Sponsorships can sometimes be seen as a marketing stepchild – one of those arbitrary expenses with little strategic emphasis and uncertain ROI. However, well thought out and carefully selected sponsorships will, in fact, underscore your brand’s overall strategy and reinforce your value and purpose with your trade audience.

Here are three considerations to help you determine why and how sponsorships will benefit you in the coming year:

Elevate Brand Awareness

Perhaps the most common or obvious reason for sponsorships is to maintain your brand presence. The reality is that even for established brands, you have to remain present or your competition will become more visible, more accessible and eventually more successful. Sponsorships offer a high profile opportunity for you to create brand relevancy in your category and amongst your brand peers.

Define Brand Position

Help your trade audiences understand your brand positioning with consumers by strategically selecting sponsorships that align with those messages. For instance, are you a brand focused on reaching consumers with a health and wellness platform? If so, choose sponsorships that align well with that message such as the PMA Foundation Race for Talent or Tour de Fresh. Think about your marketing objectives as a whole, and find ways to interconnect your B to B and B to C efforts so that throughout your marketing plan you are always pointing back to your primary messaging strategy.

Product Trial

When launching a new product into the marketplace, consider sponsorships that allow for product trial as part of the experience. Whether a literal product sampling sponsorship or one that allows you to include your product as part of the sponsorship benefits, leveraging these opportunities to get your product in the hands of your trade audience has an immeasurable impact on their understanding of your value to their business.

We believe sponsorships can play a role in achieving your marketing goals and telling your brand story. Ultimately, your success with sponsorships will come from alignment with your marketing goals and a realistic approach to measuring success. How will you use these opportunities to your advantage in the coming year?