Getting Started with Local Sponsorships
There is a long list of marketing strategies perfect for achieving different goals. Traditional out-of-home (OOH) is a tried and true marketing strategy if your goals are to boost brand awareness or pull leads further down your funnel. If your goal is to establish a strong presence while adding value to a community, then a community asset sponsorship (CAS) is for you.
What is a community asset sponsorship?
A CAS is a form of hyperlocal marketing used to maximize local brand awareness. It allows marketers to truly stake their territory in an area while providing tangible value to the community, essentially weaving their brand into the fabric of the community.
A bike share is a classic example of a community asset sponsorship. Every time a pedestrian uses a bike in their community, they interact with the sponsor’s brand. In turn, those very same pedestrians develop positive associations with the brand’s efforts in their community. In Boston, Blue Cross Blue Shield created a lasting brand impression throughout the city with the sponsorship of Blue Bikes, a healthy transportation alternative.
Community asset sponsorships vs. traditional advertising
In traditional forms of advertising, companies measure success based on increased leads or sales. With local sponsorships, the goals are to promote citizenship and community goodwill. Of course, companies investing in sponsorships still want to generate more revenue. The difference is that community sponsorships focus on building relationships over an extended period of time. If a company’s target audience values community engagement or the company wants to establish its presence in a specific location, sponsorships can be a highly effective hyperlocal marketing tool.
Benefits of sponsoring a community asset
Stake your territory
Establish a meaningful presence in a strategic location. The sponsored property could be used to generate awareness and increase foot traffic to a brick and mortar store, or to defend the territory from a nearby competitor.
Increase brand awareness
National sponsorships build brand awareness on a huge scale. But sponsoring assets like a bike share or digital sign within a town build one-to-one relationships with your core audience.
Connect with your audience
Rather than casting a wide marketing net, companies that invest in a local sponsorship benefit from creating meaningful connections with their target customers based on shared values promoted by the asset.
Drive more traffic
As people in the community engage with your brand, they progress through the awareness phase of the sales funnel.
Develop strong, civic relationships
Companies that sponsor valuable assets position themselves as philanthropic members of the community, opening doors to future opportunities with the local government.
How to measure results of a community asset sponsorship
Get benchmarks for key metrics before the sponsorship campaign begins. See where your business is now in terms of current impressions, leads, and traffic. Visualize where you want your business to be.
Put data tracking features in place before the campaign starts. There are a few tools out there for this, but a good one is using Google Analytics or anything to track your website pixels and social media analytics. This way, you can measure success during and after the campaign.
Read the full, 10-minute how-to guide below.
Looking for a community asset sponsorship?
Soofa’s neighborhood news feeds share hyperlocal events, news, and critical public health and safety information for community members.
Learn more about sponsoring Soofa’s solar-powered, digital signs.