I’m a big fan of B2B partnership marketing.  Strategic alliances can open so many doors that otherwise wouldn’t be available for reaching corporate and consumer audiences.

Sports sponsorships are especially popular.  These deals make up approximately 70% of the $65B+ sponsorship industry.  Depending on your business and objectives, they can be a great option for your marketing mix.

To make the most of this platform, though, you need a package that includes the right assets for your brand.  Media, hospitality, intellectual property, etc.—all these and more go into your typical corporate sponsorship.  If negotiated well and activated properly, the brand should gain a positive return on what can be a sizable investment.  On the other end, the property (e.g., team, league, school, etc.) expands its revenue stream and enhances its fan experience.  Sponsorship’s a two-way street.

Unfortunately, brands as the buyers sometimes expect the properties as the sellers to do all the legwork in coming up with a partnership proposal that sticks.  Well, you know your business better than they do, Mr. Brand.  This is your chance to propose ideas that will help you so you can get things across the finish line.

During my agency days, we were representing a leading professional-services brand during a renewal with an NHL team.  Success required a fresh approach to come up with a solution that made everyone happy.  Being a case study guy, I’ll lay the story out here in traditional, no-frills format.

Challenge

Our client was one of the team’s longest and biggest sponsors.  Their marketing leaders felt it was time to refresh parts of their deal.  This was straightforward in many areas, but we ran into challenges on upgrading their hospitality.

They had a handful of rinkside seats already.  Being on the glass is always fun, but you only need so many tickets at a time.  Since a separate business unit owned a suite, our client had no appetite to buy a second one in this deal.  But, box access to anyone outside of that unit was limited, so it did no good for the rest of the company.

The other issue we faced was a value gap.  Our valuation of the assets came up short of the rights fee, meaning that what they’d get was worth less than what they’d pay.  No dice.  So, since neither side was giving way on the dollar, it was time to get creative.

Solution

We needed a new client-entertainment option that increased the value of the deal without increasing the rights fee.  This tends to be tough when simple economics dictates that more stuff equals more money.

We had to think differently.  If the team (justifiably) wouldn’t part with its existing seat inventory without a change in price tag, why don’t we just create our own?  We pitched construction of a brand-new, four-person section for our client’s exclusive use.  It would sit in the lower bowl within one of the wider vomitoriums (i.e., the terribly-named tunnels leading out to the concourse).  The open-air, raised platform would be decked out with carpeting, cocktail tables, flatscreen TV, a laptop, and private usher.

The front of the platform would also be client-branded and visible to most of the arena.  Everyone would see it on the jumbo-tron as well since that space would then serve as the backdrop for the emcee’s promotions and contests throughout the game.  It would therefore be an upgrade to the team’s existing “fan zone” along with a front-and-center entertainment perk for our client’s guests.

Team execs loved it.

Results

The chief outcome:  we got the deal done.  More importantly, we did it in a way that left smiles on everyone’s faces.

• Our client received an additional, exclusive hospitality asset. It was quite literally one of a kind.  No one had ever done anything like it there or, to our knowledge, anywhere else.
• We closed the value gap through the four seats and the additional media exposure from the branded backdrop. Your classic two-for-one.
• The team didn’t have to part with existing ticket inventory, which it could go sell elsewhere at a premium.
• Even better, it now also had a highly-attractive new asset to sell if our client ever walked away.
• Construction, signage, and electronics costs were minor, so the rights fee stayed put. Each side split the expense, with our client simply pulling from that season’s pre-approved activation budget instead of going back to the corporate coffers.

Specific figures obviously have to remain confidential here (even though I’m a big proponent of using them when possible for both full-length and mini studies).  But, the takeaway is that the buyer has just as much of an opportunity to create value for the seller as the other way around.  It’s not always a pricing game.  Creativity on both sides often moves things along faster so that you can start enjoying the benefits you worked so hard to get.

Like those seats.  They were pretty awesome.

Creativity is much easier when you know your prospect’s business, needs, and pain points.  Shoot me a line to talk about how we can tie your solution to their situation in even more compelling ways.