Events of all types and sizes rely on some sort of capital to fund and equip their events for success. And most do so with additional funding on top of the fees charged to their attendees, whether it comes from within their own company's budget, from outside sponsors and exhibitors, or even from volunteers and donations. Normally, we find that most clients figure out their general budget long before they even start discussions with their A/V provider, even though with a little planning, those A/V services could pay for themselves or be vastly improved while also adding value to their sponsors’ experience.
IT ALL STARTS WITH A DISCUSSION
Event budgets are always tricky. There’s seemingly never enough money in budget to get everything that everyone wants. We want to help you find a way to fix that. The more funding we can help you bring into your event, the more A/V and event services we can provide you for your event. And with more services available, you’ll have more engagement options for your guests, speakers, sponsors, and exhibitors.
When you get started planning your next event and start figuring out how you’ll be funding your event, you should ask around for A/V companies that are willing to help you find ways to expand. If you give us a call at King Audio Visual, here are a few questions I’d ask to get you started:
How have you handled event funding in the past?
What are your basic A/V requirements and what are you greatest A/ V wishes?
Do you have tiered event sponsorship packages?
Do you offer separate sponsorship packages for your specific segments of your events? (i.e breakout sessions, lunches and dinners, plenaries, networking events, specific speakers.)
Do you have exhibitors? And if so, do you have package options for them?
Do you offer ways for guests to interact with sponsors outside of basic signage and advertisements?
SPICE UP YOUR SPONSORSHIP PACKAGES
Sponsors normally have their marketing departments working on getting their image out and finding places where they can get into the hearts and minds of potential customers. Maybe your sponsorship tiers have worked out great for your events in the past. After all, those sponsors are likely interested in working with you already as long as thing went well the year before. If you’ve had signage, booths, and print ads of various sizes and prominence, they’ll know you have some of their bases covered, but their marketing departments are getting more and more savvy every day. They’ll recognize it when you add real value to their marketing options. That value stems from engagement with your attendees.
Attempts at engaging your attendees with static ads and displays are way less effective than the kinetic energy that comes from hearing and seeing what your sponsors are about. At certain tiers, you can move from print and basic signage up to more engrossing engagement with videos, by providing spaces that act like an event within your event. You can promote interviews with their staffs, Q&A sessions, or feature their company with a short video segment. You could set up sponsored social photobooths that give your attendees a great experience to post directly to their social media, both promoting your event and your sponsors’ companies. You could add social apps for engagements that will catch your guests’ eyes every time they glance down at their phone.
Or you could just use the services you’re already receiving to increase audience engagement. Most large events have a few screens and projectors for presentations and plenaries. It odd how rarely that equipment is used to it fullest. During down-time, you can run a rotation of your sponsors, or use those screens for a moderated social media wall. The latter can also be incorporated into packages by making it a sponsored social wall.
SPONSORSHIP TIERS CAN EXCLUDE POTENTIAL SPONSORS
Smart marketers don’t necessarily want the whole package of any of your tiers. They often want specific options that they can pick and choose from, based on the demographics they’re shooting for. By breaking down your sponsorship tiers, you can add more opportunities and options for a larger variety of potential sponsors. You can still keep your other sponsorship tiers, but if you already have the capability of offering them those options in a package, there’s no reason to not offer them a la carte. Even better, having priced options for specific items, such as large HD monitors in exhibitor booths, gobo lights to promote their brand, a logo added to the corner of a screen to sponsor a specific session, or something like a short Q&A session, can engage both new sponsors who want thing a la carte, and your sponsors buying full packages who want something a little extra, but don’t want to jump up a tier.
For us, this is a simple bit of logic. The more we can help you improve your budget and even cancel out the costs of your A/V, the better the event outcome AND the more you can spend on our services. Let's work on it.
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Matthew King
King Audio Visual
410-465-7600
matthewking@kingaudiovisual.com
Matthew King is the Director of Sales and Marketing at King Audio Visual and runs the new A/V and Events Services blog, Technically A/V. He grew up in the audio visual industry and has over 10 years of professional experience in the hospitality industry as a chef, event planner, audio visual technician, and operations manager.