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Activation

• Media Is Still A Key Sponsorship Component
• Making Co-Op Sponsorships Work
• Importance of Crisis Management Planning
• Meeting Internal Staffing Requirements
• Retaining Platform Presence After Deal Expiration

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Retaining Platform Presence After Deal Expiration

You are about to see your sponsorship come to an end, but all indications are that your company continues to realize significant benefits from the relationship. However, circumstances dictate that you won't be able to renew, perhaps because new senior management does not support the sponsorship in question. More likely, your inability to renew a successful sponsorship stems from the fact that budgets have been cut and you just won't have the funds to renew or to properly exploit the rights.

The soon-to-expire sponsorship has delivered on all of your objectives: increased awareness, revenue generation, and brand migration from the property. In fact, not only does research indicate that your brand is enjoying transference of attributes from the property, but it is also showing that your brand is starting to be seen by fans or supporters as having a close relationship with the overall platform. Just to be clear, we are referring to the platform as football or fashion in general, rather than the individual property such as the NFL or New York Fashion Week specifically. If you don't have the chance to renew, you certainly would not want to lose the momentum your brand has gained in developing roots with the platform and its supporters. So what do you do? Let's take Fashion Week as an example.

If you're position is that of title sponsor, you are going to lose a high-profile sponsorship. However, you can still keep your profile in fashion through other tactical, focused activities. Your first plan of action should be to reinforce the credibility you have already established, so develop partnerships with the sources of credibility in the industry - in this case, fashion designers themselves.

Not only are their names well-respected brands, but the designers themselves have become brands too. If those of you in the sports industry are confused, think athlete endorsements.

Once you have addressed the credibility issue, you would ideally start looking to extend your connection to fashion through an increasing number of brand touch points. That could mean piggybacking on activities of fashion retailers, or if you are concerned about overexposing your connection to the platform - a very legitimate concern with a platform like fashion - partner only with one or two fashion brands and their own proprietary events and distribution points.

Remember that you will likely achieve success if you continue to narrowly target the fashion-forward set, or else you risk losing all of the credibility you've developed. Targeted media sponsorships, relationships with models (either through endorsements or in advertising) and invite-only events co-sponsored and co-created by fashion brand partners will help you develop roots across the platform.