strateges, provdg a clear framework for both evets ad sposors to decde o the approprateess of potetal partershps. The evet orgasato should determe the evet beefts avalable for sale ad a clear maagemet pla. These two elemets costtute a very good startg pot for seekg sposorshp partershp. Addtoally, evet maagers have to develop a sposorshp pla cludg cosderato of mutual beeft ad rsks, the ft betwee evet ad sposor. It s strogly recommeded that the sposorshp proposal must be based o comprehesve research of the beefts that the evet creates for potetal sposors. Relatoshps wth sposors should deally be o a log-term partershp bass. Evet orgazatos must cultvate mutually beefcal relatoshps ad help sposors get the most value for ther vestmet. A balaced portfolo of sposors should be attaed ad sposors must be used to augmet the evet s marketg reach. Fally, the evets sposorshp agreemets must be properly maaged so that commtmets made to sposors are met ad there s a eed to perform market research to demostrate beefts to sposors. All these elemets must be compoets of a adequate evet sposorshp maagemet pla. Refereces Adersso, T., & Getz, D. (2008). Stakeholder maagemet: strateges of festvals. Joural of Coveto & Evet Toursm, 9, Bowd, G., Alle, J., O'Toole, W., Harrs R., & McDoell, I. (2011). Evets maagemet, 3rd ed. Oxford: Elsever Butterworth-Heema. Corwell, T., Humphreys, M., Magure, A., Weeks, C., & Tellege, C. (2006). Sposorshp lked marketg: the role of artculato memory. Joural of Cosumer Research, 33(3), Crompto, J. (1994). Beefts ad rsks assocated wth sposorshp of major evets. Festval Maagemet ad Evet Toursm, 2(2), Geldard, E., & Sclar, L. (2002). The sposorshp maual: sposorshp made easy. Vctora, Australa: Sposorshp Ut. Getz, D. (1997). Evet maagemet & evet toursm. New York: Cogzat.

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