In this episode, we explore the challenges of securing sponsors for conferences and creating effective sponsorship decks. The real questions behind these concerns are often related to revenue generation, convincing potential sponsors to invest, and maintaining valuable relationships while making sponsorship requests. 

We discuss the importance of leveraging pre-existing relationships and focusing on warm introductions, rather than relying solely on cold pitches. Having a compelling offer for potential sponsors is crucial, as well as ensuring that the event provides value for both the sponsors and the audience. Additionally, we emphasize the significance of targeting the right sponsors for your event, even if they may not be in the same industry.

We delve into the process of developing a successful sponsorship strategy by first determining the necessary financial support for an event, considering the balance between sponsor revenue and earned revenue. Recognizing what sponsors are seeking from your audience and how they can benefit from supporting your event is crucial. By offering value to sponsors without compromising the attendee experience, you can create a sponsorship strategy that leads to a compelling sponsorship deck and attracts the right sponsors. 

Timestamps and key takeaways

0:10:34 - Changes in Sponsor Relationships

0:20:44 - Maximizing Sponsor Value for Events

Changes in Sponsor Relationships

00:10:07

Nessa Jimenez: And when we talk about offerings, I wanna say in the last five years we've seen how the sponsor relationships and the sponsor needs have changed a lot. And this is where we get into needing a certain specialized knowledge. But I think it's something that I've learned just from doing it. A lot of the time I end up having a lot of communication with our sponsors. And it's understanding what they need, what they want. And how can I serve that need and that want  for that sponsor, but at the same time giving my audience  something of value. So  the offering is essential. If you have no idea what you're gonna even offer them, you should not be asking for money.

00:11:01

Isaac Watson: Yeah. And you certainly don't want to sacrifice the attendee experience at the expense of a good sponsor experience either, right? Because then that puts the attendees and the sponsors at odds with each other and the attendees at odds with you as the organizer. I think the other underlying issue  is not either not knowing how to or not choosing to solicit the correct sponsors. For your event. It's one thing to look around and say you're organizing a conference in a particular sector, and so you look at some other conferences doing similar work, and you look at their sponsor list and you're like, Oh,  they  so and so and so sponsored this conference.

00:11:39

I'm gonna go after them too. Are those actually the right sponsors    to come after your event? Are there better choices? your particular  offering and goals? Is there a smarter way that you can partner with different companies, like maybe your  going after a lot of smaller dollar amounts as opposed to a couple big headline amounts? There are many different ways that you can approach your sponsorship strategy. And leverage that to target the correct types of sponsors  that will both serve your attendees goals, and also be more willing to commit funds to supporting your event.

Maximizing Sponsor Value for Events

00:19:31

Isaac Watson: Okay, so let's recap a little bit. The core questions that we get asked around sponsorship are, how do I get sponsors for my conference and how do I make a sponsorship deck for an event? The underlying questions that feed into  this is how am I actually gonna pay for all of this? How do I convince strangers to give me a lot of money? How do I even ask them to give me a lot of money? How do I know which strangers to ask? How do I find them? How do I do so from a cold pitch perspective? We can avoid that line of questioning by  first identifying how much sponsorship money you actually need to support the event and where the balance is between sponsor revenue and  earned revenue ticket revenue.

00:20:19

By understanding what sponsors actually want from your audience, their goals, who they serve, their own business needs. Then how you can then offer value to the sponsors. Offer that support in a way that doesn't come at the expense of the attendee experience, but that adds to it, that enhances that attendee experience. If you can do that, if you can identify those things up front, that will help you craft a sponsorship strategy that will then inform the creation of a good sponsored deck,  that will then help you solicit  the right kinds of asks from the right sponsors. And I will add that it is a lot about knowing what existing relationships you have and how they can help facilitate talking to sponsors or potential sponsors. That will help you avoid needing to cold pitch, cold email, send  inquiries to those generic info emails or sponsor ad emails and actually get the right people looking at your materials and considering  supporting your event.

Transcript

00:00:13 

Isaac Watson: How do you as a leader of a growing community, Truly make a conference or event that has impact, a gathering with purpose and an attendee experience that knocks their socks off. An event that leaves your audience in awe and wondering where you've been their whole life, Make It Kick Ass is the podcast that explores these questions by uncovering the strategies, tactics and tools that we use every day to bring our clients' conferences to life. I'm Isaac Watson, executive producer of Kickass Conferences, and we are here to help you make it kick ass.

00:00:51

Welcome back everyone for another episode of Make It Kickass. I am executive producer at Kickass Conferences Isaac Watson, and with me as always, dependable, reliable, amazing. Nessa Jimenez, operations Manager.

00:01:06

Nessa Jimenez: Hi everybody, welcome back.

00:01:08

Isaac Watson: I'm just gonna try and come up with a new, -hilarious intro for you. They're not hilarious, they're dumb, but   somehow I will convey how much I value the work you do.

00:01:18

Nessa Jimenez: I love them, so that's what matters.

00:01:20

Isaac Watson: Alright  if you are fresh into joining us for this season, We are changing up the format a little bit from what we did in season one. This season is focused on ask, answering those  frequently asked questions from people we talk to about the work that we do  whether they are clients or people interested in our services, or people who just find out that we organize events. These questions inevitably come up  but what we've learned over the years is that  the question that gets asked is not necessarily the question.

00:01:51

That they're really asking. So in each episode, we are teasing out one of these questions and digging into  what they really mean, what's maybe some of the underlying concerns or problems are leading to these questions and how  we can reframe or think about things a little bit differently  to offer solutions for that. On that note, today's question  is actually a twofer. It's two questions that often come hand in hand. And as we were  diving into  planning out this episode, we thought that it made sense to just tackle both at once because the underlying questions and issues.

00:02:30

Behind them are    the same. First part of the question is how do I get sponsors for my conference? And the second part of the question is  how do I make a sponsorship deck for an event so that I can get those sponsors right? So this episode's gonna be a bit about sponsorship  which is a hot topic for a lot of people. It is also an ever-changing situation  but hopefully we can offer a little clarity around this. Let's start by figuring out what people actually mean when they ask how they get sponsors for their conference, or how do they make a sponsorship deck? Nessa, why don't you  spill some tea on what    is the real question behind it all.

00:03:13

Nessa Jimenez: right.So when we sit down with a new client and start having these conversations about sponsorships, what they're actually asking is, How am I gonna pay for all this? How do I generate revenue from this event? I've been to conferences and I see logos on the conference website and I know that logos means that somebody paid for that. So I wanna do that cuz I need money , so let's try to do that. like they come to understand that sponsorship's a thing, but they don't really understand beyond, Okay, they put the logo on the page right.

00:03:53

So that's the first one, right? I've seen this in other conferences. I know that there's some money involved in this, so I think  that'll help me and I want to do that, right? But I don't know how or how to start. The second one is how do I convince strangers to give me a lot of money? Because maybe they understand how sponsorships work. Someone who's a little bit  deeper into the event world, conference world, right? They just don't know, like how do you do it? Like I know it happens, but how does that conversation, how do I even start that conversation? How do I go up to  a big old company and say, Can I have $10,000 please? Like it is, It's a big ask and they feel like I have to ask a stranger for money.

00:04:40

And related to that,  like the Part B is how do I ask these strangers to give me a lot of money? So it's  the logistical of  what does that email look like? Or what does that call look like? And then it's the strategy behind what I need to do? What can I give them? What do I have to do to make that money come my way? 

00:05:21

Isaac Watson: And I will add that I think that some of this  line of questioning and this reasoning comes from the desire to. Leverage sponsorship revenue to decrease the amount of ticket revenue you might need from the audience. And so  it's  a little bit of a give and take in trying to  tease out how I. Get people to essentially subsidize my attendees to attend because I don't wanna charge the attendees anymore than I have to.

00:05:39

Nessa Jimenez: Correct. And this could be the case of an event where they know they want it to be free. So sponsorship money would literally be the only revenue coming in. Or a host who understands their audience and they understand that the ticket cost that their audience can afford is really not going to be enough to cover everything they wanna do. So that sponsorship dollars can really help complete  the whole budget package.

00:06:09

Nessa Jimenez: So now that we know what they're actually asking, right?So it's this world of  I get that this is a thing I wanna do, but I don't actually know what's up. What is the actual problems that we tend to encounter with these kinds of questions?

00:06:23

Isaac Watson: I think  one of them goes like this: how do I convince strangers to give me a lot of money? The actual problem under that is, is not having or knowing how to utilize pre existing relationships.

00:06:37

Nessa Jimenez: Correct. With  this notion  that it's all essentially cold call to emailing.

00:06:44

Isaac Watson: And that  they don't know you from anybody else in the world. And here you are asking for $10k, $50K, $2,500. It doesn't really matter how much the amount is. It's about this kind of Fear of the cold pitch. And  so if you don't  if you aren't  I don't wanna use the word leveraging  if you are not  leaning into the preexisting relationships that you have for your sponsorship asks, then it's gonna make that process a lot harder now. Some people might counter and say  but I don't wanna, I don't wanna destroy the relationships I have by asking for money. And that's not necessarily what you need to do. Your preexisting relationships are not just like  your, the people in your network are not wallets. That you get to raid, right?

00:07:40

These are relationships that you have.They could be people who can introduce you to others. They could be people who are willing to support  your event from a marketing perspective. And some of them may be  financial contributors. But it's really about that, like not understanding who your existing relationships are and what  value they can bring to what you're doing. That can  cause  that issue of feeling like you need  to go after strangers all the time.

00:08:11

Nessa Jimenez: That's a misconception. This idea of  it's literally like a cold pitch, cold call email, and then something happens and I get money. Like the vast majority of the time  wanna say  gosh. With the clients we've worked with, I wanna say like 80% at least, of the sponsors that they get, it's from  people they already know. Somebody who. Someone who they know works at a company and that person connected us with the sponsorship    or the marketing department. And it went from there. Like the vast majority  of sponsor relationships  comes from people that the client already knows and they maybe didn't realize  Oh yeah, that person could totally help me connect It's not a big ask to. To ask someone that you know, Hey, do you know someone in your company who is from this department that could help me?

00:09:05

Isaac Watson: Yeah. I think another one of the underlying problems that gives rise to these questions is not building or not having confidence in a compelling offer, right? Not having substance    from a benefit standpoint or from a value standpoint to offer potential sponsors that would get them to make that decision to commit. And if you don't have, if you're not thinking about your event in that context that's gonna make it really hard to then. Do any kind of ask, whether it's a warm intro or  someone you already have a relationship with. It makes that kind of disingenuous  because you haven't really thought through  what you're offering. And that goes for what you're offering to your audience too, right? Sponsors wanna support something that's going to benefit the audience. Cuz usually the audience is who they're trying to build a relationship with. And if you haven't really thought those pieces through, that's gonna make that a lot more challenging to deliver.

00:10:07

Nessa Jimenez: And when we talk about offerings, I wanna say in the last five years we've seen how the sponsor relationships and the sponsor needs have changed a lot. And this is where we get into needing a certain specialized knowledge. But I think it's something that I've learned just from doing it. A lot of the time I end up having a lot of communication with our sponsors. And it's understanding what they need, what they want. And how can I serve that need and that want  for that sponsor, but at the same time giving my audience  something of value. So  the offering is essential. If you have no idea what you're gonna even offer them, you should not be asking for money

00:11:01

Isaac Watson: Yeah. And you certainly don't want to sacrifice the attendee experience at the expense of a good sponsor experience either, right? Because then that puts the attendees and the sponsors at odds with each other and the attendees at odds with you as the organizer. I think the other underlying issue  is not either not knowing how to or not choosing to solicit the correct sponsors. For your event. It's one thing to look around say you're organizing a conference in a particular sector, and so you look at some other conferences doing similar work, and you look at their sponsor list and you're like, Oh,  they  so and so and so sponsored this conference.

00:11:39

I'm gonna go after them too. Are those actually the right sponsors    to come after your event? Are there better choices? your particular  offering and goals? Is there a smarter way that you can partner with different companies, like maybe your  going after a lot of smaller dollar amounts as opposed to a couple big headline amounts? There are many different ways that you can approach your sponsorship strategy. And leverage that to target the correct types of sponsors  that will both serve your attendees goals, and also be more willing to commit funds to supporting your event.

00:12:20

Nessa Jimenez: and there is a bit of an art to it as well because we talk about the right sponsors, but it isn't    stereotypical like, Oh, it's a tech conference, so I can only have tech companies that sponsors. It's  no. There's plenty of creative ways. Companies that aren't tech companies, but they want to talk to that audience    so picking the right sponsors doesn't mean they have to be in the same industry as your event. It means the audience. Is the right audience for whatever the product, whatever the company is.

00:13:01

Isaac Watson: So let's talk about some of the solutions. So as we work with our clients principally through the event lab  process, and then as we dig into  deeper production  process with them  we start to  we think about. First of all  how much sponsorship money do you need? If you don't know how much you're targeting and what your goal is  it's really hard to break that down, especially when it comes to putting together a deck. Right and even using that information to target  the different. Potential sponsors for what kind of amounts you're asking for. A massive Fortune 100 company is gonna have a different kind of sponsorship budget approach than  a small studio  or a small business that has more limited funding. And to that extent  you need to understand what your sponsors want, and that's where this evolution is happening the fastest.

00:14:02

Because we have seen sponsor priorities changing dramatically. Dramatically, yes. In the past few years, largely in response to the pandemic  and the kind of the economic  volatility that's come out of that. But  even if we think  Pre 2020  where we were doing 100% in person events that sponsor  Sponsor goal and sponsor desire and like the types of things that they would wanna sponsor has changed dramatically. So it's gone from everything from     we wanna do experience  we want to We wanna sponsor the party. We'll just bankroll this, right? And  so you organize it we'll bank roll it to  we wanna set up  a fancy  we don't like booze anymore. We wanna do like a branded experience in a space. And      we, as we've  seen this happen, it  very early on, it occurred to me that there are three key reasons why someone wants to sponsor.

00:15:05,016 --> 00:15:09,306

There's just plain old marketing for their product or service. There's Thought leadership, which is  and dovetailed with that would be community support. And then there's recruit. Talent attraction  finding people to work  and this kind of like varies depending on what industry you're in  and what space  you're working in,  where your community falls. But what we've seen over the past couple of years is that recruitment has taken. The lead as the number one reason why companies want to sponsor an event. And this comes out of the quote unquote great resignation. This massive shift  that the pandemic induced from office work to remote  work from home flex. Like  how are we creating a good work environment for people?

255

00:16:00,138 --> 00:16:04,807

And    a lot of companies, especially in the tech space, in the design space, are putting a lot of effort into recruiting at events. And  it's not like active recruiting, like filling immediate roles. This is  What they call talent attraction, right? Like making their workspace attractive to people over a longer term, and that changes the way that they wanna show up and what they want to contribute to that. So just having a really clear idea of who your target sponsors are and what they want is gonna help you  target the right people.

263

00:16:36,811 --> 00:16:40,201

Nessa Jimenez: All they wanted a few years ago was to get, and I'm talking about tech and design mostly a couple years ago, all they wanted to do was get their product in people's hands, right? Getting in them on the demos, trying to sell them, and now, Everybody just wants to do that talent attraction. That is all they care about. They want to know is the audience, people who might be looking for work or people we could talk to  to create those relationships for the future. It's really fascinating how quickly it has shifted and it will shift because I, it's just people can't hire forever. I wonder what the next shift will be.

00:17:13

But pulling back and generally speaking like. I remember when sponsorships and this as an attendee, I remember when sponsorships was just like a bunch of branded plastic crap in a bag. That's what sponsors wanted to do. Because that was the thing. It gets your logo and people's faces. And now it's, you've got people sponsoring experiences, you've got them doing. Sponsoring a coffee bar sponsoring self care things, it's, it really has shifted and it needs attention. We have to pay attention to these trends and

00:17:50

Isaac Watson: things. Yeah. So coming out of that  knowing how much money you need, knowing what sponsors are targeting  and why they want to show. that support your event  you then need to understand what you have to offer them that will help them achieve that. How are you crafting your programming in a way  that supports that without sacrificing the attendee experience? And that helps you craft A deck that will speak to them and say, Look  we understand you. We know why you wanna show up. Or at least if we don't know, we know that these are the different ways you can show up. And so we've made space for that to happen and then here's how we're prepared to recognize that.

00:18:31

And having that kind of baseline understanding is going to support even if you do end up cold calling. Or cold emailing. That's gonna support the sponsorship effort way more because a sponsor's gonna review that deck and go, Oh yeah, this fits. This is, here's our priority, this is what we're looking at. They'll look at their budget and they'll say, Yeah  we wanna show up here, or let's find some way to, to work in between these two tiers. Or I have an idea like, what if we did something like this instead of x?

00:19:06

And then it becomes much more of a collaboration than it does a sales process  where you are working with a sponsor to develop something  that's special and that speaks both to their strengths to yours as an organizer and serves the audience's goals.

00:19:23

Nessa Jimenez: And it adds to the event and makes the event better. It makes the sponsor experience at the event better. Everybody walks away happy.

00:19:31

Isaac Watson: Okay, so let's recap a little bit. The core questions that we get asked around sponsorship are, how do I get sponsors for my conference and how do I make a sponsorship deck for an event? The underlying questions that feed into  this is how am I actually gonna pay for all of this? How do I convince strangers to give me a lot of money? How do I even ask them to give me a lot of money? How do I know which strangers to ask? How do I find them? How do I do so from a cold pitch perspective? We can avoid that line of questioning by  first identifying how much sponsorship money you actually need to support the event and where the balance is between sponsor revenue and  earned revenue ticket revenue.

00:20:19

By understanding what sponsors actually want from your audience, their goals, who they serve, their own business needs. Then how you can then offer value to the sponsors. Offer that support in a way that doesn't come at the expense of the attendee experience, but that adds to it, that enhances that attendee experience. If you can do that, if you can identify those things up front, that will help you craft a sponsorship strategy that will then inform the creation of a good sponsored deck,  that will then help you solicit  the right kinds of asks from the right sponsors. And I will add that it is a lot about knowing what existing relationships you have and how they can help facilitate talking to sponsors or potential sponsors. That will help you avoid needing to cold pitch, cold email, send  inquiries to those generic info emails or sponsor ad emails and actually get the right people looking at your materials and considering  supporting your event.

00:21:39

Nessa Jimenez: All right, so thanks for listening to Make it Kick Ass. We hope our dive into sponsorship land has got your gears turning with new amazing sponsorship ideas. And if you want to explore this topic more, then go to geteventlab.com and there you can get a free copy of the questionnaire we use with our clients to help them find the best sponsorship strategy for them. That's geteventlab.com and I will see you in the next episode.