Activation: the on-site presence using Experiential Marketing at an event. Activation is known to be one of the key success factors in sponsorship management.
Assets: items offered to a sponsor within a sponsorship agreement.
Audience: a group of people a brand is attempting to reach through sponsorship. Examples include fans at a game, attendees at a festival, etc.
Brand: a product or business that has a distinct identity from the perspective of customers. The brand is created through elements of design, packaging, and advertising that, as a whole, distinguish the product from its competitors. Brands may be interested in incorporating sponsorship partnerships into their marketing strategy.
Cause sponsorship: allows a brand to stand out from the competition by aligning with a meaningful cause.
Experiential Marketing: a way for brands to connect with customers through experiences. They're often held in-person, and/or include digital components, and are an effective way for brands to create unique and memorable moments for an audience.
In-kind Sponsorship: type of sponsorship where a brand agrees to sponsor an event or initiative by providing goods and/or services (value-in-kind) rather than cash as part of a sponsorship agreement.
Pitch: usually accompanied with visual aids such as a short video and/or slides, the pitch is done early on in the relationship and should be brief, high-level, and cover key points a sponsor would be interested in. It is not typically recommended to go into much detail at this point, such as discussing activation logistics and pricing.
Property (or Rights Holder): an organization which a sponsor aligns itself with as part of its marketing efforts. Some examples include sports teams, music festivals, and causes/non-profits.
Proposal: a formal offer from a property to a potential sponsor. Typically this is sent after a brand and property have established a relationship. The document includes more details about how a sponsorship could work. It could include more details about the opportunity, audience, options for how the property will activate the sponsorship, pricing, and the team with whom the sponsor would be working with at the property.
ROI: return on investment is a performance measure used to evaluate the efficiency or profitability of an investment. ROI tries to directly measure the amount of return on a particular sponsorship investment, relative to the cost. There are many ideas related to estimating ROI, and different activations call for different methods. Technology has enabled more accurate measurement of ROI especially from digital activation, however measuring sponsorship ROI is not an exact science due to hard-to-measure and qualitative factors like fan loyalty.
Sponsor: a brand that aligns itself with a property in exchange for money, goods, and/or services.
Sponsorship: when a brand aligns with a property and pays money, goods, and/or services in order to reach their audience through an experience the property manages. Sponsorships are generally recognized as a more effective marketing tool than advertising alone.
Vendor: a business which serves to help activate a sponsorship. Examples include creative agencies, sign print shops, etc.