| Course | MT243 Sport Sponsorships and Sales |
|---|---|
| Unit | Unit 7 |
| Paper type | Activation plan |
| Length | About 960 words, 6 pages double-spaced |
| Format | APA 7 student paper |
| School | Purdue University Global |
| Program | BS in Business Administration |
| Updated | October 2026 |
Free sample paper for MT243 Unit 7
Sixteen Weeks of Saturday Runs and a Mile 20 Cheer Zone: A Unit 7 Activation Plan for a Marathon's Presenting Partner
[Student Name]
Purdue University Global
MT243: Sport Sponsorships and Sales
Unit 7 Activation Plan
[Instructor Name]
[Date]
The Harbor Point Marathon Weekend, Meridian Lakes Credit Union, its branches and every figure are composite and illustrative; the sources cited are real.
Objectives
The plan serves the three objectives in the signed agreement. Member acquisition: new accounts opened with an event code, with a first-year target of 1,800. Awareness in the four new branch areas: measured in the credit union's quarterly survey. Employee engagement: staff from the new branches taking part in the event and its training season. Every tactic below names the objective it serves, and any tactic that serves none was dropped from the draft.
Cornwell (2020) describes activation as the spending a sponsor adds to make the rights work, and argues that rights without activation rarely produce the results sponsors expect. The rights here are strong for awareness but do little on their own for acquisition, so most of the activation budget goes to tactics that put an account offer in front of runners.
Phase One: Training Season, Weeks 1 to 15
The credit union will host eight Saturday group runs, two from each of the four new branch locations, between June and September. Each run is a five- or eight-mile route led by a pace leader from a local running club, starting and ending at the branch. After each run, the branch serves coffee and fruit, and a table staffed by two employees offers the fee-free runner account and explains the event code.
Purpose: member acquisition and awareness in the branch areas. Runners who live nearby see the branch, meet its staff and have a reason to return. The runs are listed on the event's training calendar and promoted in two of the event's emails to its 39,000 opted-in runners.
Phase Two: Race Week
The expo is the one place where nearly every registrant appears in person. The credit union's station, a 10 by 20 booth near packet pickup, prints personalized pace bands, a strip of paper worn on the wrist showing split times for a target finish, for any runner who registers an email address. Staff at the station offer the fee-free account and can open it on a tablet in about ten minutes. A small seating area lets runners sit while their pace band prints.
Purpose: member acquisition. The pace band gives runners a reason to stop and a reason to talk, and the email registration lets the credit union follow up. Wakefield (2012) argues that fans respond most to sponsors who help them take part in the event, and a pace band is a small, practical piece of help on race day.
Phase Three: Race Day
On race day, the credit union's name appears on the event title, bibs, arches and livestream under the presenting rights. Two tactics add to that. First, a cheer zone at mile 20, where marathoners often struggle most, staffed by about 120 employees in team shirts with signs and music. Second, branded finisher photo downloads: every runner's free finish photos are framed with the credit union's name and a link to the runner account offer.
Purpose: employee engagement and awareness for the cheer zone; acquisition and awareness for the photos.
The cheer zone puts the credit union's own people at the point in the race runners remember most.
Phase Four: After the Race
Two days after the race, every runner who gave an email at the expo receives a thank-you email from the credit union with a link to their pace band results, their finish photos and the account offer, valid for sixty days. A second reminder goes out at thirty days. The credit union will also post a short video of the cheer zone on its own channels.
Purpose: member acquisition. The sixty-day window matches the attribution rule in the agreement.
Budget
The activation budget totals $118,000.
Branch group runs: pace leaders, route permits, coffee and fruit, staff time, $14,000
Expo station: booth build, pace band printers and supplies, tablets, staffing, $38,000
Cheer zone: shirts, signs, sound system, food for 120 employees, $16,000
Finisher photo framing and hosting: $19,000
Post-race email and video: $6,000
Promotional materials across phases: $17,000
Contingency: $8,000
The total is about 0.7 times the $165,000 rights fee. A one-to-one ratio between activation and rights is often cited as a rule of thumb in the industry, and some sponsors spend more. This plan spends less for two reasons. The presenting rights already include the email, livestream and bib exposure that would otherwise need paid activation. And the credit union's employees provide most of the staffing for the runs, the expo and the cheer zone, which is part of the engagement objective rather than a cost.
Measurement Hooks
Every tactic carries its own event code, so the measurement plan in the next unit can tell which ones produced members: one code for the branch runs, one for the expo station, one for the photo page and one for the follow-up email. Employees' volunteer hours are logged through the event's volunteer system.
Risks
Three risks are named. Group run turnout may be low in summer heat, so runs start at 7 a.m. and carry a heat cancellation rule. The expo station may draw long lines that slow account opening, so the station has four tablets. And employees may not volunteer in the numbers planned, so branch managers will be asked to commit their teams by August. Meenaghan (2001) notes that audiences respond to a sponsor's visible effort on their behalf, which is why these tactics depend on people as much as signage.
References
Cornwell, T. B. (2020). Sponsorship in marketing: Effective partnerships in sports, arts and events (2nd ed.). Routledge.
Meenaghan, T. (2001). Understanding sponsorship effects. Psychology & Marketing, 18(2), 95-122. https://doi.org/10.1002/1520-6793(200102)18:2<95::AID-MAR1003>3.0.CO;2-H
Wakefield, K. L. (2012). How sponsorships work: The sponsorship engagement model. Event Management, 16(2), 143-155. https://doi.org/10.3727/152599512X13343565268384
What the MT243 Unit 7 assignment asks for
The seventh unit asks students to plan how a sponsor will use its rights over the full life of a partnership, not only on event day. The prompt usually expects the sponsor's objectives restated, tactics grouped into phases, each tactic linked to an objective, a calendar, a budget and a way to measure each tactic. Include tactics before and after the event where the audience can be reached, such as a training season or a follow-up offer. Explain the budget's size against the rights fee rather than assuming a standard ratio. Seven pages is a common length. Include a phase calendar and an itemized budget, and cite three or more activation or engagement sources in APA 7.
How this MT243 Unit 7 example is built
The plan restates the three signed objectives and cites Cornwell on activation as the spending that makes rights work. Phase one sets eight branch group runs with coffee and an account table, marked by a margin note on tying training to branch visits. Phase two describes the expo station's pace bands and tablets, with Wakefield on helping fans take part. Phase three adds the cheer zone and framed finisher photos, and the highlighted line places employees at mile 20. Phase four sends thank-you and reminder emails inside the sixty-day window. The itemized budget explains its 0.7 ratio in a second note, measurement hooks assign a code per tactic, and three risks close it with Meenaghan.
Reading the MT243 Unit 7 grading rubric
Activation plans are usually judged on alignment with objectives, coverage of the partnership's full timeline, a realistic budget and measurability. Each tactic should name the objective it serves, and tactics that serve none should be cut. Graders reward plans that reach the audience before and after the event, since that is where activation adds most to the rights. For the money section, instructors want line items and a reason for the total, not a figure set at the one-to-one rule because the textbook mentions it. Separate codes or other tracking for each tactic show the plan can be evaluated later. Named risks with responses, a clear calendar and accurate citations complete the marks. Plans that show who on the sponsor's staff owns each tactic usually score better than plans that leave staffing vague.
MT243 Unit 7 help: mistakes that cost points
The most common mistake is an activation plan that lists event-day giveaways and nothing else, missing the months when participants are training and reachable. Another is tactics that are fun but unrelated to any objective. Some plans quote the one-to-one ratio as a rule without asking whether the rights already include activation-like assets. Others give no way to tell which tactic worked. Check that dates in the calendar fit the event's schedule and the sponsor's staff availability, and that summer tactics carry a heat rule. Tell us the sponsor's objectives and its rights package, and a writer can build the phases, budget and tracking codes around them.
Get an MT243 Unit 7 example written to your instructions
Activation depends on the sponsor's objective, so the proposal or objectives already drafted should travel with the Unit 7 prompt and rubric, and the property's calendar helps too. Tactics come back arranged across the season, each tied to an objective and a count, with a separate budget. Turnaround is 24-48h, and a first custom sample is free. The paper above is an original model document written by our desk, not a submitted student paper and not an official Purdue University Global document.
More MT243 papers and BS in Business Administration samples
- MT243 Unit 1: Discussion Board Post
- MT243 Unit 2: Asset Inventory
- MT243 Unit 3: Prospect Research Brief
- MT243 Unit 4: Audience Profile
- MT243 Unit 5: Sponsorship Proposal
- MT243 Unit 6: Seminar Reflection
- MT243 Unit 8: Valuation and Pricing Memo
- MT243 Unit 9: Measurement and Reporting Plan
- MT243 Unit 10: Renewal Case
- MT242 Unit 7: Program Budget
- MT241 Unit 7: Visualization Exercise
- MT240 Unit 7: Identity and Community Paper
- MT237 Unit 7: Supplier Comparison
MT243 Unit 7 questions, answered
What is the difference between activation and the sponsorship itself?
The sponsorship is the set of rights a company buys: the name, the category, the signage, the access. Activation is what the company does with those rights to reach its objectives, from events and offers to content and employee programs. Rights without activation usually deliver exposure and little else, which is why the plan is often a separate assignment.
How much should activation cost relative to the rights fee?
Ratios of one-to-one or higher are often cited, but the right figure depends on the objectives and the assets. The sample spends about 0.7 times the fee because several tactics reuse staff and branches the credit union already pays for, and it explains that choice rather than assuming a rule applies.
Can activation happen outside the event itself?
Yes, and for endurance events it often should. Runners train for months, so a sponsor present during that period reaches them repeatedly, in the sample through Saturday runs from branch locations. Follow-up after the event counts too, since many conversions happen once the race is over and the offer arrives in a calmer moment.
Where can I find a free MT243 Unit 7 sample paper?
The full MT243 Unit 7 activation plan is printed here. It gives a credit union eight branch group runs, an expo pace band station, a mile 20 cheer zone and follow-up emails, with a $118,000 itemized budget.
Why is the MT243 Unit 7 activation budget below the rights fee?
The presenting rights already include emails, livestream and bib exposure, and credit union employees staff most tactics as part of the engagement goal, so the plan spends about 70 cents per rights dollar.