Best practice in sponsorship - event by PRINZ
By Shashank Bharadwaj (AUT Student and PRINZ member)
The growing influence of sponsorship in the marketing mix today has more to it than just promotion and sales. Increasingly companies in New Zealand are starting to realise the need for sponsorship in pursuit of specific objectives related to reputation and goodwill.
The world market for sponsorship today stands at US $26.3 billion which is set to grow at a blistering pace in the years to come. But, the fallout of the recent financial downturn has meant increased competition for every dollar along with the number of companies wanting a piece of it.
What does this scenario hold for companies in New Zealand and how are companies leveraging their sponsorship to meet their strategic objectives?
The Public Relations Institute of New Zealand’s recent panel discussion on sponsorship was an attempt towards unravelling the challenges, pitfalls and also learning from companies that have successfully leveraged their sponsorship to meet their objectives.
The event ran to a full house with practitioners from all areas of PR and Communications wanting to understand this increasingly complex space.
The panel featured industry doyens Sue McGregor - Head of Sponsorship - ANZ National, Brad Clark from CanTeen, Ross Halpin – Consultant, and Paul Dunphy from the Auckland City Council.
Paul Dunphy believes that City Council’s sponsorship of a range of activities including the Air New Zealand Fashion Week, Diwali Festival, The Comedy Festival, are not only an attempt to get them off the ground, but have proved very effective in striking an emotional bond and increasing its reputation in the community.
Dunphy also stressed that a lot of companies now come to the council because other sectors have cut down on sponsorships.
Brad Clark from CanTeen was of the opinion that the consumer driven “cause related marketing” is one of the critical factors that is steering companies towards an association with organisations like CanTeen. The ‘feel-good’ factor brought in by sponsoring CanTeen’s activities is how the sponsees measure their sponsorship of CanTeen.
Ross Halpin suggested that New Zealand companies need to move away from the typical ‘hand-to-mouth’ mentality on sponsorships and start to look at long term strategies of building properties and investing in infrastructure that will continually generate revenues over a long period of time.
Sue McGregor emphasised that ANZ National’s entire marketing mix is being drawn into one discipline with sponsorship gaining more ground and becoming central to all their marketing functions.
Not one to be left out of the ‘feel-good’ factor of ‘cause related marketing’, PRINZ donated proceeds from the event went towards the Samoa Tsunami relief fund.
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