I have spent close to two decades in the field of sponsorship. Since university, I have always been fascinated in the merging of corporate and cause into one platform.
Doing it exceptionally well involves bringing together the goals of two disparate organizations seamlessly into one property. That is pure sponsorship magic.
O.K., so I am a self-professed sponsorship geek. Outside of the desire to support my favourite teams, I am the person who goes to sporting events to look at how the teams are marketing themselves and how they are integrating their corporate sponsorships.
I am in love with the sponsorship development process. Extensive research that uncovers gold Intel about a potential sponsor, then committing to the art and science of building a creative strategy that merges a client’s image and messaging with the passion points of sponsors’ customers? To me, that’s simply irresistible!
Shopping Centre-Fueled Sponsorship Arsenal
Prior to a dedicated career in sponsorship, I spent nine years in the shopping centre industry.
I am the first to admit that I would not have garnered the sponsorship success I have enjoyed, had it not been for the integrated marketing one-person show experience that mall marketing directors have to be.
Moreover, my property management employers at the time were ICSC award-driven.
The International Council of Shopping Centres (ICSC) is the trade organization for the international shopping centre industry. Each year, in most countries, ICSC organizes national and international award competitions.
Typically, all marketing award winners share a common trait – they created a marketing program with a number of promotional arms and legs (layers) that worked seamlessly together to deliver tangible business results.
I am proud to say that I won five ICSC awards over a three-year period at the height of my shopping centre marketing career phase.
I am here to tell you that this quest-to-be-the-best conditioning not only grounded my sponsorship career, it enabled my work to stand out and flourish.
The ICSC Sponsorship Lens
When I choose a Sponsorship Star to profile, I look for those same ICSC award-winning layering elements.
Subaru’s LOVE campaign
One such Sponsorship Star is Subaru in the US and their LOVE Promise campaign. I love it!
Subaru’s central marketing rests on its Love Your Subaru platform. What this automaker did was to leverage this simple creative Love Promise platform and extend it to sponsorship that linked the passions points of their customers in each market.
The three-year-old campaign builds on Subaru’s long-running support of such worthy causes as health, education, animal welfare and the environment, along with causes championed by its customers – all with the ultimate goal of making the world a better place.
“We will always care about the things our owners care about. We wanted to put more attention on the philanthropic space,” said Bridget Hanrahan, Subaru promotional/sponsorship marketing manager.
The Love Promise campaign is comprised of five cause platforms, each of which the company supports via partnerships with nonprofits.
- Subaru Loves the Earth/National Park Foundation
- Subaru Loves to Care/ Make-A-Wish America, etc.
- Subaru Loves to Help/Meals on Wheels America, etc.
- Subaru Loves Learning/American Association for the Advancement of Science, etc.
- Subaru Loves Pets/ASPCA, etc.
This, my friends, is true sponsorship genius!
