Category Archives: Branding

One of the first things out of many clients or prospective client’s mouths when we first meet with them is “we’re not into marketing” or “marketing is for business, not us”. Simpy stated, this is hogwash.  If your organization is involved any way, in attracting, servicing and keeping customers or encouraging behaviour change of any kind, like it or not, you’re in the “marketing business”. This is especially true for any organization that relies on earned revenue to sustain their operations such as user / member fees, sponsorship, product sales, fundraising, etc.

The fact is that if you were to replace the word profit with revenue or impact, the key functions of marketing [...]

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The two most common questions I get asked in my sponsorship workshops and consulting work are “How do I determine the value of my sponsorship property?” and “How do I get top (optimal) dollar for my sponsorship opportunities?”

The short answer is that you get optimal value (and revenue) by presenting the right proposal to the right potential sponsor (prospect) at the right time.

The longer answer is that the more relevant you are to a prospect, the more likely they are to see your opportunity as one that they are willing to invest top dollar for because they clearly see the value at several levels. So, in identifying top prospects who [...]

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I had the pleasure of speaking at the AFP Congress in Toronto last week and the chance to speak with many people about the challenges of implementing a “sponsorship-based” revenue program in what has traditionally been a “donation-based” culture. I think that many organizations realize that the “corporate giving” pool is becoming increasingly competitive over limited funds and that to support or expand their operations, they must look to more commercially-driven sponsorships to diversify their revenue streams. The problem is that generating funds from corporate marketing budgets requires a radically different mindset and set of skills.

The first step is understanding the difference between donations and sponsorships. While corporate donations are [...]

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