It's time for a sponsorship detox, writes Just Challenge's Founder, and winner of the Women Leading Change in Asia Award, Lucy Bennett-Baggs
The days of quaffing champagne, ploughing through single use plastic, watching the same event year on year, entertaining the same clients, building a structure then tearing it down, inflating sponsorship ROIs, are gone. Sponsorship and events now need purpose. They need to engage. Be meaningful. Give back.
We’ve all read, seen, listened to some of the most respected figures in our industry stand up and address this issue and how to solve for it, but how much are brands really taking note and more importantly taking action? With consumer demand rapidly gathering pace, there is no doubt that brands need to work harder to reflect their own values, as well as being good corporate citizens, invest in their communities, whilst supporting important local and global causes.
But this is so much more than a mouthful or a few empty lines on a website. We, in the marketing world, all recognise that this fundamental shift is no longer a nice to have, it is business essential. Not only to keep our brands relevant in the eye of the customer, but to actually make a significant impact on the lives of employees, the community we serve and the world we live in.
It starts with us.
Yet, as consumers ourselves, why do we have such exacting standards from the brands we engage with?
And yet, for the brands we represent, too readily accept the brush off explanations – ‘well that’s the way the business wants it’ or ‘that’s the way we have always done it’. Are we that afraid to address the elephant in the room and throw out these old practices and empty values and confront our organisations with the fact that this simply won’t cut it anymore? Well here is a message for your business; brand purpose is no longer marketing fluff - it's business critical and makes bottom-line sense. In fact, it is the implementation and activation of purpose that has been shown to lead to incredible growth. A recent study by Deloitte found that among marketing leaders, 80% of companies stated that a clear and collective purpose is linked to customer loyalty and 89% said it drives employee engagement and with nearly two thirds of millennials and Gen Z expressing a preference for brands that have a point of view and stand for something – that’s got to cut through…
It needs to involve customers, employees and the larger ecosystem of stakeholders. Firstly, identifying what a brand stands for, then ensuring everyone is aligned, and finally create an activation plan that puts your purpose into action. We’ve led charge on shifting budgets from football and F1 - to leading employees and clients on challenges that better their mental health, raise funds, drive awareness and smash the stigma. We recently took Barclays on ‘Mind over Mountains’ – bringing 100 employees from around the world together to The Himalayas, to have honest conversations, raise money for mental health charities, hear from mental health ambassadors, and take the tools back to the workplace to use as a catalyst for change. Every employee stated they felt prouder to work for Barclays post experience.
A quote from one of our recent participants… 'The opportunity to trek 100km through The Drakensberg with Brian O’Driscoll and Bryan Habana really was a once in a lifetime, money can’t buy, opportunity. I built a relationship with my client that I couldn’t imagine doing in the boardroom, or at a sponsorship event. A truly memorable, once in a lifetime experience, that forms wonderful friendships. We’ll forever have memories to laugh about together’. One of thousands of unbreakable bonds formed with Just Challenge.
So here's to a year of less talking, and more doing, when it comes to being brave with events.
Have courage, address the elephant in the room and start somewhere. The smallest pivot in the right direction can often have an immeasurable impact. The champagne can be drunk at the finish line.
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