This week’s reading outlined the importance of tactics such as event management and sponsorship and provided an overview on how each tactic contributed to public relations strategic goals and marketing. In summary, the key points I learnt from this week's readings were that sponsorship is “the purchase of rights and benefits associated with an event, organisation or individual” (Boyd, 2004). Sponsorship expects a return and is a widely used PR tactic because it offers exclusivity, image association, hospitality for clients, product sampling, signage, networking, media coverage and more (Boyd, 2004).
However I found that it is important to note what type of sponsorship will benefit an organisation the most or even if a sponsorship will benefit the organisation at all. There a three types of sponsorship such as philanthropic (community based sponsorship with benefits in taxation), corporate (the sponsoring of events not normally linked with the organisation- e.g. the Olympics) or marketing sponsorships (primarily used to promote products and services to the target markets- a prime example of this is Tiger Woods who is sponsored by Nike for US$20 million a year). It is vital for an organisation to consider whether sponsorships have benefits, improve the image of an organisation, boosts sales, generate publicity and enhance product awareness. If none of these apply it may be a good idea to try another tactic that will better service the business.
My learning builds upon previous learning about public relations in that PR professionals do in fact use some unprincipled methods of marketing. This includes ambush marketing which is a clever yet unethical tactic used by PR professionals where a company misrepresents itself as being associated with an event (Boyd, 2004). It is essential for organisation to prevent this type of PR tactic by letting audiences know the real sponsors and making legal action pursuable.
I was interested to see that event management is public relations tactic widely used in the profession. Events can include conferences, sports activities, launches, openings, dinners and much more. If manages correctly events can achieve a number of PR goals and objectives. In order to succeed in events it is vital for organisations to plan effectively. Firstly organisation should consider whether the event is feasible (this involves assessing how much an event will cost, whether it offers opportunity to raise revenue, ability to reach target audiences etc). The execution, evaluation, budgeting and management of an event are also extremely important to the overall success of the event.
The case studies provided within the text were also extremely helpful as they provided an outlook on how different organisations utilised sponsorships and events whilst given a description of the problems and benefits involved.
3 comments:
Jo
I found your blog very interesting this week and you seem to have covered all the main points bought up in the reading. I particularly agreed with your comment on considering how the sponsorship will benefit your company as i have been studying the topic more in depth and found that many sponsorships caused little to no increased sales or consumer awareness.
Jo,
I really enjoyed your blog this week, your summary provided an interesting overview of the important facts from the reading.
I also agree with you that the provided case studies were a helpful insight into how other organiationses utilised sponsorship.
I also liked how you outlined that practitioners can use some unprincipled methods of marketing. Ambush marketing is such an unethical tactic that we need to be very wary of when we are in the indusrty.
Jo, I definetly have to agree with your summary for this week's readings. I found your point about sponsorship being the right or wrong tactic for a specific business interesting. I think it also important to consider if a sponsorship will benefit an organistation or not. Just a point I picked that I thought was really relevant was that sponsorship takes a lot of time and planning to be successful, otherwise things can become disatrous. It can make or breack a PR practitioner. Your summary helped me too see the importance of having the right sponsorship as it will assist in achieveing company objectives.
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