With billions being spent each year by companies on event sponsorship, you’d think that getting a few to hop on board and send some drinks your way wouldn’t be so difficult. All sponsors, particularly alcohol sponsors, recognize that event marketing is valuable because, unlike what you traditionally think of as advertising, it’s a more effective way to target your market and position your brand. Alcohol sponsors can associate their brand with a certain type of event that they know is popular among their target demographic. This lets them niche down and target their market better than a billboard or other broadcast advertising. More importantly, it lets them associate their brand and their company with that image in the mind of the customer. As the classic advertising saying goes, “show don’t tell.” By sponsoring a unique, fun event alcohol brands are able to create the association between their product and their customers having a good time. Positioning creates desirable image and association of their product with their target market! This is all well and good, but how do you get alcohol sponsors on board for your next event?
Sell them on the benefits
Benefit #1 – Laser Targeting
Your Event should let them “Laser Target” their Market.
A lot of companies waste money on advertising in places where their target market simply isn’t. Sponsoring the right event let’s them get in front of the right people at the right time. When you’re looking for sponsors, put together detailed demographic information on your event attendees including specifics like age and income. You may also want create an “attendee persona” or an imaginary persona of what a typical attendee at the event will look like so sponsors have a clear image of who they’ll be reaching.
Benefit #2 – Positioning
Convincing potential alcohol sponsors that your event is a good demographic match for their target market is the first step. Next, you need to show them how your event fits in with their brand positioning and image. When you’re thinking about which potential sponsors to approach, think about how well their brand image syncs up with your event. Brands trying to appeal to a younger, party-going demographic like to sponsor concerts and festivals because they want to have their brand associated with good times and good music. On the other hand, a premium wine brand might be more interested in sponsoring some sort of charity gala held in a hotel ballroom. They want to create an image refinement, class and sophistication. No matter what type of brand you’re appealing to, it’s key that you be well prepared and convey the professionalism and service-first mentality that the event is going to be run with. That means when you’re pitching them, you need to be fully prepared to both present you offer and answer any questions they may have.
Benefit #3 – Exposure
There’s also the opportunity for more brand exposure than to just the event attendees. Events often attract media attention. Whether it’s industry media, local media, or even national media, there’s the opportunity for coverage that will reach a much broader audience that hasn’t been exposed to their brand before. If you can reach out to news outlets and have them agree to cover your event, that’s more value that you’re providing the sponsors by getting their brand exposure.
How it’s Done
One of our customers, the Montalban Theatre in Los Angeles, recently hosted the Hola Mexico Fiml Festival. Victoria, an ultra-premium lager that’s part of the Grupo Modelo conglomerate, sponsored the event and had their logo placed on a pair of portable bars. From Victoria’s perspective, they were able to associate their brand with a film festival featuring actors, directors, producers, bands, and chefs well known and like by their target market. They were able to put their brand in front of 25,000 potential customers in the process. Not a bad idea for Victoria, huh? By clearly defining who’s going to be at your event and how the event fits into the companies overall brand strategy, it will be much easier to bring in alcohol sponsors that want to appeal to that market. When you’re pitching potential sponsors, create an image of what the event will look like so they can clearly see the benefit in sponsorship. The Hola Mexico Film Festival, beyond featuring great films, had plenty of drinks, a mariachi band, and some of Los Angeles best chefs! Would an ultra-premium brand like Victoria want to be associated with great food? great music? great films? Hmmm. Let me think about it…. YES! Make the decision easy for them.
Where to Feature Alcohol Sponsors
The final part of getting alcohol sponsor for your event is offering them a package of where they’ll be able to place their logo and branding. Call us crazy, but we think this is a pretty good spot for…the bar!
We thought it was such a good idea that we specifically made our Professional Portable Bar, Standard Portable Bar, and Portable Back Bar with interchangeable vinyl panels so you can have a different set of panels printed for each sponsor for every event. The bars are ideal for placing sponsors because they attract a LOT of attention. At over 60″ wide and the backlit with LED lights, both our bars create a presence that stands out in any venue.
In the testimonial video below, the Professional Portable Bar was used to advertise “Russian Standard Vodka.” Watch now.
