A business needs to reduce and/or restructure its mix of marketing and communications as a result of changing market conditions and shrinking margins. Sponsorship is currently the dominant instrument in the mix. In the scope of this restructuring the budget needs to be reduced by 40-50%.
Simply eliminate individual projects? But which ones? Reduce activation budgets? Change their sponsor status (to co-sponsor rather than primary sponsor)?
It is quickly discovered that these measures would fail to achieve the goal. Prepare a solid situation analysis, define a detailed profile of sponsorship requirements, more clearly develop the role of sponsorship in the marketing mix, and negotiate new objectives – these actions form the professional basis for an assessment of existing sponsorship projects. It quickly becomes clear that a number of projects, or even complete thematic blocks, no longer deliver the desired returns and thus should not be continued after the contract expiration. This means that more than just the required elimination measures can be realized, thereby making room for the evaluation of new sponsorship involvements which are appropriate to the changing demands. The implementation was planned in detail in a concept for transformation, so that the necessary changes for all the involved stakeholders were realized fairly and compatibly.
Conclusion:
The initial challenge of a round of cost-cutting gave rise to a new, current and forward-looking conception for sponsorship.