SPONSORSHIP and PR ROLE

To sponsor something is to support an event, activity, person, or organization financially or through the provision of products or services. A sponsor is the individual or group that provides the support, similar to a benefactor. 

Sponsorship is a cash and/or in-kind fee paid to a property (typically in sports, arts, entertainment or causes) in return for access to the exploitable commercial potential associated with that property, according to IEG.While the sponsoree (property being sponsored) may be nonprofit, unlike philanthropy, sponsorship is done with the expectation of a commercial return.

While sponsorship can deliver increased awareness, brand building and propensity to purchase, it is different to advertising. Unlike advertising, sponsorship can not communicate specific product attributes. Nor can it stand alone. Sponsorship requires support elements. And, while advertising messages are controlled by the advertiser, sponsors do not control the message that is communicated. Consumers decide what a sponsorship means.


Role of PR in Sponsorship

Public relations covers a broad series of activities where a business manages its relationships with different parts of the public, e.g. customers, the media, local communities, suppliers, employees and investors.The main objectives of public relations are:

• To achieve favourable publicity about the business
• To build the image and reputation of the business and its products, particularly amongst custome
• To communicate effectively with customers and other stakeholders

Public relations, which is often shortened just to “PR”, has several advantages over advertising in terms of promotion:

• No direct charge is made for PR, though a business will need to pay for its own PR department or external PR consultant
• PR is arguably more powerful because the message the business communicates through PR is often more believable than paid for advertising

However there is no guarantee that PR will reach its target audience (the media may fail to feature the story) whereas advertising must be displayed since the space in the newspaper is paid for.Sponsorship is a specialised kind of public relations and increasingly popular, particularly with larger businesses. A business will sponsor an event, team or individual in order to build brand awareness. A secondary objective might be to emphasise social or ethical credentials, but most sponsorship really does have a commercial objective at heart.

PR and sponsorship are excellent ways of raising your profile to new potential customers. Understanding which publications they read (online and in print) which are their trusted sources of information and what other products or services they use which complement yours is a great starting point.

Sources:
www.tutor2u.net
blog.digitalmarketing.com