Sponsorship & Event Marketing

The Sponsorship & Event Marketing Committee is for members who are responsible for their organizations' sponsorships, corporate partnerships and event marketing initiatives. Sponsorship and event marketing are becoming increasingly important components of the marketing communications mix, and growth for both have recently outpaced traditional advertising and promotion. In fact, in 2018 ESP Properties projects North American sponsorship spending to top $24 billion. Members of this committee benefit from a forum for client-side marketers to share case studies, best practices, and network, ultimately elevating each other's expertise in the areas of sponsorship and event marketing while helping to effectively support their organizations' overall marketing efforts.

Committee Chair: Russ Findlay, Chief Marketing Officer, Hiscox USA

ANA staff managing the Sponsorship & Event Marketing Committee is Pamela Gross. 

Discussion Topics

• Measurement/ROI & Property Evaluation
• Social & digital integration
• Future trends in sponsorships (VR, AR, AI, Drones, etc.)
• Virtual events
• Sponsorship and on-site event activation
• Best practices for connecting the right sponsorship or event with the right brand
• Contract management
• Maximizing overall marketing/advertising integration
• Internal organization: how marketers are organized internally to manage events
• Hospitality best practices
• Cause-related marketing

Leadership Initiatives

Improving Sponsorship Accountability Metrics
The ANA and MASB (Marketing Accountability Standards Board) have partnered on a project to provide greater insight and guidance into sponsorship measurement. As an important first step, a survey was fielded to ANA members to better under¬stand current practices in sponsorship measurement. Marketing expenditures on sponsorship have increased considerably over the past several years, but progress in measuring and assessing sponsorship's business impact has been marginal, according to the study.

Use of Social Media and Advanced Technologies for Sponsorship
The great majority of ANA members are using social media to support sponsorship activations, either before, during, or after a sponsorship. Meanwhile, slightly less than half use advanced technologies – such as 360-degree photography, beacons, virtual reality – to support sponsorship. This research also covers areas including reasons for use, platforms employed, and measurement while providing a number of case study examples.

ANA Sponsorship and Event Marketing Measurement Survey
This survey was released in November 2013. Measurement is critical given the growth in sponsorship and event marketing. The objectives of this survey included assessing if companies measure return from sponsorship and event marketing, evaluating what metrics they use to measure success, determining satisfaction marketers have with their current ability to measure ROI and ROO, and examining how marketers gather and use data in their decision-making.