A Public Relations scholar knows that sponsorship is not merely a philanthropic act, but a negotiation where both parties seek to benefit from the agreement. Many have misinterpreted the meaning of ‘sponsorship’, even myself I have been a little mislead about what exactly sponsorship encompasses at some point. My eyes were opened to this game of sponsorship when our next task we had to do was to scout for sponsorship opportunities that were favourable to the company’s image. Gevents being ‘a not so well known when it comes to media’ company, the main objective of this sponsorship hunt was to find a deserving cause to sponsor. I learnt a lot about public relations sponsorship in the process. I learnt that deciding which cause to sponsor does not just happen randomly. After finding a number of organizations which needed sponsorship, we had to filter them to finally come up with the decision. A number of things we had to take in to consideration included the following:
1. Do we choose to sponsor sports, entertainment, arts and culture or cause related organization and why?
2. Do the organization’s values and goals go hand in hand with the company’s?
3. What will the company benefit from sponsoring a particular organization or cause?
4. The amount the company is expected to sponsor
And the many other factors.
We finally decided to negotiate sponsorship terms with the Botswana Chess Association. The association seemed satisfactory to sponsor because out of the many associations, its values worked parallel to the company’s. Chess is about improving a person’s mind to become analytic and more strategic. Gevents company also is about improving a person or a company (clients) to become more strategic and analytic in their business venture. The whole idea of chess and the company’s values and philosophy, do go hand in hand.
We knew the company will finally get some sort of exposure during the chess tournaments because the tournament will be named with the sponsor’s name included, e.g. Gevents chess tournament. The participants are also to wear kits bearing Gevents name. On top of that, the amount requested for sponsorship was favourable or what Gevents’ was willing to pop out.
Though the sponsorship deal went through, the Botswana Chess association is still to end its contract with its current sponsor this year. Afterwards, Gevents is taking over, with hopes of success to both The Botswana Chess Association and Gevents. I now completely understand no matter how philanthropic sponsorship may seem, it is all a win-win game, everybody wants to benefit something.
Recommended further readings:
http://busandadmin.uwinnipeg.ca/advertising/Lectures/ch14.pdf
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