B2B Sponsorships are Dead

B2B sponsorships are dead. For 2024 and beyond, we're ditching the idea of sponsorships completely. We just don't believe in the value of putting your name on a sign and then having permission to market to people. I'm defining sponsorship here as a cash and/or in-kind fee paid to a property in return for access to the exploitable commercial potential associated with that property. 

The assumption here is that the "property" (or event) is doing the work to draw an audience that a sponsor wants to tap into. But more and more, those events are asking sponsors to help market the event so they can expand their audience acquisition strategy. So why, as a sponsor, would I pay you money for me to have to market for you to bring an audience to your event so I can sell to them? Makes me wonder why I wouldn't just do it myself!

So I am proclaiming that the old way of doing B2B sponsorships is dead ... and Collabs are the new path.

A collab, short for collaboration, is a situation in which two or more people work together to create, achieve, or promote (= encourage people to buy or use) something. You've seen them with consumer products for the last couple of years, and if you haven't noticed, check out 12 of the best ones here.

One of the examples in the link above is this 2,287-piece LEGO set that is a recreation of the most iconic scene from Stranger Things. Once pieced together, you can literally flip this set upside down to play into the duality of realms seen in the show, complete with a mini Demagorgon! SO COOL!!

LEGO and Stranger Things fans alike raved about this set, doubling the reach of the product. This particular LEGO set is rated for ages 16+, making the target audience teens and young adults. It is estimated that 31% of people between the ages of 18 and 29 watched every episode of Stranger Things. This partnership increased the exposure for both brands and brought together the two audiences of LEGO and Stranger Things.

In the fast food industry, do you remember the Doritos Locos Taco from Taco Bell? Fun fact: Taco Bell had to hire 15,000 more employees when it launched in 2012 to keep up with the insane demand for this collaboration! Talk about a shared success story!

Collabs in B2B

In B2B, thinking about collabs is WAY more interesting to us than signing up for sponsorships. This will not be an easy conversion in B2B, I know, but think about the possibilities! 

Sponsorships generally serve one of two purposes. Either the event producer is looking to: 

1. Offset the overall cost of the event and make the price tag more accessible to participants (or even free).

2. Or to add to the revenue stream for the company putting the event on (in addition to registration fees) because the company uses the event as a profit center.

Both are great reasons to sell sponsorships!

Sponsors are generally looking to accomplish two things:

1. Brand recognition in being aligned with the company putting on the event or the people who are gathering for the event.

2. Lead generation for themselves from the participants at the event through content, networking, and conversations.

As sponsors are having to get more discerning in their choices, paying $30k to sponsor a lunch and get 10 minutes to speak before everyone is served their meal might not attract me to your event as an opportunity to meet my goals. But if we were to collaborate on a networking lunch where you drive the audience and I get to not only have my SMEs at the tables leading engaging conversations over family style meals for an hour, but also get to help facilitate the participants meeting other great people with similar interests, that's a true collaboration. I'll still pay the $30k, and I may even pay more to get my 10 SMEs into that lunch to facilitate the conversations!

Paying $100k to sponsor the closing night party may give me momentary brand recognition, but it doesn't let me truly get value from the experience. But if we were to collaborate on the event with VIP meet and greets with the band for my key customers, co-brand AND co-host the party, include activity stations relevant to my brand and yours, and truly make it feel like we're in this together, THAT would be more meaningful to my brand and help me meet my goals from both brand awareness and relationship-building. 

Stop being lazy

The old way of selling your participants to your sponsors has driven laziness in our industry. 

Sponsors buy off the shelf, get limited return on investment, but are happy enough to take the easy route. 

Event producers plan their event the way they always do it and sell pre-made sponsorship menus. 

Event organizers get their money. 

Sponsors check a box. 

Attendees are the ones who suffer. 

Designing for connection

I had the pleasure of being on Miguel Neves' Skift Meetings Event Design Summit a while back with Megan Henshall and Naomi Clare Crellin discussing designing for connection, and the big takeaway I had from that conversation was: KNOW WHO YOU'RE DESIGNING FOR! 

If it is not part of your event mission to help participants connect with the people and companies that can accelerate their career or business, then you don't have to consider designing for connection at all. 

But if it is, even just a little, then you should be all in. 

As we continue to design experiences for Return on Emotion, we know that people want to have shared, memorable moments to connect over. It takes more creativity. It takes more resources. But it achieves a much greater impact.

We're excited to see collabs take off and watch just how creative companies can be when they put their heads together, and just how much more value the participants will receive from that creativity!