Jackie Fast questions whether sponsorship is getting lost in translation

"Confusion is restricting sponsorship’s potential"

Everyone seems to be working in sponsorship nowadays. Perhaps it is because sponsorship growth continues to outpace advertising and sales promotion, or because the Olympics have generated more interest amongst marketing agencies, or simply because it’s finally been able to prove its worth. The interesting thing is that sponsorship exists all around us and yet many people have a hard time defining it. Even industry gurus rarely seem to agree and, more often than not, vehemently disagree with journalists who write on the subject matter.

Why sponsorship is not reaching its true potential

Unlike the comms thought leaders David Ogilvy and Sir Martin Sorrell, sponsorship doesn’t have a ‘brand ambassador’. No one individual or single agency champions sponsorship best practice and ideas.

This lack stems from the way sponsorship is currently set up. There are no specific skill sets, no specific boundaries for those in the industry. Professionals in sponsorship can work in rights sales, data, digital, media, communications, evaluation, strategy, measurement, creative, and everything in between.

Whilst this is a good thing because sponsorship integrates all these, it also restricts the industry’s true potential by causing confusion to those looking to get involved and invest resource. Specialist PR firms, media buying agencies, sponsorship sales agencies, marketing agencies and even event promoters claim expertise in sponsorship. This presents the illusion that effective delivery is not a specialist skill.

Logos are not enough

A further inherent issue with defining sponsorship is that many properties laud intangible assets. Measuring ‘goodwill’ and ‘brand association’ is near-impossible. As such, the industry has over-emphasised tangible benefits which lend themselves to advertising. Where logos are positioned, how often, and what the message is, has been a focus because that was the only (and perhaps easiest) way to prove value for multi-faceted sponsorship opportunities. This model is slowly changing with advanced measurement capabilities and analytics which prove what many of us already knew – that effective sponsorship campaigns can far exceed the ROI achieved on advertising alone. By combining resources, creating partnerships, and working together, sponsorship is better received and becomes a more effective way of communicating messages.

The future of sponsorship

Sponsorship is more than branding alone and as an industry, it is only just beginning to truly prove its merits. Through more effective measurement and the introduction of new marketing mediums, sponsorship has grown exponentially from where its traditional roots were planted. Perhaps that is why it is so difficult to define.

It is not, unlike what many of the Wikipedia definitions described it as, advertising. And sponsorship needs to move away from its traditions of value through this form of media purchase and into where it truly makes a difference – finding the insight between organisations and brands, understanding business synergies, and creating something that resonates deeper than traditional forms of marketing.

But at its core, sponsorship is marketing. Its credibility of it as a platform seems to be discredited through poor definitions and hugely varied agency propositions.

Perhaps the industry needs to work harder on collectively championing the core benefits of modern day sponsorship.

Or maybe it just needs another Sorrell.

Jackie Fast is the managing director of Slingshot Sponsorship and a member of Media Week’s 30 under 30. You can find her on Twitter JackieFast