Event sponsorship’s evolution and where it’s heading in 2020

The idea of event sponsorship has evolved noticeably over recent years. Why, you ask?

Well this is due to the advancement of the digital age, challenging brands and sponsors to get ahead from their competition in order to see results from their target market - brands do not see plastering their brand on a banner as a return of investment anymore. How many times have you seen ads play while you’re browsing the internet, watching YouTube videos or simply browsing on Instagram?

Eyeballs are not the endgame.

We’ve also seen a drastic change in part number of festivals and live events increasingly internationally. Business sectors have already started diversifying their sponsorships towards various types of events as well as activation experiences tend to be most effective when coupled with existing events.

Trends have evolved with an increase of knowledge, through years of trial and error, shaping a new era of event sponsorship. I can relate to this! IT’S THE SHIP, our cruise music festival, offering once-in-a-lifetime experiences fun activities, themed parties and non-stop music – all on international waters is a testament to this. It has now grown to become Asia’s largest festival at sea with shipmates from over 88 countries all over the world. When we embarked on our first sailing for our cruise festival, IT’S THE SHIP Singapore in 2014, we only had alcohol and tobacco brands on board IT’S THE SHIP. We did not diversify because sponsors were too focused on eyeballs and did not prioritise experiences.

This was the case up until 2017, where we noticed a change in our sponsor’s behaviour. Our sponsorship sector for IT’S THE SHIP has increased exponentially by 26% from 2017 to 2018 and 29% from 2018 to 2019. Our sponsorship brands now include a variety of international brands from different sectors such as Benefit San Francisco for cosmetics, JD Sports as a lifestyle brand and Havaianas as well.

Businesses are jumping on the bandwagon now, using sponsorships in a way that feels more memorable to their target audience as compared to what our industry traditionally expected in the past.

Some brands organise these event activations on their own. For example, Corona, hosts a series of festivals celebrating the transformational power of sunset in various iconic locations. Desperados hosted an epic “Deep House” party in the world’s deepest pool featuring producer Elrow and world-renowned DJs Peggy Gou and Artwork.

Now all this may seem expensive, and this may come across as a negative connotation for event organisers who may think that it will be harder to obtain a sponsorship, however we see this as a growth for both the brands and the events industry. Sponsors used to look at numbers, focusing on reach and awareness using traditional sponsorship methods.

Questions that we now need to ask:

• Does it fit my brand?
• How do I engage with our target audience?

The drastic change in their attitudes is causing a demand of a deeper interaction with their event audience. Engaging attendees are key in creating an organic connection with the event attendees which will result in eventual sales, and sponsors are starting to realise this.

Experiences are key, and we kept that in mind as we kick started off our consumer journey activations on board from our very first sailing. Random roving activations, contagiously cheerful acts roaming the corridors and interacting with our shipmates, pop-up bars and more greeted our shipmates throughout their time on board. Our shipmates interact naturally with these activations, creating a memorable experience between the brand and the consumers. Sponsors who came on board know understand our brand and then they are now requesting to be part of the consumer journey activations.

What about 2020?

From next year, we foresee that it will evolve even further. Brand integration will now be the main challenge for brands to engage with the platform or the product to communicate effectively, whilst being a part of a seamless experience for the consumer.

A key part of this integration process is making sure that:

1. Both sides must be a great fit

Identifying the right partners is quintessential. Consumers in this time of advertising and information overload would prefer to interact with a brand naturally instead of consuming information from ads. We work with sponsors who are open to experiential ideas are those who are interested in being part of the planning process. Allowing sponsors to be part of the planning process also creates a stronger relationship with your sponsors which will lead to returning sponsors.

1. Collaboration is key

Understanding each other’s brand identity and product is vital in how the partnership can marry both products together seamlessly. In order to achieve this, the responsibility lies with both the organiser and the brand representative. If the organiser feels that the brand does not fit their product, they should not entertain the idea of collaboration, and vice versa.

A great example of this was on IT’S THE SHIP Singapore 2018. We worked with Pepsi, which clearly expressed their goal of tapping into the nightlife market and becoming the top of mind mixer for alcoholic beverages. Instead of merely serving Pepsi as the only soft drink on board the cruise ship, we created the world’s smallest speakeasy bar - in a lift. It garnered greatly worthwhile results and the feedback from our festival-goers was positive. The image of the brand towards their target consumers was increasingly positive and more consumers looked at Pepsi as a mixer post-event. As the sponsor yielded results, they came back for the next charter of IT’S THE SHIP Singapore, a clear indication that the campaign worked.

Moving forward, brand integration is key and vital.

Organisers and brands should work towards a strong partnership and think long-term in order to yield better results and a stronger affiliation year on year.

The writer is Iqbal Ameer, group CEO, Livescape Group.