I received an email invite to an event this morning. It was from a Summit in Singapore called FUTR Asia 2018.

It was an announcement of their KEYNOTE speakers along with other details of the event. I can’t remember subscribing to their list (but that’s a separate matter to be addressed I am sure in later blog posts) but I was surprised to see how they have listed their sponsors.

Event Sponsorship Packages

Judging by the title of the summit “FUTR” it’s being pitched as a cutting edge, thought leadership type summit. This being the case you may expect that it would be offering its sponsors tailored event sponsorship packages based on their specific desires: this is definitely the FUTR of event sponsorship.

That’s what I would expect from any event that was looking to the future or in fact living in the present. I advised ditching the Bronze/Silver/Gold packages back in 2013!

However, demise of the bronze, silver and gold package is greatly exaggerated. Here’s the sponsors details as contained on that FUTR email:

This approach gives the totally wrong impression of your event and the engagement of your sponsor

I checked their website and it said: “All our sponsorship packages are bespoke, so get in touch now” Unfortunately I had to provide my email address to download the brochure, so I will have to take their word for it. However, listing sponsors as G/S/B does not smack of a bespoke package, EVEN if you actually offer that to sponsors.

In fact it harks back to the bad old days of event sponsorship packages.

One of the best ways to date your event and to turn off sponsors is to have this type of tiered offer that seems to only link to placement of your logo.

Event sponsorship has to be much more of a partnership

I recently had a meeting with a client who was interested in sponsoring one of our events. We opened up the conversation by asking these two questions:

• what are your objectives for any sponsorship?
• how will we know if the campaign has been a success?

Following their response we were able to start to consider how best our event could support their objectives and in what way they could engage with our event.

We could have of course taken another approach, but the idea of saying “what package are you interested in?” as a convention starter sounds so foreign, so 1990s.

If you have an event that looks to the FUTR then offer your supporters a partnership approach based on a tailored service.

Gallus Events are running two best practice Creative Event Sales, Marketing and Sponsorship online workshops (12.30pm – 4pm GMT) 16th and 23rd November. It’s a bronze, silver and gold package free zone!