Making Sponsorship Work for the Audience and the Sponsor

Making Sponsorship Work for the Audience and the Sponsor

Too often, sponsorship is forced. It looks awkward. The sponsor just doesn’t fit. They stand out like a sore thumb. Sometimes, that is because the sponsor wouldn’t budge and wanted to “do it their way,” even though it was not aesthetically pleasing to the audience base or the theme of the property. Sometimes the fault lies with the property. Either way, we see this scenario too often.

I also too often see properties not working with their sponsors from a truly creative and innovative perspective. It is about “closing the business” and then “hanging a banner” (yes, this still happens). There are still properties that are not focused on the relationship. Instead, they are focused on the close and the sale. This is wrong and can be detrimental over the long term. For a sponsorship to work for the trinity of sponsorship (the audience, sponsor and property), it must be innovative, creative, and engaging. That means that, as a sponsorship solutions provider (salesperson), you need to make sure there is a “fit.” There has to be alignment.

Recently, I was chatting with Ross Petty of Petty Productions, a producer of Canadian live theatre. Ross gets it! It was so great to chat with him about his productions over the years, and how he has worked with sponsors and prospects to custom build programs for them. He looks for alignment. He looks for delivering results. This type of leadership and creativity is what traditional arts organizations need to practice. For that matter, the same goes for most properties… sport to charities, municipalities to festivals!

Ross produces incredible Christmas family theatre productions at the historic Elgin Theatre in downtown Toronto. They are amazing, but to me they are more than just productions. The way Ross integrates sponsors and is creative with the production from a sponsor perspective is an “art” of its own. Check out Erika Ehm’s ehm & Co website for a review of Ross’s shows from a marketing and branding perspective. Absolutely terrific!

This year Ross Petty Productions will be producing Sleeping Beauty, so Ross went to speak to Christine McGee of Sleep Country fame to talk sponsorship. What a perfect match! And yes, Sleep County is on board as a sponsor, the brand is a “fit” and fully integrated. As Ross said, “I want to bend over backward for my sponsors. They’ve made this all possible for the past 21 years.!”

From the brand side in the arts and live stage productions, Ross has it right! This is so great to see. If I were a brand in Toronto, I would be looking to these productions as part of my portfolio.

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