BDS Sponsorship Ltd

strategy

Establishing A Sponsorship Strategy

This is part of short series of articles taken from the world’s first Management Report on Sponsorship written by Richard Busby of BDS Sponsorship and published by the Financial Times. These iconic case studies are on sponsorship programs that have taken place in the past but are still, we believe, very relevant to a wider understanding of the world of sponsorship today.

In order to best leverage the opportunities available to your organisation by way of sponsorships, it is crucial to at first define a robust sponsorship strategy. By doing this, you can be confident that any sponsorship opportunities you pursue will yield a positive return on investment. To help you get started, we’ve created a how-to guide that breaks down the creation of a sponsorship strategy into a series of easy to follow steps.

Define Sponsorship Objectives

Right at the outset, it is essential to define your objectives. Specifically, you should be asking yourself and your stakeholders: “what do we want to achieve with our sponsorship activity? Do we want to improve our brand awareness? Do we want to partner with organisations that will enhance our hospitality opportunities? Do we want to do both or something different altogether?”. Once you’ve distilled your objectives into a clear mission statement, you will also want to consider how you will measure your performance. Naturally, by aligning metrics with your objectives it will be possible to identify how successful your sponsorship activity is.

Market Analysis
Once you’ve settled on some objectives, the next step in establishing a sponsorship strategy is to analyse the market to get a sense of what opportunities are available to you. If you’ve decided that you’d like to increase your visibility, for example, you’ll want to explore sponsorship opportunities that place a greater emphasis on brand promotion. Similarly, if you’re pursuing hospitality opportunities, you’ll want to take a look at organisations that offer these services as part of their sponsorship package. At BDS, we’re well-positioned to guide organisations towards sponsorship opportunities that best fit their objectives. To find out how we do this, be sure to take a look at our case studies.

Define Target Markets
In addition to defining your objectives and reviewing the market for appropriate sponsorship opportunities, you’ll also want to consider which ones will best enable you to engage your target market. If you’re setting out to engage a younger audience with disposable income, for instance, you might want to consider music festivals and other events which will put you in front of the right people.

Examine Lifestyle Data/Demographic Profiles

To ensure that your assumptions about your target market are supported by data, it is well worth examining the available lifestyle data and demographic profiles that relate to your audience and the opportunities you are considering. By doing this, you’ll be confident that your investment is based on a more scientific basis.

Competitive Review
Like just about any other element of business development, it pays to perform a competitive review when establishing your sponsorship strategy. Specifically, you’ll want to take a look at what your competitors are doing so that you can get a handle on what works, what doesn’t, and what you can do better.

Strategic Development
After completing the first five steps, you’ll be well-positioned to engage in strategic development that allows you to focus on the finer nuances of your sponsorship opportunities and prepare for their implementation.

Budgetary Allocation
Another crucial element of any sponsorship planning is to review budgets and explore how you will get the greatest return on investment.

Concept Review and Testing
Another way of confirming your assumptions around your sponsorship activity is to conduct concept reviews and testing. This will ensure that the direction you’re taking is the right one prior to making any considerable investment.

Development of Marketing Support Activities
In advance of implementing any sponsorship campaign, you’ll need to align all necessary marketing support activities to ensure that you maximise your performance.

Implementation
After completing the preceding steps, you will now be sufficiently prepared to implement a sponsorship opportunity. Whilst this particular phase will vary depending on what your opportunity looks like, our team at BDS are on hand to provide the support you need to ensure that you’re getting the most out of your campaign.

Post-event Sponsorship Evaluation and Research

Like any other kind of marketing activity, post-evaluation and review will invariably provide a valuable opportunity to understand what went well and what can be improved next time. This will empower your organisation to leverage even more data when making plans around sponsorships.

To find out more about how your organisation can benefit from a wide range of sponsorship opportunities, be sure to get in touch with a member of our team today. They’ll be happy to explain our full suite of services and how exactly BDS provides support to clients as they embark on their path to establishing a sponsorship strategy.

BDS Sets Its Sights on Screening for Schools

Proud to be involved in a highly worthwhile initiative, BDS was delighted to create the sponsorship strategy for Screening for Schools (SfS). Helping to remove a significant barrier to learning, SfS provides an online screening system that can be used without any clerical training. This system ultimately allows schools to quickly identify any children who may suffer from poor vision.

The reason for identifying poor vision amongst students is considerable; it is estimated that around 15% of all school children suffer from poor vision that directly affects their ability to learn. Free to use, the software was developed at the Department of Optometry at the University of London and provides results within three minutes. Used by over 3,000 schools, the system produces personalised reports that outline steps towards overcoming the cause of impaired vision.

As a much-needed service with a clearly defined social purpose, BDS is excited to be working alongside SfS to identify sponsorship opportunities that will allow the organisation to receive funding from suitably aligned businesses and brands.

To find out more about the work that BDS does in collaboration with corporate, charitable, and educational organisations, simply get in touch today. Alternatively, feel free to contact our team to begin mapping out a sponsorship strategy for your business.

BDS Sponsorship Empowers Online Resource Age Space

Describing themselves as “the one-stop online resource and guide for anyone with concerns about, or caring for an ageing parent or relative”, Age Space provides a comprehensive range of online information and guides surrounding the various aspects of elderly care. Such a service is clearly crucial in the United Kingdom as research demonstrates how every year around 2.1 million adults become carers. What’s more, experts estimate that 3 in 5 people will become carers at some point in their lives.   

From helpful articles on dementia to articles about the financial and legal implications of an ageing relative, the Age Space website also signposts useful resources to be found across England’s counties.

Launched by Annabel James after she discovered how little information was available to her after her mother experienced a stroke, the Age Space website supports over seven million people who are responsible for providing care to ageing relatives. From strategies that can be used to navigate challenging conversations, to product reviews and technology recommendations, the site provides everything users need to deliver a remarkable level of care.  

Enabling Age Space to reach a wider audience, BDS has created a sponsorship strategy and sales deck that will allow the organisation to attract investment from corporate sponsors. To find out more about Age Space, or how BDS works with clients to create sponsorship strategies aligned to their goals, simply get in touch with our team today. 

BDS Creates Exciting Sponsorship Plan for Caravan and Motorhome Club

Appointed by the Caravan and Motorhome Club (CaMC) to create a sponsorship strategy that reviews and makes recommendations on a range of commercial assets, BDS is proud to have delivered a plan that serves as a roadmap to generating significant income through sponsorships.

In order to achieve this goal, BDS surveyed the sponsorship marketplace to identify trends and insights that could be leveraged by CaMC. Not only basing decisions on financials, BDS also took care to identify relevant brands that align with the values of CaMC. By recognising opportunities that serve both the business and social values of CaMC, it was possible to 

To attract these brands and organisations to CaMC, BDS designed a series of valuable propositions which allow them to increase their visibility and take advantage of services at a reduced rate for hospitality purposes. 

Ultimately, the sponsorship strategy that BDS created for CaMC is one which is born out of and guided by data. By taking this approach, it has been possible to create a roadmap that finely outlines the route to securing powerful and relevant sponsorship deals that secure the kind of income that CaMC set out to acquire.

To find out more about how BDS creates engaging sponsorship strategies for a variety of businesses and organisations, be sure to get in touch with a member of our team today. Alternatively, feel free to get in touch to acquire a copy of the CaMC case study to find out in more detail how BDS helped the business to identify high value sponsorship opportunities.

BDS Defines Partnership Opportunities for the Digital Arts Festival 2023

Founded on the timely and convincing belief in “the power of creativity to bring people together, unlock potential, and spark positive change in the world”, the 2023 Digital Arts Festival is a nationwide initiative set to bring together some of the most exciting creators working at the intersection of art, science and technology.

Defining a comprehensive sponsorship strategy for the event taking place at Riverside Studios in London, BDS focussed on ways that partners can enjoy considerable brand visibility, exclusive access, hospitality opportunities, and the chance to engage with a pool of forward-thinking creative talent. With a category-exclusive range that are all-year-round, the partnership strategy consists of various options that vary in scale, from primary through to prize sponsorships available.

In order to fulfil these ambitions, BDS designed a suite of partnership opportunities that provide the sponsor with:

  • Naming and brand visibility that is in direct association with the positive benefits of utilising technology for social and artistic purposes
  • The chance to partner in a series of PR and marketing campaigns that span from the online to the offline
  • Event hosting opportunities inside The Hub, a specially designed space for “an arts meets technology to drive innovation” programme
  • The opportunity to be a part of product launches and conferences

Altogether, this sponsorship strategy enables a variety of sponsors and partners to take advantage of emerging trends in technology, making their brand highly visible amongst a highly exciting audience and creating new value opportunities in the digital and arts space.  

To find out more about how BDS creates engaging sponsorship strategies for brands, events and more, be sure to get in touch today.

BDS Provides Big Sponsorship Strategy for the Big Burns Supper

Rabbie Burns is Scotland’s most famous “export”. Yet surprisingly he has yet to be co-opted to promote both Scottish identity and Scottish exports around the world. “Burns Big Night Out “ intends to alter this perspective and to achieve – for both themselves and sponsors – significant increased global market penetration not just in the USA, Canada and Australasia but also in less immediately obvious markets like India and Russia. 

The biggest community platform in the South of Scotland, the Big Burns Supper is an annual three-week winter fringe festival that features over 300 shows. A modern take on a traditional celebration, the event honours Robert Burns, the famous “bard on the banknote”. Widely regarded as Scotland’s national poet, Burns was born in the late 18th century and is perhaps best known for penning “Auld Lang Syne”. The undisputed theme to New Year’s celebrations across the world, Burns also owes his reputation to pioneering the Romantic literary tradition which stretched far from his birthplace in Alloway, Scotland.  

As a highly unique social cooperative made up of over 170 members, the Big Burns Supper brings together a huge network that is committed to powering change. With a firm emphasis on inclusivity, the Big Burns Supper attracts a large and diverse audience by hosting high profile artists and performers. Extending its reach beyond the South of Scotland, the festival also streams digitally to connect with a worldwide community.

Providing the opportunity for brands to get involved in such an exciting festival, BDS designed a sponsorship strategy that allows businesses to participate in meaningful ways to earn greater visibility. Fast becoming a truly global celebration, the sponsorship opportunity is undoubtedly unique in character and highly rewarding in terms of value. 

Why is Rabbie Burns so popular across the world?

The Big Burns Supper is now embraced across the world, with the livestreaming of performances enabling the festival to establish new audiences in places as far away as India. The below graph helpfully illustrates the distribution of this global audience:

Big Burns Supper Pie Chart: Our Global Market - Segments: UK 43%, India 16%, Europe 16%, Russia 10%, North Asia 6%, North America 5%, South America 2%, Other 2%

Representing the local, UK, European and global appeal of the festival, this graph does beg the question of why Rabbie Burns is seemingly more popular in India than other international territories. What about the bard resonates so strongly with people who live 5,000 miles from his home? The answer, it turns out, has to do with his relationship to Rabindranath Tagore, India’s own national bard. Inspired by, and alluding to Burns in many of his works, Tagore’s work represents a connection between the two countries that stretches back centuries. It’s no wonder, then, that India so keenly joins in with the annual Burns Supper celebrations. This cross-cultural appeal is visible back in Scotland, with events like the Tartan and Turbans show celebrating the confluence of traditions that have come to define Scotland. 

In short, the Big Burns Supper brings together a global community to celebrate Scotland’s past and present. 

A breakdown of the crowd:

67% of our audience are female. Our best performing channel is Facebook (47%). Strongest global markets are India (17%), Russia (10%), Europe (16%)

Going beyond the cultural distinctions, the above statistics illustrate the diverse demographic that makes up the Big Burns Supper, and the opportunities that sponsoring businesses are able to leverage when getting involved.

To find out more about the Big Burns Supper, or to discover how BDS can help to provide your organisation with a powerful sponsorship strategy, simply get in touch with a member of our team today.