MARKETING NIRVANA: PRIMER FOR EVENT MARKETING THROUGH MULTIPLE PARTNERSHIP MODELS!
by LINDA KAZARES, FACE-TO-FACE CONNECT
Partnership is a good buzzword in today’s marketing vocabulary. It’s a particularly good term when attempting to add that warm and fuzzy closeness marketers bestow on all types of relationships. There are three relationships often referred to as partnerships that can be meaningful if leveraged effectively. They are customers, strategic alliances and co-marketers.
If a ‘partnership’ is based on money paid by a sponsor to an event organizer, the partner is a customer. If it’s a relationship that trades or swaps services and drives visibility, brand, or database development (like a marketing services swap with a magazine publisher), then it’s a co-marketing partnership. If it’s a relationship that has mutually significant goals and financial outcome, that’s a partnership called a strategic alliance.
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Primary Partnership Types
1. Customers who pay to participate
2. Strategic alliances that share risk and reward.
3. Co-marketing relationships that exchange services without financial remuneration.
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PARTNERSHIP HYPE
The term ‘partnership’ is highly overused in today’s market. Every day we hear about new strategic partnerships (not to be confused with strategic alliances) intended to generate all manner of benefits for the organizers, attendees, and industry.
In reality, most of these relationships are co-marketing mechanisms companies use to tap into each other’s database, expertise and affiliations to enhance brand exposure through a halo effect. They also generally work best for the company with the least to offer and most to gain. If you enter into any type of co-operative partnership, make sure your pay-off is equal to or exceeds your investment of time or money.
The most fundamental reason an event company will partner is to bolster sponsorships sales or attendee registration, help the PR effort, and provide an emotional safety net if the event tanks. Short term ‘partnerships’ typically include swaps of service, list use, or exhibit space for the target event. Longer term relationships or strategic alliances will often include equal investments of time, money, product and/or services.
WHEN TO PARTNER
The right time to partner depends on your objectives. Each of the three relationships mentioned have substantially different pluses and minuses. Let’s explore!
You’re always going to devote the most time into the ‘customer partnership’ since it is a direct revenue source. Before I ever announce an event I secure initial sponsors who will support the event. Their check is the first vote of confidence toward a successful program.
Next would be the relationship where two companies put up money or significant resources to produce an event. If you are already instilled with supreme confidence but lack some critical skills or bandwidth, consider a strategic alliance partnership with a event service provider, industry association, or non-profit organization willing to invest in the project to share risk and rewards.
Finally, a co-marketing partnership requires the least care and feeding. In fact, it should be an integral part of most event marketing plans.
TURNING SPONSORS INTO PARTNERS
While a sponsor surely adds value to an event through financial support, they are even more important to adding cache, content input, broadening the target audience, and attracting an incremental registration.
Your job is to add value to the sponsor beyond what’s written in the contract so you build a long-term mutually beneficial relationship. For instance, several years ago I brought in a highly visible, top-level sponsor who spent a lot of money on their first event with us.
The event was so successful that it raised the visibility of the event to the senior marketing executive who decided to focus his budget on our events for the next twelve months. We partnered on new tutorial sessions that drew press and additional paid attendees. These special events were tailored to the sponsor’s brand and message. The sponsor negotiated a new top-level sponsorship with me that was exclusive to their market segment for the duration of the relationship. They also agreed with me not to sponsor competitive events at the same or higher level.
The value to both companies was equal in different ways. It directly impacted our financials through increased registration and greater press attention for the event. It lowered the sponsor’s cost to launch their new products to our highly targeted audience.
A future article in Face-to-Face Marketing Journal (www.f2fconnect.com) will focus on sponsorships where I will detail an entire program discussing how to build and implement this type of partnership, so I won’t spend more time here. Let’s move on into our next juicy partnership which is the strategic alliance.
RISK-REWARD PARTNERSHIPS
Boy, do I have experience in this area. And let me tell you, frankly, that unless you have every contingency factored in, which is almost impossible, this partnership has way more risk than reward.
Money, Money, Money
The primary risk in this relationship is that eventually if the numbers look good, the partner may decide they can go it alone. If you’re the event producer, make sure you have some sort of time-elapse non-compete. Make sure you copyright/trademark everything connected with the event so your brand will be strong when your partner does break off to compete with you.
We’re all in this for the financial upside. Even non-profits are financially aggressive and will compete with you if it looks like they can improve their profitability on their own. The financials drive every relationship. Sort out the financial arrangements before you start fantasizing about how the partnership will be the leader in the world market for widgets! Money should be the focus of the time you spend with your attorney crafting the contract. If you don’t have several thousand dollars to invest in lawyer fees, then you’re not ready for this type of partnership.
Habitual Negotiators
Be wary of the partner that agrees to one set of conditions, and constantly changes them until you just about have no time to even produce the event or get another partner. This ‘partner’ is often stalling through contract negotiations for one of two reasons. They are either using your relationship to do their own research about hosting the event on their own. Or, they don’t have the money to support the partnership and are delaying until it’s too late for you to pull out. Let’s face it, we all have second thoughts, but get rid of the habitual negotiator.
Side Deals
Just say ‘NO.’ No side deals. They never benefit the overall goals. Get absolutely everything on paper. If your partner’ contact doesn’t want everything on paper, then you’ve got a problem right from the start.
Contingency Terms
There’s too much going on building an event to have to keep track of contingency terms. Those terms include ‘if we hit XX dollars, then our share increases to XX.’ What may happen is that the dollars can increase, but profit may not. I’ve also never seen a contract that reduces the partnership share if the numbers fall short of goal!
Signature Authority
The contract should name one entity with consequences for breaking the agreement who controls the money and purchasing authority once a budget and plan are agreed upon. I had a partner in a series of events who would make purchasing commitments on behalf of the event. The purchases were typically ‘panic’ buys for advertising, mailing lists and consultants. None were mutually agreed upon or authorized. We paid for purchases that never paid off.
Partner to Purchase
If you decide to partner with a company because one of you has an interest in acquiring the other – don’t. Either sell, or move on. Many will tell you that this is a perfect test ground to see if the companies are compatible. Most companies with equal management teams are NOT compatible, and this is not a good way to test or seal the deal.
When The Honeymoon Is Over
You could say I’m jaded. I’ve learned so much over the years partnering on projects that have an equal stake, but have never found the right combination of integrity, intelligence, or mutual goals to sustain the relationship more than a couple event cycles. Either do a project FOR the other company and get paid a service fee. Or, hire them for a fee to do the work you need done. But DON’T partner.
And if you do partner, try to end the relationship well. Of the many partnerships I’ve established in this area, all but one have remained good contacts. The one that ended badly comes back to haunt me regularly. It’s been petty, nasty and mean spirited!
EVENT CO-MARKETING PARTNERSHIPS
Co-marketing partnerships (non-financial based) are the easiest to establish, easiest to replace, and quickest to dissolve. They can add high value to any event producer who wants visibility within the partner’s customer and target list. To your co-marketing partners the event adds direct access to companies who may become new customers for them.
Database swaps, print advertising in magazine publications and content/speaker contribution are all valuable assets and deserve comparable services in exchange.
Swap Offer: Event Organizer Provides
I’ve found that co-marketing swaps are generally highly customized for each relationship (unlike, for instance, exhibitor agreements which should be the same for everyone.) Each partner has different objectives and measured value in swaps. Trades typically include no or low cost marketing opportunities.
No Cost Swaps: Speaker or session moderator slot, advisory board, content input, magazine distribution, employee attendance (you don’t have to feed them) and logo on event web site.
Low Cost Swaps: Bins to hold the magazines, signage and banners.
Swap Items: Co-marketer Provides (Rated Excellent to Bad)
Excellent
Ask for anything email. Any type of direct email announcements (assumes a technology savvy target audience) is great. There is generally no cost to you, and they are usually opt-in names. Plus, unlike print advertising in a magazine that has dozens of other pages of advertising, an email is usually short. Your announcement, even if it’s not an exclusive blast, should get attention and immediate feedback.
Another outstanding swap is to allow the publisher to survey the attendees with a topic germane to the event as long as your event is co-branded on the resulting report. The final ‘expert’ opinion report is a terrific ‘FREE with registration’ offer for your next event. Plus, it will keep the memory of your event alive when the publisher initially distributes the report.
Good
If your event print communications can be sent directly to their database, it’s a better the value than stuffers. That’s why email mentioned above is so great. Try to avoid a stuffer or insert into their bulk mailing. There’s too little control over who it’s sent to or when and your print cost can get out of control.
Most magazine lists are dirty (especially high-tech given the amount of turnover in the past 12 months) and your ability to sort and select is very limited. A free mailing database may seem attractive until you factor in the cost to mail to a list that will have anywhere from 10% to 40% returns.
Print ads, though they don’t usually drive registration, are good for adding value to your sponsorship package. Sponsors can justify print because they can touch it.
Input on agenda development, participation on an advisory board, and exhibit space are all fine benefits you can also provide in trade.
Bad
Too much face time on your agenda for the swapping partner. I did one event that had so many of the publisher’s editors hosting sessions we had trouble with our branding that year. Besides, editors typically aren’t the best speakers or moderators so their participation in such high numbers eroded the overall dynamic of the event.
PARTNERING NIRVANA
While I may have focused on much of the downside, there is so much good to be derived from partnerships as long as you keep the following in mind:
- Nothing lasts forever; when it ends don’t take it personally and do everything in your power to make it end well.
- The players all have their own best interest in mind, so make sure you set an appropriate expectation for the outcome of any partnership.
- Partnerships are not the magic bullet in your success story. They are a component. Make a point of creating a balanced plan that maps a complete strategy, and of course include a partnership or two!
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CO-MARKETING OPTIONS WITH MAGAZINE PUBLISHER
Publisher Trades:
- Print, radio, TV, web advertising swaps
- Access to editors (but not automatic event coverage)
- Special event review section in advance of the event
- Assistance in content development
- Pre-event surveys and research
- Web links
- Access to their mailing lists
- Email blast announcements
Event Organizer Trades:
- Magazine bins
- Exhibit space
- Speaker slot
- Session moderator slot
- Signage
- Pre-event access to sponsors and attendees
- Visibility in print materials, mailings, web promotion
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About Linda Kazares, Face-to-Face Connect
Producing events to acquire, train and retain CUSTOMERS AND partners!
Linda is a seasoned industry executive with over 20 years in high-tech marketing and sales, plus event production at companies including CEO of Ambit International Inc., and Vice President, Custom Events for Key3Media, the producer of Comdex. She is an author, artist, consultant and the publisher of Face-to-Face Marketing Journal (www.f2fconnect.com).
Face-to-Face Connect combines the best of event programs and face-to-face partner marketing through live training, product launches and customer retention events. The company’s key focus is to work with clients creating the most effective strategy for acquiring, training, and retaining customers, partners and affiliates through high impact live events.
Contact Linda Kazares 415.309.6536 or
emailfor more information.
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