Networking Tips that Build Lasting Friendships

The definition of networking I use is: Networking is a process by which you can create meaningful business contacts and relationships to further your career and enhance your professional life.
On a scale of 1-10, with 10 being the most difficult, networking is a 5. Building friendships is a 10.
I know that many of you have become better and better at this "networking thing." I thought I would share one of the deep dark secrets of effective networking - some of these folks become fast friends.
Just as much as no one really understands why you fall in love, it is a mystery in much the same way why after networking with someone over the years you suddenly realize that you have become good friends.
By making every effort to network appropriately, by which I mean with those with whom you have some background connection, you are bit by bit going to meet up with likeminded individuals. It is inevitable. Some of those folks will just "click" with you.
Now comes the hard part. (I know it sounded too easy to this point.) When you "click" with someone, you have to make an effort to perform acts of friendship. Networking, according to many seems to have some evil intent. Were it not for your need to earn a living, I suppose you would just stay in your shell and never talk to anyone. "Networking" is all well and good, but calling a succession of strangers when you need their help is not as valuable as having real friends. If you died, how many people would come to your funeral because they really wanted to?
We casually say, "he's a friend." But would she bring you food if you were housebound? Would she listen to you gladly if you had lost your job and wanted to talk? The "care and feeding of friends" can be exhausting at times, but it is always worth the effort long term.
We are a networking group, but this implies that many of the people we meet will become this kind of friend.
Among the many goals in your life, I hope this is one you will sign up for.
Note: I received this letter from the leader of another group I belong to called MENG. If you are interested in joining this group, check out www.mengonline.com
And let me know if you want an introduction for membership.

6 Keys to Sponsorship Success During The Recession

The following article was written in partnership with Tara D. Coomans, Akamai Marketing, and Brian Levine, Sponsorship Insights Group.

Economies are like gardens, the seeds you plant today will reap rewards in the future. With the right seeds, the right amount of light (your positive attitude) and some TLC (creativity) your garden can do more than survive, it can thrive.

Even in the current economic downturn, the wide variety of sponsorships and the trend toward better activations makes it a good industry in which to be. Although the current economic drought presents a challenging environment, with these six tools under your belt, you’ll be well on your way to creating a thriving sponsorship garden in 2009 and beyond:

The Seeds:

1) New Clients

Although it may not feel like it, now is a great time to attract new clients. Yes, marketers will be doing a lot of reevaluation on how/where they’re investing their budgets over the next 24 months. However, because properties have the potential to provide sponsors with significant value (i.e. the whole is greater than the sum of the individual parts) spending on ROI driven sponsorships could in fact increase. Savvy marketers will be more open to reviewing your proposals than ever before. Now is the best time to start building new relationships with potential clients as they are reevaluating their options and considering alternatives. The seeds you plant now may grow into stronger or more lucrative partnerships down the road.

For sponsors looking for opportunities to do more with less, smaller properties may offer the best potential . Smaller properties often have the flexibility to be more creative with their sponsors and will be very excited to work with you in creating a partnership that works for you. Your business will likely stand out more with a smaller property than with properties overcrowded with other sponsors.

2) Trade

It’s not enough to know you have something to offer, you need to know what and how much. If there was ever a time to know the value of your property, it is now. The next 24 months should see a spike in requests for “trade sponsorships” as firms try to minimize cash outflow. By knowing the value of your property and its segments you can ensure that you receive full value in any sponsorship agreement, which increases the possibility that you can negotiate a trade and cash component. It will also help to be proactive in developing a compensation plan for these types of programs now so that you are prepared for this growing trend. Note that contra benefits are often valued at between 50% and 75% of cash.

If you are a sponsor looking for trade opportunities, on the other hand, you should be prepared to negotiate trade/cash opportunities. But remember that unless you are offering something the property cannot live without (i.e. alleviating a budgeted line item), noncash sponsorships may be overlooked because properties still need cold hard cash to stage and market their event.

The TLC:

3) Your Homework

Before you approach a potential sponsor, make sure you know their business objectives and that your proposal provides solutions to those strategic objectives. You should be reading everything you can find about your client before you ever present them with a proposal, then customize it to fit their specific needs. Sponsors need to know that you ‘get it’, that you are offering them solutions instead of a generic sales pitch.

As sponsors in this business environment, you need to find out what unearthed gems may exist within every property. You don’t get what you don’t ask for, so do your homework first so you don’t miss out on valuable sponsorship opportunities.

4) Be Creative

Properties and sponsors alike, challenge yourselves to create excitement and energy around your product. How can you make the good, great? How can you do more with what you have? One reason event marketing works so well is because of the potential for creating memorable experiences. This recession may just provide a catalyst for great ideas as everyone starts to reevaluate and try different ways to weather the economic downturn. Come up with something ground breaking that will be poised for explosive growth once the economy begins to recover from the market correction.

The Sunshine:

5) Free Community Events

Events, such as nonprofit ‘walks’ or large art fairs, that are free to the public will be hot over the next 24 months. This is great news for sponsors and mobile marketers, as these types of events are often very open to creating additional energy and excitement through activation of a product. Sponsors, seriously consider community events that align with your needs. Although it may not be any less costly than traditional sponsorships, more people will be in attendance that are open to experiencing interesting new products out of curiosity.

Community event properties, you should capitalize on the fact that your attendance is likely to be strong and actively look for creative ways for your sponsors to engage and excite your attendees. If you have never courted mobile marketers before, this recession is the time to see if you’ve been missing an incredible opportunity.

6) Be the Partner

It’s always important to approach your relationships as partnerships, but it is more important than ever in these tough economic conditions. Property and sponsors alike look for people who are willing to brainstorm, willing to work with together, willing to help the relationship grow. If you are a sponsor that has treated your properties with respect and professionalism, they are much more likely to work harder with you to stretch your marketing dollar. As properties that go above and beyond to create solutions for sponsors, you will find more loyal sponsors that will work with you to find innovative ways to create more value together.

Although the market is undeniably difficult right now, with a little creativity and flexibility, you can still grow through the recession in new and exciting ways.

More Experiential Marketing

Traditional advertising is rapidly losing its effectiveness as consumers have learned to tune out the bombardment of ads in everyday life, so more and more firms are turning to experiential marketing tactics that are novel enough to catch the attention of the sophisticated consumer. A few such novel ideas are highlighted below and marketing executives across the country would do well to keep up with these trend leaders.

In an effort to recreate the sense of warmth associated with eating stuffing, Stove Top at Kraft Foods is arranging for heaters to be installed in bus shelters in the Chicago area. For a limited period of time samples of Stove Top stuffing will also be available at some of these shelters.

Jameson Whiskey is trying out a new advertising tactic: dynamic projection media. There will be projected screens in high traffic areas that will look like someone is typing messages to those walking by. It is very relevant to the target market, which is a generation dominated by the electronic communication the internet has enabled - email, instant messaging, Facebooking, etc.

Test Drive the Army

The US Army has recently developed an innovative recruitment program that uses a creative combination of features to engage potential recruits in experiential marketing. The Virtual Army Experience revolves around a training simulation computer game and immerses young recruits in Army technologies, operating environments, and missions. This unique engaging format should be very appealing to its target market. The business arena would do well to watch and learn from the Army's marketing tactics.

Read more about it at Youth Marketing Connection.

Click here to go to the official Virtual Army Experience website.

Partnership Marketing

Westfield Malls seeks to recruit Sales professionals with a proven record generating and driving advertising revenue through media sales and partnerships/sponsorships in the following markets – San Francisco, San Jose, Sacramento, Los Angeles, Chicago. The candidate will have experience developing, negotiating, and implementing strategic marketing/advertising platforms with national, regional and local brands that reach the clients’ objectives and generates maximum revenue for Westfield.

Interested candidates should go to the link below, search by “Partnership Marketing” and then apply by appropriate city/region (when applying, the candidate must submit information on 3 large deals that were prospected, solicited, and secured solely by the candidate):

http://www.resourcehire.com/clients/westfield/publicjobs/ or email resume to ldoyle@westfield.com and specify city of interest.

Click here for Director Job Description
Click here for Regional Director Job Description

Maximizing LinkedIn

Here are two great resources for learning to use various features in LinkedIn more effectively:
http://blog.linkedin.com/
Recent posts spotlight the Company Profile feature.
http://learn.linkedin.com/apps/
Learn about all the applications available for use.

Exceptional Sponsorship Programming: Integrated, Relevant, Synergistic

The CentrO is the largest shopping complex in continental Europe according to the German National Tourist Board. There are 200 shops and the complex attracts more than 20 million visitors every year (http://www.germany-tourism.de/ENG/destination_germany/master_tlshopping-id1159-fstadt_topshopping.htm). Their impressive lineup of sponsorship programs revolve around beverages, ice-cream sales, telecommunications, energy, banking and children's products and generated $3.12 million of annual income in 2006.

They have identified different niches that can be served more effectively. Partnership agreements have been created that specifically target these markets to enhance their shopping experience. The Coca-Cola-sponsored food court targets teens that tend to spend a lot of time hanging out at the mall, improving the teen mall experience while stimulating sales. Another key demographic is the parents with young children that are prone to become fussy and cause parents to leave the mall too quickly, thus limiting sales opportunities. To address this phenomenon the mall has implemented a sponsored child-care center, allowing parents the opportunity to shop in a more relaxed manner that improves the shopping experience and increases the time spent at the mall which translates into more sales. Furthermore, there are sponsored closed-circuit cell phones parents may use to keep in touch with their kids in the child-care center while they shop which further encourages parents to use the service. The tenants of the mall is another niche that is served through sponsorship programs. The mall purchases energy directly at a discounted price and resells it to tenants, which generates additional revenue for the mall while still offering lower energy prices to individual tenants. The different sponsors allow the segmentation and targeting of different markets while capitalizing on the core competencies of all of these companies. Now is the time for shopping centers to seriously consider integrated, relevant, and synergistic sponsorship programs that enhance the shopping experience while generating additional revenue and benefits.

A summary of their long-term sponsorship programs:

(to read the full ICSC articles please visit http://www.icsc.org/srch/sct/sct0504/page189.php and http://www.icsc.org/srch/education/awards/maxi2006/RI1mil_1399CentrOCorpPartnerProg.pdf)

Food court/beverages: Coca-Cola Oasis

• Logo appears on everything from signage to cups and food trays
• Video wall broadcasts sponsors’ (purchased) messages
• Branded in-house venue for concerts, fashion shows and other promotional events
• Exclusive rights to sell its products in most of Centro’s venues
• Comprises 97 percent of all beverage sales in CentrO, making this mall its biggest point of sale in Germany

Coffee, ice cream: Nestlé Schöller

• Exclusive supplier rights for coffee and ice cream sales in common areas
• Naming rights to the family-oriented Nestlé Schöller Adventure Island in the CentrO leisure park

Telecommunications: Vodafone

• Sales and promotion rights, POS ads, sponsorship of events
• Test market for new technologies
• CentrO is often the first to get new Vodafone technologies

Energy: CentrO buys at reduced price and resells to tenants

EVO, an Oberhausen-based regional power supplier

• Exclusive power supplier
• furnishes the center with Christmas lighting.

e-on Ruhrgas, Europe's biggest gas company

• Portable propane heaters on terraces of eateries replaced with permanent heaters connected to new gas pipeline

Child-care

The Pritt Co.

• Sponsors Pritt Kinderland, a child-care center

Düsseldorf-based ISIS

• Provides closed-circuit cell phones to parents whose children are in the child-care center, so they can keep in touch while they shop

Banking: Citibank

• 9 ATM machines and a kiosk

Exclusivity: Finding the Balance

Visa recently unveiled their new tagline, "Life Takes Visa," during the 2008 Summer Olympics. The timing demonstrated a well-coordinated marketing effort in which the advertising campaign and Visa's sponsorship of the Olympics augmented each other and enhanced the overall effectiveness. The sponsorship agreement involves an exclusivity arrangement which establishes Visa as "the only card accepted at all Olympic Games venues for any official Olympic Games-related transactions." (http://www.corporate.visa.com/md/fs/olympics/olympic_facts.jsp) There were 6.52 million tourist arrivals in Beijing during the Olympics and they soon found that, for the next 16 days and 17 nights, life only took Visa.

Let's consider how this played out for Visa. The benefits that Visa sought from the sponsorship agreement most likely include heightened brand visibility, increased sales, and enhanced brand image.

• Brand visibility: Pre-Olympic promotional programs were implemented in conjunction with partnering financial institutions in 46 different countries. Visa definitely gained exposure during the actual two and a half week period, and the new Visa card accounts that were opened during this timeframe further extended the visibility factor post-Olympics.
• Increased sales: Visa not only increased its sales volume during the Games, it also had an opportunity to more effectively showcase products other than its credit cards. During the Torino Winter Olympics Visa issued 650,000 prepaid cards in direct relation to Olympic transactions, and similar results can be expected of the recent Summer Games.
• Enhanced brand image: This is where the value of exclusivity becomes ambiguous. Consumers tend to use credit cards for the convenience factor. Ironically, Visa created an inconvenient situation for anyone who did not already use a Visa credit card or would have preferred to use another card for whatever reason (corporate card, reward points, etc.). Furthermore, consumers have generally come to expect the freedom of paying for their purchases with their major credit card of choice so the Visa-only policy has resulted in many an unpleasant purchasing experience and has generated a certain degree of backlash. On the other hand, their exclusivity on such a prestigious event may have caused some purchasers to wish they had a Visa!

Brand visibility is fundamentally valuable when it translates into increased business, so the value of heightened brand visibility for Visa is diminished if negative consumer perceptions develop. Also, it is unclear whether higher sales figures resulted from an actual increase in consumer preference for Visa or if the increase in sales was primarily a one-time deal rather than a sustainable improvement.

Clearly, brand visibility, sales, and brand image are inextricably interdependent. While there are measurable short-term improvements, it remains uncertain whether the derived benefits are sustainable and worth the costs of implementing Visa's Olympic marketing strategies. So the question Visa needs to ask itself is: Is the Halo effect from the Olympics worth the risk of turning off customers with the lack of alternative payment options?

Check out Asia Sponsorship News

Anyone with an interest in the sponsorship industry in Asia should be familiar with the industry news and information service for the region Asia Sponsorship News.

The news website has just undergone a major facelift and now boasts and new sponsorship database profiling most of the major deals in the region. If you operate in the region or plan to work there, this is a must read resource.

Asia Sponsorship News is offering Sponsorship Insight members a significant discount on an annual subscription to the service and they invite members to take a complimentary 21 day no obligation trial. Simply visit www.asiasponsorshipnews.com and click on Free Trial to sign up. Be sure to include (SponsorshipInsights) in brackets after you name so you get the discount.
The annual subscription is US$750 which will be discounted to US $625 for SponsorshipInsight members.

The Leverage Agency is making waves in Beijing

Our Sponsorship Insights Group member, Ben Sturner has been active in Beijing during the Olympics and he is profiled in this article in the Wall Street Journal.  Watch out for some great stuff from his group in the upcoming months.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121877016737643655.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

Partnership with TeamworkOnline

I am excited to announce a new partnership that will be highly beneficial for members of my LinkedIn Sponsorship Insights Group and sponsorship sales professionals in general. If you are looking to expand your career or looking to get into sports marketing or sales, click here or check out the jobs posted above.

http://feeds.feedburner.com/TeamWork/OpenJobsInCorporateSponsorshipSales

Why sponsorship versus traditional marketing/advertising?

Over the past few years traditional media effectiveness has diminished while price has increased.

Traditional Media is less effective and efficient due to:

 

• Audience Fragmentation - there are many more channels to reach consumers as content becomes much more targeted for specific demographic niches
• Costs - ratings and readership has declined while cost per viewer and reader for advertising has increased
• Attention loss - consumers are tuning out, zoning out or become more savvy about where the attention goes
• Sponsorship is: Interactive - while advertising is a monologue, sponsorship is dialogue
• Emotional - it taps into events, places and causes that consumers are passionate about
• Relevant - it reaches consumers in places they choose to be in
• Immersive - through multiple touch points and components
• Efficient - cost per impression are lower, and cost per interaction is more valuable

Sponsorship benefits can include:

• Lead generation - gain qualified leads to the targeted audience at property through incentive programs

• New business development - onsite conversion through hospitality, consumer audience, other rights-holders or property itself

• Increase customer/brand loyalty - increased equity via association with high prestige property

• Create awareness & visibility - using a multiplier through media coverage of event/property

• Change/reinforce image - through alignment with like-minded property

• Drive retail traffic and showcase brand attributes - through sampling and couponing

• Showcase community responsibility - through sponsorship of local events/causes with particular meaning to the community

• Hospitality and Entertainment - use tickets and hospitality at and for sponsored properties to foster deeper relationships, reward customers and recruit and retain employees

• Sub-segment targeted demographics - through particular locations for consumer intercept, types of offers and communications

• Differentiate from competitors - by locking them out of the sponsorship through negotiated exclusivity

• Achievement of multiple objectives - you can all of the above plus media, through sponsorship

 

Sponsorship Insights Blog

Friday, 30 May 2008

 

Here I will be blogging on sponsorship at a minimum of once per week. I will post ideas, best practices, case studies and white papers on every aspect of sponsorship. I encourage feedback and dynamic dialogue for participants.

Recently, we formed a networking group for buyers and sellers of sponsorship on LinkedIn. You can get more information and join by clicking on the following link:

http://www.linkedin.com/e/gis/59380/45159C6B434B