How does your company choose what event or sponsorship to pursue? Do any of the following sound familiar?
It's what our boss likes.
It's what we have always done. Why change?
Our competitors are involved, so it should be good for us, right?
We are just not sure what is best, but we know we need to do something.
If this is how you have selected any of your current events or sponsorships, then it is time for a new approach; one that can actually deliver measurable results.
Back in August, I wrote an article about why event marketing might be a good solution for your products or company. I promised to talk about how to analyze potential events, motorsports or sponsorships to achieve your objectives and maximize your ROI. So here we go!
The 5 Steps to Choosing the Right Events
Step 1 – Develop business objectives
Don't do anything without having objectives. Objectives define the business need or goal to be achieved. If you don't have objectives, how can you determine what you need to do or how to get there? You can't, so don't even try.
Step 2 – Know your consumers
I know it sounds silly, but if you don't know what your consumers want or expect, how can you develop a program or marketing event for them? You are only successful when you find the "sweet spot" between your brand's business objectives and your target consumers' needs and expectations. When you find that common area, you have consumers who are "delighted."
Step 3 – Gather information
This is probably the hardest and longest part of the process. Here, you need to detail every possible event, sponsorship, motorsport or opportunity you are considering for participation. What do you need to collect? It will probably vary depending on your products or objectives. Within our JMGEventLogic Tool, we gather about 25 data points. Things like:
- Demographics
- Event/venue attendance
- All associated costs (display, sponsorship, product, travel, R & D)
- Competitor presence
- Brand Impressions (total, engaged, WOM)
- Anticipated media $ coverage
- Display capabilities
- CRM potential
- Dealer involvement
- Is it consistent with our business objectives?
Step 4 – Analyze
Now the fun begins. Your business priorities are likely different than any other business that would look at the same data. While you could choose to have all of the data points weighted the same, the likelihood is that some things are more important to you than others. So weight those with a greater value than the ones that are just nice to have.
This step will probably take several weeks and various rounds of prioritization with the rest of your sales and marketing team (you know what they say about opinions; however, once the work is done, it is easy to update and prioritize every opportunity that comes your way—big or small.
Step 5 – Secure your assets
Now that you have looked at all of the costs and benefits received, you can make sound, logical business decisions about what events, motorsports or sponsorships to pursue. I guarantee that you will find that some things you thought were a good deal no longer look so attractive. Other things that were not so high on your list just rose to the top.
You will even find that this method helps you to approach a possible sponsorship and feel that you are in the driver's seat for a change. No longer will you have to accept the assets being offered by the promoter because that is what he wants to provide you. You can now tell them "here" is the list of marketing tactics I must have to participate, and "this" is how much I am willing to pay for them based on the value they provide my company.
Much more of the negotiating power just shifted in your favor!
Has anyone else used similar or different tools to analyze Events or Sponsorships? I'd be interested in hearing from you.