Sponsorship-Linked Marketing (SLM)

Sponsorship-Linked Marketing (SLM)

• SLM involves orchestrating and implementing marketing activities to build and communicate an association with a sponsorship.
• Key activities include leveraging, activation, and articulation.
• SLM cannot exist independently and requires integration with PR, advertising, and personal selling.
• Collateral marketing communicates the sponsorship partnership through an integrated marketing approach.
• Consistency across marketing media and promotional tools is essential, complemented by a diversity of objectives.
• "The golden rule in sponsorship" states that for every dollar spent, another dollar should be spent on promotion.

Leveraging and Activation

• Leveraging involves activities to develop the marketing potential of the association between a sponsee and sponsor through all marketing communications activities.
• Activation promotes audience engagement, involvement, or participation with the sponsor.
• Non-activational communications promote sponsorship associations, but may be passively processed by the audience: examples being on-site signage or standard advertising.
• Leveraged activation integrates activational and non-activational sponsorship communication, often with uni-directional communication but aiming for brand interaction and advocacy.
• New media integration enhances engagement and accessibility.

Managing Sponsorship Relationships

• Relationship management is crucial for sponsorship success and begins before the partnership.
• Successful partnerships mutually benefit both partners by increasing market share, presence, and potential.
• Key components include trust, commitment, mutual understanding, communication, and cooperation, all supported by the rights holder servicing the sponsor.

Servicing Sponsors' Needs

• Servicing involves providing the resources and assistance needed to meet the sponsorship contract stipulations.
• An active management role assists the sponsors, in achieving objectives and attaining value.
• Fulfilling the inventory that was promised; providing access to marketing media and activation opportunities.
• Managing the approvals process includes vetting sponsor initiatives and considering logistics, legality, image rights, and partnerships, all while avoiding partner conflict.
• Creating synergies between sponsors is increasingly important; sports properties play a key role in creating promotional and network opportunities among partners.
• Commercial rights management includes monitoring and maintaining exclusivity, protecting intellectual property, and mitigating ambush marketing.

Evaluation

• Evaluation is necessary in determining whether sponsor and sponsee objectives have been met.
• Access to data, such as viewing figures, attendance, and consumer reach, is integral, especially for consumer-focused sponsorships.
• Understanding what data is relevant, required, and available is crucial to facilitating sponsor success and maximizing value.
• Limitations in organizational capacity, experience, expertise, and resources can impact evaluation.
• Communication, metrics, marketing opportunities, and obligations must be shared.
• Constant evaluation, integration, and collaboration are needed but underservicing and lack of management from rights holders is a top concern for sponsors.

Group Project 2: Active Management Plan

• Design 2-3 SLM activities tied to the objectives, audiences, and assets identified, explaining the management implications and practical realities.
• Identify how the sponsorship will benefit both parties, leaving no questions unanswered.
• SLM activities should include clear objectives and target audiences; accounting for costs, potential evaluation metrics, and asset use.
• Use the SMART framework (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-bound).
• Be specific, identifiable, and quantifiable in determining sponsorship audiences.
• Tailor specific marketing activities to specific markets.

Marketing Channels/Media (POEM)

• Paid Media (P): Marketing on/via channels that must be rented or bought
• Owned Media (O): Communications on brand-controlled media
• Earned Media (E): Word-of-mouth communications driven by consumer audiences

Sponsorship Measurement

• The measurement of performance against objectives and inventory of assets.
• Objective-setting and data analytics planning enable better sponsorship design.
• Statistical modeling projects value and potential returns.
• Rights holders are often ineffective in data collection and sharing, which can be challenging due to the variability of sponsor objectives and the complexity of analytics.

Overcoming Data Deficits

• Determining which metrics, data, and analytics are valuable (and for whom) as well as avoiding wrong tools or uses.
• Statistics should be applied with context, and data should reflect sponsor objectives beyond just awareness metrics.
• Subjective objectives need bespoke measures.

Common Measures

• Return on Investment (profitability ratio) calculates profit relative to investment cost but can be imprecise.
• Return on Opportunity evaluates potential returns vs. resource costs in selection/decision-making and Return on Objectives measures subjective goals with applicable measures.
• Evaluation metrics should align with desired outcomes and objectives, selecting metrics based on applicability, resource and data availability.

Facing Forward

• For sponsors, metrics and analytics allow for pre-, current, and post-partnership evaluation and amendment.
• For properties, it aids in the retention/renewal of partner products.
• Subjectivity vs. Objectivity: Metrics must suit sponsorship objectives

Inappropriate measures

• Measures awareness of sponsorship but can be biased and may not imply effect, attitude change, or purchase intent.
• Media Exposure Analysis: Measures publicity, not effects, and lacks credibility.
• Sponsees need various forms of support, and will need some approvals

Sponsee Metrics

• Metrics for sponsees should identify; evaluation of sponsorship integrative, ongoing, multifaceted, partner-reliant
• Key is knowing the sponsors needs for relevant data for sponsors, and it's timely provision
• Hilton Example included KPIs, but also sought alternative media reviews and partnerships during analysis

Sponsorship Networks

• Sponsorship involves a series of interactions and inter-relationships, requiring an expanded view with internal and external networks being highly influential.
• PARTNERMIX involves the strategic development of sponsorship networks within sponsor portfolios to forward strategic goals through shared traits and objectives.
• Commercial strategy is viable through sponsorship networks through the creation of shared enterprises; brand image benefits can be achieved through aligning with multiple properties.
• Effective network creation improves trust, commitment, and B2B opportunities.

Sponsorship as Networks

• Ryan & Fahy (2012) highlight the opportunity for parties to grow, share, and leverage new resources through collaboration, which facilities inter-business integration.
• True sponsorship dyads are rare; marketing inefficiencies require outside engagement.
• Contributory brand effects occur when a sponsorship exists in collaboration vs. isolation, each offering differing opportunities

Role of the Sponsorship Agent

• Intermediary roles: including event creation, contract negotiation, SLM execution, and evaluation
• Outsourcing drivers: time, personnel, and expertise
• Relationship management requires defined roles and responsibilities, contracts, evaluation, communication, commitment, and trust.

Nurture Digital x Nike Training Club

• Nurture Digital addressed the challenge of reaching and connecting with consumers in the weeks leading up to high-profile training events.
• Nurture Digital assumed roles in strategy, creative development, and production.
• Some costs incurred include project fees, expenses, and commissions.
• Potential conflicts of interest require monitoring, transparency, and accountability.
• Sponsorship relations are complex and require significant management.

Why Sponsorships Fail and End

• Common reasons include strategic non-renewal, renegotiation, unilateral cancellation, mutually agreed dissolution, or regulatory change.
• Jensen & Cornwell (2017) identify three potential core areas of concern: dyadic (relational) factors, property-related factors, and customer-related factors.

Relational Factors

• Influences include economic conditions and challenges with agency theory.
• Insufficient value creation; network/audience saturation, failure to achieve objectives, lack of internal integration within sponsor.
• Lack of integration.

Property-Related Factors

• Sellers focus on factors that fit within two categories: external interference and property attractiveness.
• Revised marketing objectives, audiences; or re-determination of value.

Sponsee Focused Factors

• Imbalance between partners or the financial and economic needs not being met.
• Partner success depends on the success the partnership in achieving sponsorship objectives by addressing potential barriers such as competition, inefficiency, and market factors.

Customer-Related Factors

• Customer factors that could influence the duration of such relationships are the stability of firm leadership, congruence of the firm, and brand equity.
• Partner imbalance, changing directives, and directors.

Understanding Dissolution

• Dynamic in nature and involve a myriad of forces reflecting dyadic, seller-related, and customer-related perspectives.
• Partnership success depends on trust and commitment; transgressions impact partnership.
• Macro-level environment changes driven by PESTELE (Political, Economic, Social, Technological, Environmental, Legal, Ethical) , may affect partnership.
• Dissolutions are dependent on many things whether it be the strategy, investment, articulation and evaluation.

Facing Forward

• Authenticity in sport sponsorship requires partner-oriented objectives, continuity, credibility, integrity, and symbolism.
• Implement sponsorships with the view to communicate value, enrich partnership, and connect with audiences.
• Evaluate based on authentic engagement, consider the drivers of attachment, loyalty, and passion.
• Tell brand stories that matter, connect, and share, and rethink value.

Strategic Outlook

• Media, message, objectives, and delivery should be managed strategically.
• Build relationships based on benefit, opportunity, commitment, and all-encompassing integration.

Exam Prep

• Sponsorship Integration: Internal collaboration, communication, legal compliance, and staffing across sponsors and sponsees.
• Relationship Management: Active sponsee management, commercial rights protection, and limitations with trust, commitment, and communication
• Metrics and Evaluation: Awareness of data deficits, and bringing all these aspects together, the data that is useful and where to find said data
• Networks: Network view, not dyadic. Agencies, consultants, negotiations, prospecting, evaluations
• Dissolution: Relational, customer, property risks, and environmental challenges within the partnership. Managing these allow or mitigate challenges
• Facing Forward: Legitimacy, what looks to be the partnership. Do they need help, will there continue to be benefit