What’s sponsorship activation?

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Sponsorship activation is when a corporate sponsor promotes their sponsorship of an event or cause, with all costs absorbed by the company. Public awareness is essential for the company to benefit, and some sponsorships have special value to a company’s goals and objectives. Activation can be included as an additional obligation without impacting the sponsorship amount.

Sponsorship activation is a marketing term used to indicate the intention of a corporate sponsor to self-promote and advertise their sponsorship of a marketing opportunity. All costs associated with this promotion are absorbed by the company and are above and beyond the amount of money awarded for the sponsorship itself. The company takes responsibility for creating awareness or activation in the public eye.

Corporations pursue sponsorship opportunities to enable their corporate names, products and services to benefit by affiliating with a popular person, event, product or cause. The theory is that public goodwill and a desire to emulate the habits of famous people will lead to increased sales. While the perception is often that the company wants to provide support, in reality the expectation is that sponsorship investment will generate tangible benefits that can be measured.

The only way a sponsorship can benefit a company’s bottom line is if people know about it. Public awareness is essential, but is typically handled by the organizers of the sponsored opportunity. Most sponsorship agreements will contain a clause specifically requiring sponsorship organizers to use any means at their disposal to promote the company’s involvement. Lack of proper promotion can be grounds for the company to gain your backing and will affect renewal if the opportunity arises again on an annual basis.

Some sponsorship opportunities have special value to a company’s goals and objectives. The company may need to strengthen its will in a particular community or fight against negative publicity related to one of its products. In such cases, the company may take on the sponsorship activation and use additional resources to ensure that the affiliate gets the widest publicity possible. Return on investment is proactively managed by both sides of the relationship, easing some of the burden on sponsorship opportunity organizers.

Sponsorships are negotiated deals for an exchange of value. Part of the negotiation may include activating sponsorship if the negotiator is knowledgeable about the inner workings of a corporate budget. In large companies, the money used to set up sponsorship usually comes from the advertising budget, which is in a different budget category than sponsorship. If the sponsorship opportunity is of particular value to a company, activation can be included as an additional obligation without impacting the sponsorship amount, especially if it is year-end and the company has excess advertising money to spend . This way, the opportunity gets additional advertising at no cost.




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