The biggest lesson I’ve learned this year trying to sell sponsorships for events: selling based on reach/impressions alone is a fool’s errand.
Note that in this post, I am just talking about reach.
For me, production and tech have always come easy. I’m a numbers person.
But I’ve realized that when it comes to sponsorships, numbers isn’t enough to sway someone to say YES.
Why?
Let’s look at an example.
Say you have a sponsorship package that’s $15,000.
You advertise that you have a reach of 150,000 followers across your social media platforms, and that 51,000 people attended last year’s show in-person.
Cool.
Now, what kind of reach would I see if I bought paid traffic?
Let’s look at a hypothetical LinkedIn campaign.
If I ran a 30 day campaign on LinkedIn, that’s $500 per day in ad spend. 30 x 500 = $15,000
Over 30 days, LinkedIn says I would get between 360,000 to 1,100,000 impressions.
So… for the same money as your sponsorship, I can buy access to your audience, plus more.
Now, are the audiences more engaged at your conference or trade show? Are they more likely to go to your website after seeing your logo on an email or on the show program?
Maybe.
Are there other advantages to sponsoring a trade show or event?
YES. A THOUSAND TIMES YES.
You get to shout about being involved with an event that reflects your brand’s values.
You get to shout about supporting a cause your brand believes in.
You get to hold the exclusive rights to a particular sponsorship (prestige).
You get to shape the experience attendees will have when they’re at the show.
You get direct access to leaders in your brand’s industry.
Selling a sponsorship is selling the opportunity to get behind a cause. A mission. A higher calling.
You can buy impressions for next to nothing. And that same sponsorship money can buy at least 2x whatever the sponsorship prospectus says their “reach” is.
Selling your sponsorships based on “reach” and “impressions” has the same energy as selling “exposure.”
Selling based on “reach” alone is meaningless. I can buy your audience using LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, Google, and Bing ads.
Selling sponsorships based on reach alone is a fallacy.
Stop selling sponsorships based on reach.
Sell the higher calling.