A sponsorship manager develops partnerships between corporations and external marketing assets, handling day-to-day progress, negotiations, and contract renewals. They evaluate the effectiveness of the investment and make recommendations on whether to renew the sponsorship.
A sponsorship manager is responsible for initiating and developing the partnership between a corporation and an external marketing asset. This person can be hired as a corporate employee or as an asset employee. The asset provides the sponsorship opportunity, which can be any viable pairing of the corporation’s name with the asset’s tradable collateral, such as a special event, an athlete’s fame, or a university building.
The sponsorship manager is part of a team of marketers who handle external collaborations around special opportunities. Employed on both sides of the relationship, the manager handles the day-to-day progress of the partnership, including communications, negotiations, proposals, problem solving, project design and implementation. This position tends towards the entry level side of the marketing position spectrum and is typically assigned to accounts with low to medium level exposure.
Potential sponsorship deals start with a pitch, typically made by the asset to the corporation. In some contexts, this could be a sponsorship proposal packet sent by event organizers or an endorsement profile submitted by agents of a famous person. If the sponsorship manager works for the corporation or the asset, he is responsible for the process and early development of the relationship. On the corporate side, it drives opportunity selection, while on the asset side, it drives application through channels.
Once the relationship is established, the sponsorship manager handles contract negotiations for new sponsorships and sponsorship contract renewals with existing partners. Your ongoing responsibility is strategic relationship management. From a marketing perspective, this means having an individual plan to maximize each partnership’s returns and add value to the equation wherever possible. On the asset side, this could mean trying to sell the corporation with a more substantial investment over time, while on the corporation side, this could mean looking for opportunities to further promote the partnership beyond what was initially anticipated.
The sponsorship manager is also responsible for evaluating the effectiveness of the investment. He is fundamental in defining the goals and objectives of the partnership. It’s your job to establish milestones and benchmarks to determine when and if key goals and objectives are achieved. He needs to put a system in place to track progress towards goals and make a final report and recommendation on whether the partnership was worth the investment. Finally, the manager’s recommendation is important in determining whether the sponsorship is renewed year after year.
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