Today every municipality in Canada is looking for additional revenue channels to help balance the budget. Corporate sponsorship is one of those channels. In fact in the corporate sponsorship industry (which is a $1.8 billion industry in Canada) municipalities are the fastest growing sector. More and more municipalities are seeking to develop and deliver a professional corporate sponsorship program as one of the additional revenue channels for bottom line funds!
The 2014 Consumer Sponsorship Rankings clearly illustrated the public’s desire for their cities and towns to “get in the game”. The study (of over 2000 Canadians coast to coast) showed that 66% of Canadians believe that their municipality should be generating additional revenue through corporate sponsorship. And when it came to local parks, 73% of Canadian felt this way. And an astounding 89% of Canadian consumers feel that companies should be able to sponsor public spaces like hockey rinks, ball parks and recreational and cultural facilities.
As we all search for such additional revenues like the $35M+ that Toronto generates or the additional $100,000 a small rural community may generate, these dollars are critical to balancing budgets. Each municipality has the opportunity to generate such revenue, they just need to make sure they undertake it properly and understand that such a sponsorship marketing venture is a business agreement and not a “philanthropic gift” to support the community. Those days are gone. Companies need to see a ROI on any such sponsorship investments.
To be successful, you need to understand what assets the municipality has for sale and what the real market value of those assets are. Then there needs to be a professional selling process with corporate sponsorship policy to back it up. And finally, the element we so often forget we need to ensure our municipalities deliver what we promise to sponsors and fulfil on all agreements. When all that is done professionally, the cash will flow to the coffers annually!
When will your municipality start to help balance the budget through corporate sponsorship windfalls? Or perhaps you don’t need the additional revenue?