Business conferences are like chess games.
You never know how your attendance is going to play out. What sessions will be great. What will stink. Where the best networking is.
Despite having attended multiple versions of the IEG Sponsorship Conference in the past, I decided this was the year to change up my regular modus operandi. I resolved to understand from as many sources as I could, what’s actually happening in the global sponsorship industry in 2016. My not so hidden agenda was to come out with an insight, or three, that could be utilized for a future marketing opportunity.
I think the question could be best positioned as What’s Changed in Sponsorship? The answer isn’t simple but can fill three buckets: (1) Nothing; (2) Everything; (3) Anything.
- Nothing.
Yes nothing. Shockingly brands are still sponsoring what the C-Suite wants. Shockingly brands are still utilizing gut instinct. Shockingly awareness is still being referenced as a key benefit of sponsorship.
Equally as surprising is the fact that many speakers and delegates still think that suggesting themes as “start with your objectives,” “know your audience,” and “we only do custom proposals,” is somehow innovative or unique.
Despite these relics from the past, there is one significant theme that thankfully hasn’t disappeared and is critical to the existence of the industry. That is the simple reality that nothing ties into passions of a consumer more powerfully than sponsorship. It might come in a different package today, think YouTube influencer, but the core remains the same.
- Everything.
Even IEG is being repositioned as a newsletter and conference company, as they are part of a WPP consolidation that has created a new company called ESP properties. Legendary founder Lesa Ukman declared this was her last year hosting her venerable conference. In 2017 Ukman will be a delegate.
B2B is converging with B2C as brand marketers realize they aren’t selling business to business, they are selling human to human. As the role of small and innovative business increasingly becomes more important in global economies, the need for corporate marketers to achieve scale is also driving this.
The NBA is allowing jersey sponsorship. It’s a three-year test with a plethora of rules and regulations. The first major league to do so. The Cleveland Cavaliers, for example, have an interesting question to be answered. How much will a company pay to have their logo on LeBron James.
- Anything.
What continues to amaze me about the business we are in, is that you can create, invent, or design anything you can dream. No single speaker epitomized this more than superstar keynote Dean Kamen. The holder of four hundred patents, he has invented devices that help people with diabetes, cancer, limb loss, mobility issues and more. His creations range from the Segway to the Coca-Cola Freestyle machine to a machine that can generate power from cow dung.
Kamen created FIRST in 1989 to encourage and inspire kids to participate in science. His mission was to create a science competition that resembled a youth sports league. Today the property has over one million participants from eighty plus countries, and over sixty thousand people at a massive world championship. Kamen is a genius. His prosthetic arm for ARPA is allowing wounded soldiers to regain their independence. He didn’t create his property to gain fame or wealth. He has that. He created his property to help build the youth of today into the leaders of tomorrow. His IEG pitch was to find partners who could help him build FIRST to a place of ubiquity. So that every child in America, and perhaps the world, can be exposed to science. His model is an amazing one that could be patterned for any program.
Too many people still seemed to confuse the changes in technology with changes in marketing. I’m not the first to suggest this. However, just because anyone with an iPhone can produce a video or a banner, doesn’t mean that’s where the opportunity lies. The opportunity lies in the reality that sponsorship is an industry where you can create anything. It’s the most flexible and adaptable marketing form and continues to be so.
Whoever coined the phrase The more things change, the more they stay the same, best summarized this year’s IEG Sponsorship Conference.
As a company IEG was a global thought leader in sponsorship-building approaches and protocols that have become ubiquitous throughout the industry. It will be interesting to see how its conference and newsletter fare when they are disconnected from the actual business. In some respects I’m sad to see the end of Lesa Ukman’s tenure.
Perhaps the change makes me feel old.