How to Turn Around Your Sponsorship Revenue

If your conference is like most, sponsorship revenue is underperforming. There are two benchmarks we like to use to identify healthy conference revenue business models:

• Industry revenue — 30 percent or more of a conference’s total revenue should come from the combination of sponsor, exhibit and advertising revenue.
• Expo/sponsor revenue ratio — for every $3 in expo revenue, a thriving sponsor program will generate $1 of revenue or more (a 3-to-1 or better ratio).

If your conference revenue business model falls short on one or both of these benchmarks, your sponsorship strategy is in need of a turnaround.

A Menu of Options

Take a page from how a restaurant menu is organized into appetizers, salads, entrées, and desserts. For your sponsorship menu, approach the categories in terms of how they align with your sponsor’s marketing objectives. Start with their goals, and include appropriate à la carte items for each, along these lines:

• Education champion/thought leader — keynote speakers, session recordings, scheduled replays, webinars, session tracks, speaking slots, awards.
• Attendee experiences — lounges, F&B events, entertainment, Wi-fi, mobile app, charging stations, interactive experiences, giveaways, transportation.
• VIP experiences — special access passes for top clients, leader event sponsor.
• Home base/presence — demo kiosk, meeting space.
• Branding — lanyards, attendee bag, pads and pens, floor stickers, banner ads.

Each menu item should include a listing of the benefits or activation that will be provided for the sponsor. A good target is to sell at least 65 percent of your available inventory. Guard against listing items that you don’t plan to make part of your program unless you sell the sponsorship. Go light on the branding inventory. These items don’t elevate attitudes for your sponsor’s brand. (We’ve previously covered in this column how to think about pricing à la carte sponsorship inventory.)

Custom-Made Packages

The à la carte menu approach provides the building blocks for creating custom-made, or bespoke, packages for your sponsors. Determine the total investment and level attainment by accumulating spend for all of the sponsored items (and consider retiring precious metal tier names if you use them).

Develop sponsorship levels by creating a minimum of three to four ranges, like this:

• Premier — more than $20,000
• Partner — $10,000–$20,000
• Collaborator — $5,000–$10,000
• Supporter — $2,500–$5,000

The ranges above should be customized for your situation. In an ideal world, you will have at least two, but no more than six, sponsors at the highest level. The number of sponsors in the next levels should progressively increase — your model should take the shape of a pyramid.

Award escalating additional benefits to the sponsors who achieve a level. Include logo and acknowledgement on digital and on-site properties. Provide sponsor ribbons, access to VIP functions/room blocks, enhanced listings, and discounts on branding sponsorship items or tickets.

Six Keys to a Strategic Sponsorship Program

There are six attributes for developing a winning sponsorship program:

1. Fewer, but bigger sponsors
2. Custom packages for the bigger sponsors
3. Not about eyeballs and logos
4. Activation plans that last 90 days and longer
5. If the attendee doesn’t win, no one wins
6. Senior staff and/or volunteer leaders who open doors and nurture relationships.

Adapted from Dave’s Forward Thinking column in PCMA’s Convene. Reprinted with permission of Convene, the magazine of the Professional Convention Management Association. ©2019.

At which tiers are you customizing your sponsorship packages? What’s a thought-leadership element that you’ve created as part of your menu offerings?