MT243 Unit 5 Sponsorship Proposal Example

Six Thousand Members in Eighteen Months: A Unit 5 Sponsorship Proposal to a Credit Union Opening Four Branches

[Student Name]

Purdue University Global

MT243: Sport Sponsorships and Sales

Unit 5 Sponsorship Proposal

[Instructor Name]

[Date]

The Harbor Point Marathon Weekend, Meridian Lakes Credit Union, its plans and every figure are composite and illustrative; the sources cited are real.

To: Chief Marketing Officer, Meridian Lakes Credit Union From: Partnership Coordinator, Harbor Point Marathon Weekend

Your Situation

Within eighteen months Meridian Lakes will have four new branches in the metro, its first step outside its home county. Your most recent annual report sets a goal of 6,000 new members across those branches and names households under 45 as the hardest group to reach. Only about 4 percent of metro households hold an account with you today, so most of the people you want have never heard of you. You have told us that your digital advertising reaches them but rarely persuades them to visit a branch.

This proposal is built around those three facts: you need members, you need to be known in four specific areas, and you want your new branch staff to become part of their neighborhoods.

Three Objectives

We propose that the partnership serve three objectives, each with its own assets.

Member acquisition. The goal is new accounts opened by people who meet you through the event. The assets are an account-opening station at the expo, where about 19,500 visits happen over two days; a runner offer of a fee-free checking account available only through the event; and branded pace bands, printed free at your station for any runner who signs up for your emails.

Awareness in your branch areas. The goal is recognition in the four neighborhoods around the new branches. The assets are presenting rights: your name on the event title, on all 14,200 bibs, on the start and finish arches and across the four-hour livestream. About 1,900 registrants live within three miles of your planned branches.

Employee engagement. The goal is giving your new branch teams a reason to work together and be seen in their communities. The assets are a cheer zone at mile 20, staffed by your employees, and volunteer shifts at aid stations near the branches.

Why the Marathon Fits

Cornwell et al. (2005) describe sponsorship as working best when the sponsor's message and the event's meaning connect in the audience's mind. A credit union that helps runners reach a goal over sixteen weeks of training fits a race about reaching a goal. Mullin et al. (2014) note that participant events offer sponsors a more engaged audience than spectator events, because participants invest time in the event long before it happens. Runners are also the audience you described: median age 38, most living in the metro, and training for four months, which gives you time to reach them more than once.

Activation Over Sixteen Weeks

The partnership is not a single weekend. Training begins sixteen weeks before the race. We propose an activation calendar that puts you in front of runners throughout that period, with group runs from your branches, the expo in race week and follow-up after the race. The full activation plan, with a budget, would be developed with your team after signing, and we estimate it at about seventy cents for every dollar of the rights fee.

Measurement

We propose measuring the partnership by outcomes you already track. New members would be counted when they open an account using an event code within sixty days of the race. Awareness would be measured in your quarterly tracking survey, comparing the four branch areas before and after the event. Employee engagement would be counted in volunteer hours. We would agree the exact counting rules with you before the first group run, so that neither side is defending a number after the fact. Crompton (2004) warns that sponsorships judged on loose exposure measures are hard to renew, and we would rather be judged on members.

Price and Terms

We offer presenting rights at $165,000 a year. The fee includes the title and every asset listed above, plus exclusivity in the financial services category, so no other bank, credit union or lender may sponsor any part of the event. We propose one season firm, with an option for two more seasons at the same fee, exercisable by you after you have seen the first year's results.

For context, the cost of reaching a new member through this partnership would fall to about $92 if the partnership produced 1,800 members in its first year, before activation costs. We understand you will compare that figure with your own cost of acquiring members through digital advertising, and we expect the comparison to be favorable.

You would be paying for members in four neighborhoods, not for a logo on an arch.

What We Ask of You

To make the partnership work, we would need three things from you: a staff member who can attend planning meetings monthly from signing to race day, employees for the cheer zone and expo station, and access to account-opening data by event code so we can report results together.

Next Steps

If these objectives match yours, we propose a meeting within two weeks to confirm the counting rules and the activation calendar, aiming for signatures within six weeks so the first branch group run can go ahead in June.

References

Cornwell, T. B., Weeks, C. S., & Roy, D. P. (2005). Sponsorship-linked marketing: Opening the black box. Journal of Advertising, 34(2), 21-42. https://doi.org/10.1080/00913367.2005.10639194

Crompton, J. L. (2004). Conceptualization and alternate operationalizations of the measurement of sponsorship effects in sport. Leisure Studies, 23(3), 267-281. https://doi.org/10.1080/0261436042000183695

Mullin, B. J., Hardy, S., & Sutton, W. A. (2014). Sport marketing (4th ed.). Human Kinetics.