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Marketing & Sponsorship

5 Tips to Connect Sponsors to Attendees

Finding cost-effective ways to connect Sponsors to Attendees is one of the most vexing problems faced by Event Organizers. We worked with one of our top Partners, Eventbrite, to deliver a webinar to #eventprofs in Australia to share a few actionable ideas to help get the process started.

What? You missed the webinar? No worries! We have embedded the slides (above) and a short summary below.

Note: Technical difficulties have delayed access to the recording. When it is available, we will update this post.

A platform like Virtual Event Bags helps significantly improve the sponsor/exhibitor to attendee connection and we encourage you to take a tour!

The highlights

Slide 4: Why do companies sponsor events?
Seth Godin, one of our favorite authors succinctly reminds us why companies sponsor events. This is the most important place to start when evaluating the ways you can help your sponsors to connect to your attendees.

Slides 6-13: How are you connecting sponsors today?
Do your current activation efforts help create a connection or start a conversation between sponsor and attendee, or are they merely “impression” based (e.g. lots of logos).

Slides 14-15: Virtual Event Bags
The Virtual Event Bags software platform was built to help event organizers efficiently deliver sponsor and exhibitor related content before during and after the event across multiple devices.

Slide 17: Tip #1 – Sponsor Visiblity Pre-Event
One of the most powerful connections a Conference can provide its sponsors is visibility to attendees before the event. This helps sponsors create awareness about the products or services prior to the chaos that is event day and brings value to attendees so they can quickly review those products and services of interest to them.

Slide 18: Tip #2 – Activate Non-Retail Sponsors
Financial & professional services companies, automotive dealers and service providers and healthcare companies are all examples of non-retail sponros that often are challenged to activate at an event. By combining their message with your other retail-oriented sponsors, you can help both sets of sponsors beyond what each could do on their own!

Slide 19: Tip #3 – Consider Your Vendors
Festivals often require the participation of a wide variety of vendors (e.g. food trucks, musicians, etc.) to drive the event’s success. To help these partners see success beyond the event, consider providing them aveneues to connect before and especially after the event, to help reinforce the connection made during the event.

Slide 20: Tip #4 – New Sponsor Opportunities
Think globally, act locally. A common phrase, but especially useful for events seeking new sponsor opportunities. You work hard to develop a valuable audience and with the right tools, you can make this audience available to local attractions, restaurants and services, which also enhances the attendee experience.

Slide 21: Tip #5 – Cross-Platform Exclusives
Everyone loves a discount. Working with sponsors to provide exclusive discounts to your attendees is a win-win-win. The biggest challenge is how to create, distribute and report on these promotional messages, so consider all three when selecting your program.

The End: Q&A – In Search of the “Silver Bullet”
We finished the webinar with several thought-provoking questions from attendees. The primary theme was focused on how to identify, attract and close new sponsors. That, my friends, is a topic of a new webinar, as there is no “silver bullet.” The “Big Idea” from the webinar … start with your sponsor’s objectives in mind, integrate the various methods you use to help them connect and get started!

Remember to extend the conversation to Twitter, sharing the things you’ve learned using the hashtag #connectsponsors.

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