Sponsorship

Masterman (2007) has defined sponsorship as a mutually beneficial agreement that is used to achieve objectives for commercial gain. The agreement itself consists of the provisions of resources and funds along with goods and services with return being a set of rights that can be used in communication activities.

With sponsorship there are many factors that must be considered especially the rights. These must be taken into consideration by both the sponsor and the event in order to ensure that their is no confusion or inconvenience is created by not establishing the rights that will be had within the sponsorship. The crucial rights that must be considered by both are if the sponsor is the official sponsor of the event, the signage rights at the event, the right of the sponsor to promote their products and if they are able to bear their name or logo on products that are related to the event.

Another issue that can arise within sponsorship is consumers attitudes towards sponsorship. Mintel (2006) shows that only 3% of consumers feel that sponsors support events because they genuinely care about them. Which highlights the negative attitude that consumers have about sponsors and highlights that sponsorship is used for more selfish reasons. Also another issues that has arisen within sponsorship is their ability to make an event too commercial, Mintel (2006) established from research that the majority of adults do not feel that sponsorship has commercialised events.

Sponsorship of the events 

London Fashion Weekend have established Vodafone as their official sponsor for the event as they are also the official sponsor for London Fashion Week and the two events are closely linked. Vodafone have been given the right to bear their logo and name on the website and other forms of marketing promotions. Along with their logo being printed on gift bags that are given to customers of the event. 

Vodafone benefit from the sponsorship in many different ways as this is known as a commercial sponsorship and will lead to many advantages of sponsorship on the event. This is because it allows Vodafone to gain a competitive advantage against their competitors in the industry. As well as allowing them to generate awareness of their company within a completely different target market than what they are primarily within which is within mobile phone market. 




Another benefit is that it allows them to continue their image building as a company and the brand that they are. Sponsorship can also enable them to develop and maintain relationships within the industry, along with new, existing and potential customers. Masterman (2011) also stated that it will allow them to create and develop financial relationships with investors, lenders and financial markets. 



London Fashion Weekend also have other sponsors and partners such as Cannon, Elle, Elizabeth Arden, Toni & Guy, Lavazza, Chambord, Diet Coke, The May Fair Hotel, My Daily, ShopStyle.co.uk, Toptable, Compeed and Veet. 

When looking at the sponsors and partners of the London Fashion Weekend it can be seen that the sponsors are all relevant to the target audience of the event and the purpose of the event itself. This can be seen as TGI (2008) shows that women in the age range of 25 to 34 have a high brand association with branded cosmetics such as Veet and Compeed. It also states that woman have a high brand association. So by using well known brand names London Fashion Weekend are appealing to their target audiences behaviour within brands. 








International Confex

International Confex have created sponsorship packages for any exhibitors that wish to heighten their profile within the event and the events industry as a whole. Their packages are designed to help increase a exhibitor return on taking par in the event. As well as increase brand recognition and awareness within the key customers of the event along with increasing awareness in new customers. All of these factors taking place in a competitive market. Which therefore leads to competitive gain.

They have created different sponsorship packages in order to suit different exhibitors budgets and also giving the the ability to reach the target audiences in different forms. The first package is aimed at creating the best first impression possible and includes:

• Entrance Area Branding                     
• Entrance Corridors
• Entrance Area Entertainment
• Entrance Drink
• Visitor Badges
• Event Carrier Bags
• Inserts in Carrier Bags
• You Are Here Boards
• Lanyards

The second package is aimed for maximum floor impact at the event and includes:

• VIP Lounge
• Branding of the Take 5 areas (catering and entertainment areas)
• Provide Music in the Take 5 areas
• Seminar Sponsorship
• Press Office / News Cafe Sponsorship
• The Advice Centre
• Information Point
• Wall Banner Sites
• 1sqm Carpet Graphics
• Promotional Characters

The third package available gives the opportunity for maximum digital sponsorship and exposure as the International Confex website will receive over 600,000 page impressions between now and the exhibition in March, with an average of over 15,000 unique monthly users. The package allows sponsors the target audiences before the event has happened and long after it has finished. This package includes:

• Home Page Banner               
• Home Page Skyscraper
• Exhibitor List Banner
• Exhibitor List Skyscraper
• Other Page Banner
• Other Skyscrapers
• Website Buttons

The fourth and final package of sponsorship is email opportunities as a sponsorship of driver emails sent to approximately 75,000 and the reminder emails sent to all pre-registered visitors. With 50 words available with their logo linked to the sponsors website and one image included.  This package also includes:

• Online Registration page banner
• Confex TV
• Visitor Direct Mail Pieces
• Custom Research Services

When looking at the ways in which each event uses sponsorship it can be seen that International Confex are taking a greater interest and care into the exhibitors of their event by creating sponsorship packages that are available to any exhibitor that wishes to sponsor ad heighten their profile. Rather than having one official sponsor like the London Fashion Weekend that have linked all of their sponsors to their target audience giving more consideration on the sponsors being linked with the target audience to generate an increase in sales for them. Whereas International Confex have used sponsorship in order to create more awareness of the exhibitors which highlights that they are a business to business event which is why they create opportunities in sponsorship for the exhibitors rather than using more commercial sponsorship objectives like London Fashion Weekend.

References 

International Confex (2012) Sponsorship Opportunities [online] Available from: www.international-confex.com [Accessed 8th March 2012]

London Fashion Weekend (2012) Sponsors [online] Available from: www.londonfashionweekend.co.uk [Accessed 8th March 2012]

Masterman, Guy (2007) Sponsorship For A Return on Investment, London: Elsevier

Mintel (2006) Sponsorship - UK- October 2006 Consumer attitudes towards sponsorship [online] London. Mintel Available from: http://academic.mintel.com/sinatra/oxygen_academic/search_results/show&&type=RCItem&sort=relevant&access=accessible&archive=hide&source=non_snapshot&list=search_results/display/id=173631/display/id=242704#hit1 [Accessed  9th March 2012]


TGI (2008) Brand repertoire [online] Available from: https://www.kmrsoftware.net/netquestuni2/default.aspx [Accessed 9th March2012]