When a company is considering sponsoring an exhibition, the first question the organizer's sales team should ask isn't "what is your budget," but "what is the sponsorship for?" The answer decides whether they should be advised on a financial package or a brand-building sponsorship.
Two different goals of sponsorship
Building or widening brand awareness is a common goal of many exhibitors who sponsor an event, and it can be as simple as establishing a name or logo, or more complex when core brand characteristics must be delivered to the right visitor audience. This is the fundamental difference from financial sponsorship, where the benefits mainly revolve around booth area, the number of invitation tickets or logo position on promotional materials.
Successful organizers usually tie sponsorship opportunities to the specific goal the sponsor is pursuing, instead of just offering a fixed price list for every item. A company newly entering the market that needs wide exposure cares about very different things from an established company that only wants to reinforce its image with its current customer group.
Common brand-building sponsorship items
Brand-building sponsorship at an exhibition is usually tied to high-visibility positions and items throughout the event, not limited to the sponsor's own booth.
- Name boards and logos at the main entrance, which every visitor passes through
- Directional signage, escalators or rest areas carrying the sponsor's name
- Document bags, badges or lanyards printed with the logo and handed to all visitors
- A distinct experience area designed around the sponsor's brand story, not just a product display
Why you shouldn't price a brand package like a financial one
A common mistake is pricing a brand-building sponsorship package only on the production cost of items (printing a logo on bags and lanyards), ignoring the real visibility value the sponsor receives. A main entrance position, which thousands of visitors pass in a few days, delivers far more recognition value than the cost of installing a sign. The organizer should price based on the estimated number of brand impressions (the number of visitors passing that position), much as outdoor advertising is priced by traffic, instead of counting only material costs.
Measuring results for the sponsor after the event
Unlike financial sponsorship, which is easy to measure with concrete figures (leads captured, contracts signed at the booth), brand-building sponsorship is harder to measure directly. The organizer should proactively give the sponsor the indirect figures that can be collected: total event visitors, the number of times the brand appeared in event media, or brand recall survey results if one was run. Proactively providing this report, rather than leaving the sponsor to find ways to measure on its own, is a key factor in getting them to come back to sponsor the next edition.
The risk of mixing up the two types of sponsorship
When a sales team pitches a financial sponsorship package to a company that actually needs to build its brand, the result is usually a sponsor who feels it didn't receive fitting value, even though it spent exactly the committed amount. Conversely, pitching a brand package to a company that only cares about optimizing its participation cost makes the price look relatively high compared with what they really need. Both situations lead to the same result: the sponsor doesn't return next edition, even though nothing was wrong with the event itself.
Separate brand-building sponsorship from financial sponsorship from the first consultation. One generic sponsorship price list for every company ignores what each of them actually wants.