How can you, as a small business owner, take advantage of this sponsorship for your events and projects and also earn some money? Read on to find out how to take advantage of the sponsorship field.
The reason why most of these large and medium-sized organizations get involved in sponsoring their events or projects is because they want to improve their public profile in a more economical way. Keep in mind that it’s not just big corporations that dominate here, even midsize companies are jumping on the sponsorship bandwagon and taking advantage of sponsorship of everything, including local or community sports, health shows, lighting campaigns, cultural festivals, just for name a few.
In reality, there is no event or project that cannot be sponsored. But the events or projects that usually attract sponsorships are those that add value to the community and indirectly increase the brand image and profits of the organization’s products and/or services. Events or projects that deal with health, education, charity, entertainment, art, empowerment, children and gender issues are real examples of what can attract sponsorships.
You may also notice that events like the Gulder Ultimate Search, Star Quest, Lagos Half Marathon, Argungu Fishing Festival, among others, have been lucky to attract annual sponsorships.
What are the types of sponsorships I can take advantage of?
There are two types of sponsorships that you can take advantage of:
- Product endorsement: Many large and small corporations are comfortable with this. They launch your company’s products as support for your event or project. Examples of these companies are Nestle Foods, Nigerian Bottling Company, UAC, MTN, Zain, Etisalat, Globacom etc. There are also small organizations in your area that you can confidently approach for this type of sponsorship and even sole proprietors who have product offerings that their events need to showcase.
- Financial Sponsorship: Companies will release reserved funds to you for your event or project, as long as it is a project driven by community impact. The amount requested should be quite specific, and each step of your analysis of how the funds will be used should be clearly stated. Examples of financing companies are British Council, Nokia, UAC, Chevron, Texaco, Mobil, British Tobacco Nigeria Ltd, Guinness, Nigerian Breweries, Nestlé, Wampco, Ford Foundation, Unilever, GTBank, Ecobank, etc. There are also plenty of small and medium-sized businesses waiting to be contacted with their sponsorship proposals.
Am I eligible to get a sponsorship deal?
The painful truth is that it is almost impossible for one person to land an endorsement deal. Companies feel more comfortable dealing with sponsorship proposals from a team, whether governmental or non-governmental. So make sure that when you submit a sponsorship proposal, you carry the name of a team, registered or not, and this covers religious groups, clubs, NGOs, educational institutions, registered private companies, etc. Now we move on to the next section, how to get that winning sponsorship.
So how do I get that winning sponsorship?
What you simply need to make sure your sponsorship goes through is your Proposal. I recommend that you submit your proposal at the beginning of each quarter because that is when most companies review their financial books. You should now follow up on your proposal, except that the company indicates that they will contact you. But one secret to take note of is trying to cultivate a platonic relationship with the officer in charge, probably outside of the office area.
The first thing you need to do is write a short but meaningful proposal for the organization of your choice. What is essential is that your proposal should indicate how your event or project can advance your brand and paint the image of the company in a good light. But how do you write a winning sponsorship proposal?
Now you must realize that your proposal will have to fight for attention among the hordes of other proposals that these companies receive on a daily basis. It should be apt in its writing, be at least a page or two, and keep it simple. Take note of the following tips to write that winning proposal.
- Your Title: This is the content topic of your proposal. Write a headline that is direct and can sell itself. If you can’t write one, find a good copywriter who can do it for you.
- The Project/Event – When writing your proposal, this should come first. Be clear when explaining what your event is about and avoid giving details that do not help to clearly establish the purpose of your project or event.
- The target audience: Clearly explain who your project will be targeting in the audience.
- Type of sponsorship you are seeking: Please describe the type of sponsorship you require, either product or financial sponsorship
- Sponsorship Benefit – Explain in your proposal what sponsors will benefit from because they would only put money where their words are.
- Introduce Your Outfit – Once you have completed the above, formally describe what your outfit is about and why you are embarking on the project.
- Proposed Event Date – Highlight when the event or project for sponsorship consideration is scheduled to take place. If you don’t do this, they might take you for a ride, which means they’ll take their time pretty well.
- And the last one is your cover letter – Attach your cover letter which must be signed by whoever receives it from you.
So how do I make money from these endorsement deals?
You can hit the pot of gold in two ways: First, after running the event/project successfully, you don’t need to refund any leftover money. It’s all yours. Second, you earn extra money through ticket capture, where you promote your event using the popularity of a well-known brand as your main sponsor. You can make a 50-50 deal with the sponsor, but in some cases the sponsors don’t even care about this part.
Before submitting your proposal, do your research on the company of your choice and find out who is in charge of handling sponsorship issues.
Be prepared for the presentation
Once your proposal is accepted, don’t get stuck when you are called to present your event/project. Be ready before that time and get all the correct data.
As I advised above, get the phone number of the officer in charge (if you can) to allow you to follow up properly during and after business hours.
The only thing that can stop you is yourself. So go ahead and get that sponsorship deal for your events or projects.