Brett de Hoedt – Interview Summary
Here’s a summary of my interview with Brett de Hoedt including common mistakes sponsorship seekers make, golden rules for a successful sponsorship and key points from the interview.
The full interview was pretty long so I divided it into 3 parts:
5 common mistakes sponsorship seekers make:
- Bland proposals that don’t grab the sponsor’s attention.
- The sponsorship proposal is all about logos on things. This is too simple and offers no value to the sponsor.
- Not offering a range of options to suit a sponsor’s budget.
- Not providing unique experiences for the sponsor, their staff and clients. Clients of the sponsor are often overlooked.
- Sponsorship proposals are often too general or broad and don’t focus on discrete benefits for the sponsor.
3 golden rules for a successful sponsorship:
- Know your purpose – be single minded about getting that sponsorship.
- Know your audience – learn what motivates them.
- Know your message – be very clear about how you can provide value for a sponsor.
Key Points:
- Crete a website that makes you look like you’re worth sponsoring – look credible and have some authority.
- Seeking sponsorship is like dating – the less desperate you look the more opportunities are going to come your way.
- Be very specific on what is being sponsored. The more specific the better your chances.
- Sponsors need to know, like and trust you before committing to a relationship.
- Develop your brand and profile – market yourself to potential sponsors.
- Network with potential sponsors so they can get to know you.
- Get outside of your comfort zone – put yourself in the spot light to attract opportunities.
- Be very specific about your sponsorship opportunity.
- Provide unique experiences.
- Logos and thank you speeches aren’t where it’s at.
- It’s a huge advantage to have some social good attached to your sponsorship proposal.
- Don’t fear rejection – be different and interesting to grab their attention.
- Make your proposals 3 dimensional. The package, the box, the thick, padded envelope is always opened before the boring old two-dimensional envelopes
- Pursue multiple targets at one time because it’s a numbers game.
- Provide lots of options to say yes. Give the potential sponsor a range of customised options to suite their level of commitment.
- Remove risks for the sponsor by providing tangible and measurable value.
- Whatever a sponsor invests with you, they will need to spend 4 to 5 times this on activating the sponsorship opportunity.
- Show sponsors how they can use you to create value. For example, provide mock-ups of press releases, printed ads and web pages.
