When you are working with miniscule marketing budgets, securing sponsorship is absolutely critical to the overall success of most promotions. The secret is to ensure that any sponsor ‘investing’ in a bigger picture project achieves a cost effective return. That cannot be done without a careful evaluation of potential linkages and mutual benefits.
Quoting from a well known business publication, ‘Sponsorship should not be confused with advertising. Advertising is considered a quantitative medium, whereas sponsorship is considered a qualitative medium’. Beneficial partnerships can add tremendous value and credibility, especially if increased sales and market share can be directly measured to the strategic alliance. It also makes it far more likely that the sponsor would be willing to support future ventures.
There are many creative ways that the process can be enhanced. For instance with our current dine-around initiative we persuaded a major distributor to offer a range of wines at a special rate to our restaurants partners, allowing a greater net return for the individual establishments and growing the suppliers market share. Other sponsors have a monthly option of offering one or more of their products at reduced prices.
Another one is a financial institution and by selecting a particular method of payment, the consumer earns extra airline miles or points, while the bank offsets involvement costs with increased merchandising fees. Generally it’s a win-win situation for all participating parties. It is however very important not to even hint of a promise that a collaboration could produce anymore than a realistic return on investment.
Take the bank as an example. Just one hundred people electing to use their branded credit card at one of the 22 dining establishments covers the cost of the sponsorship and that’s an achievable reality during a couple of nights. Therefore if you can cover the actual expense, every other benefit that is generated in the wake, like increased visibility, brand awareness and savings created by higher volume is a bonus, at little or no extra cost. It is no coincidence that some of the most successful companies are frequent sponsors, learning over the years to be selective and discerning.
Until the Barbados Tourism Marketing Inc., finds its feet and effectively implements new initiatives which will hopefully drive additional long stay arrival numbers, the private sector must step up, if we are to see any short to medium term recovery. 2013 ended with the lowest number of stay over visitors for 11 consecutive years. It must be absolutely apparent by now that the $11 million budgeted to drive an additional 15,000 people to our shores which were estimated to spend $30 million, called the Barbados Island Inclusive promotion simply did not work. Bringing it back this year to all markets, except the UK, as the only major national promotion has produced the same dismal results, at least for the first nine months of the year. What is absolutely vital, is that any future all embracing promotions must be implemented earlier and monitored for performance on a regular basis.
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