Week 9

This weeks reading was Chapter 13 of the text book and was about Sponsorship and Event Management.
I think that the key points to remember from this weeks readings were...

• Events are a chance for PR practitioners to exercise their creative abilities. They must try to stage events that not only fulfil the aims and strategies of the organisation or the sponsor, but also attract the attention of the media.
• Daniel Boorstin (1961, The Image), describes an event as not being spontaneous but planned for the purpose of being reported on, communicates on more than one level and becomes self-fulfilling.
• Events include- conferences, sports activities, launches, openings, community/political meetings, lunches and dinners.
• Rob Tonge (1999)- successful events have the full commitment of all members of the organising body, strong leadership, an efficient event committe, effective sub-committees with defined responsibilites, sufficient planning time, strong market research, correctly chosen event dates, a marketing plan, a sponsorship plan, good budget control, successful implementation, monitoring and evaluating detailed action plans and meeting all expectations.
• practitioners must work carefully to maximise the 'newsworthy' opportunities before, during and after an event.
• Richards (1998:93)- In order for an event to have successful media coverage, a media release should be issued about the event and its sponsorship, media functions should be staged within the event, an event handbook be distributed to the media and event tickets be made available to the media.
• Careful budgeting is the backbone of any successful special event. The income and expenditure are important to monitor. Practitioners must be able to stick to a budget and still produce excellent results.
• Event Risk Management plans- are now vital and should be a priority of event planning.
• The O'Toole and Mikolaitis (2002) process is 'identify, assess, treat/manage, monitor and evaluate.' This will help to reduce risks of accidents for example happening at your event or before/after.
• Sponsorship is the purchase of specific rights and benefits associated with an event, organisation or individual. They are not donations. Sponsorship expects a return (Johnston and Zawawi, 2nd Ed, 347).
• Sponsorship is one of the most expensive tactics which can be chosen by an organisation, but the good-will delivered by a well-chosen and managed sponsorship can be very large. The larger the event, the more likely it is to require some form of sponsorship.
• Sponsorship is popular with many organisations because it generates good-will and provides opportunities to enhance the image and reputation of the organisation by association. It provides a focal point for sales and marketing efforts.
• Geldard & Sinclair (1996:7) talk about the benefits of sponsorship: exclusivity, image association, hospitality for client entertainment, product sampling, sinage rights, merchandising, networking, media coverage, promotions and sales opportunities.
• Philanthropic sponsorship- close to donation. Generally community based. Benefits include taxation consideration and community good-will to the organisation.
• Corporate sponsorship- of an event/activity, not normally linked to the sponsoring of the company's general business. Link sponsor to a high-profile event/activity and thus gain benefits from positive connection with the organisations publics.
• Marketing sponsorship- most popular and is a common inclusion as a cost-effective sales and marketing strategy. Offers cash and goods in return for tangible revenue- orientated results. Used primarily to promote products and services to targeted markets (Geldard & Sinclair, 1996).
• Understanding the motives and goals of the target audience is crucial when writing a sponsorship proposal. Keep it short and relevant to the reader, be comprehensive about what the potential sponsor is being offered.
• Ambush marketing- when a company misrepresents itself as being associated with an event when it has no official, legal or moral rights to do so. (Eg. A hot-air ballon carrying signage over an event or even a company giving away freebies outside an event). This type can break trade practice laws.
  
  The readings made me think more about public relations theory/practice in that... I have realised that special events and sponsorship represent a high-profile aspect of public relations that focuses public attention on an event, organisation or product, intensely over a short period of time. Events offer strong media opportunities. I also realised that sponsorship is a two-way process, with responsibility for positive benefits being taken by the PR practitioner and the sponsor. Events demand the best a practitioner has to offer in the fields of research, planning, scheduling and creativity.