Jun 28, 2011
Don't Underestimate the Value of Signs
By Rhonda Abrams USA Today
You can market your small business in a lot of sexy new ways, but hold on. Don't overlook one of the most tried-and true ways to let people know about your business.
I'm talking about signs.
The concept is hardly ground breaking, but that's why they're easily forgotten. Signs are cheap and easy, but best of all they work.
Consider:
1. As we discussed the need for an online document-storage system, a few of us suggested the same company. Why? We had seen a huge billboard on the freeway.
2. For each trade show where we exhibit, we print a special sign featuring our newest product and a special offer for attendees. The sign costs about $100 but dramatically increases the number of people who come to our booth.
3. My carpet cleaner parks his truck, his unmarked truck, in my driveway on a very busy street. For a few bucks, he could get a magnetic sign and let hundreds of potential customers see his name and phone number. No sign, no ad.
Signs come in all forms and sizes -- a billboard in Times Square, an awning over your restaurant's front door, the name of your construction company on the side of your truck, someone standing on a corner wildly waving a sign pointing to your furniture store.
They can be inside or outside your place of business -- a banner printed at a copy shop announcing a blow-out sale or a hand-printed sign on a "staff favorites" shelf at a book store.
Signs get people's attention.
Besides being pretty cheap, another advantage is that typically they're persistent -- unlike a TV or website ad that disappears in 30 seconds or a Facebook posting that gets pushed down within an hour.
Invest in them once, and they generally stay around a long time without social media's ever-present need to update. Once you design the sign, you may not have to think about it for years.
When considering signs for your business, carefully consider what they'll look like and where you'll place them:
-- Keep the colors, type style, logo, and tagline consistent with all your other corporate identity and branding.
-- Make your message very brief, perhaps as few as seven to 10 words, as they'll have to be understood quickly
-- Use type large enough to be seen from the street or further away if necessary.
-- Make sure your signs are visible to people coming from every direction whenever possible.
-- Use high-contrast colors. Black text on a yellow background is considered the most readable combination, followed by black text on white, and white on black.
-- Keep your sign distinctive from its surroundings. If the sign will be surrounded by trees, avoid using too much green. Also try to make your sign different in shape, size, and style from other signs around it.
-- Make sure your sign is well illuminated if it needs to be seen at night.
Just because a location seems like a great place for a sign doesn't mean you can put your sign there.
Even at your own place of business, it's likely that your city or town has regulations strictly limiting the size and nature of the sign you can put up -- how large, whether it can have lighting, at what hours, and so forth.
It's also illegal to post signs or posters in most public locations or on others' private property. And you can't just put up a poster at a bus stop. You have to pay the transit authority for that privilege.
Jun 21, 2011
Jun 16, 2011
Jun 14, 2011
Know Your Sponsors, Inside and Out!
Everyday more and more organizations are recognizing the benefits of partnering with State High School Athletic or Activity Associations. As the dialogue develops between the two parties, inevitably we come to the discussion about goals and objectives or more simply put - what is the partner trying to accomplish and how will they deem the partnership a success vs. (we don't want to go there)! We have had many conversations about this specific topic with our Association partners and will continue to do so in the future. However we thought it would be useful to post an article that was straight from the partners. The article below appeared in IEG Sponsorship Report (6/14/10) and discusses from the partner perspective what they are looking for in a partnership and how ultimately they will measure the partnership.
Sponsors Spell Out What Properties Can Do To Help Them Measure
Properties should devote resources to collecting audience data that sponsors will find useful. 6/14/10: According to the most recent IEG/Performance Research Sponsorship Decision-makers Survey, sponsors believe providing measurement assistance is the most important service a property partner can provide.
“In an era of increased accountability for business metrics, properties and brands need to work together to crack the code on measurement and ROI,” said Todd Fischer, manager of national sponsorships with State Farm Insurance Cos.
While nearly every property knows that a sponsor’s return on investment and/or return on objectives is critical to renewal, just how can properties help sponsors measure success?
IEG SR editorial director Jim Andrews speculated in a recent opinion column that the answer to that question lies equally with audience data that reflects the impact of a sponsorship on its target, and in a commitment to helping deliver value as much as measure it.
Subsequent interviews with leading sponsors support that line of thinking
From Bank of America Corp.’s point of view, a good property partner is one “that can help us anchor measurement data and be accountable for delivering results,” said Ray Bednar, the company’s global sponsorship executive. “Real accountability is the sum of science and good judgment.”
Below, sponsorship professionals from BMO Financial Group, State Farm and Subaru of America, Inc. weigh in on how properties can help sponsors evaluate success:
BMO Financial Group
Offer in-depth audience research; keep sponsors updated on social media efforts
For BMO, properties should provide audience research that goes beyond standard demographic information to include data on lifestyle interests and how they view and interact with a property.
“That type of information helps us better leverage the partnership,” said Sandy Bourne, vice president of advertising, sponsorships, merchandising and special events.
For example, Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment uses audience surveys to track the percentage of BMO customers among attendees at NBA Toronto Raptors and NHL Toronto Maple Leafs games at the Air Canada Centre, providing a key metric the bank uses to track its sponsorship results.
“They have information that can help us evaluate and rationalize whether or not the property should be part of our roster,” Bourne said.
Properties also can help sponsors by keeping them up to date on what the property is doing in the social media space, she added.
“As properties expand into new technologies, it’s important that they keep sponsors informed so we can work together to develop better activation programs.”
State Farm Insurance Cos.
Properties should work with sponsors to establish metrics and determine roles and responsibilities at the beginning of a relationship; consider third-party research
To enable themselves to help measure success, properties must—from the start of the partnership—have a firm knowledge of a sponsor’s business and what it is trying to achieve.
“You can’t measure if you don’t understand our business and the objectives we’re trying to accomplish,” Fischer said.
Properties should work with sponsors to figure out how those objectives will be measured as part of the contract negotiation, he added. “Measurement on the back end is only as good as objectives set on the front end.”
Once measurement goals are set, properties should work with sponsors to determine roles and responsibilities on both sides to ensure there will be no gaps and no overlap in data collection, Fischer noted.
Determining those responsibilities, as well as the appropriate data to collect, will ensure the property is compiling relevant information: “Measurement is new territory for many properties. If a partner doesn’t view information as valuable, it’s a waste of the property’s time and resources,” Fischer said.
Where possible, Fischer believes properties should enlist the help of a third-party research firm.
“Results from a property always come with an asterisk because of the possibility the information could be self-serving to justify a sale or make an upsell,” he said.
Citing MLB and other properties that use research firms to measure TV broadcast exposure and Scarborough Research to track a sponsorship’s influence on consumer behavior, Fischer said, “That data is looked at more favorably because it’s from a neutral source.”
Subaru of America, Inc.
Provide post-sponsorship documentation that includes credible data; include sponsors in post-event attendee surveys
Properties can help sponsors measure success by providing fulfillment reports and other wrap-up documents that highlight a sponsor’s impact.
“Anything a property can do after an event to show they were genuinely interested in making the event a success in the sponsor’s eyes is a bonus,” said Todd Lawrence, promotions and sponsorship manager with Subaru of America, Inc.
Echoing State Farm’s Fischer, Lawrence pointed to the need for results featuring reliable data.
“If it seems like the numbers were just pulled together without any thought or solid reasoning, it’s a waste of time. A third-party market research firm can help produce a very good, unbiased report.”
Lawrence also called out the inclusion of sponsor questions in audience surveys as an important benefit properties can provide.
“Attendee surveys are a great tool if the sponsor is allowed to add a few sponsor-related questions,” he said.
Lawrence noted that sitting down to review data and survey results is a “great way to find things to make the next event better and is a perfect tool to begin renewal discussions.”
“In an era of increased accountability for business metrics, properties and brands need to work together to crack the code on measurement and ROI,” said Todd Fischer, manager of national sponsorships with State Farm Insurance Cos.
While nearly every property knows that a sponsor’s return on investment and/or return on objectives is critical to renewal, just how can properties help sponsors measure success?
IEG SR editorial director Jim Andrews speculated in a recent opinion column that the answer to that question lies equally with audience data that reflects the impact of a sponsorship on its target, and in a commitment to helping deliver value as much as measure it.
Subsequent interviews with leading sponsors support that line of thinking
From Bank of America Corp.’s point of view, a good property partner is one “that can help us anchor measurement data and be accountable for delivering results,” said Ray Bednar, the company’s global sponsorship executive. “Real accountability is the sum of science and good judgment.”
Below, sponsorship professionals from BMO Financial Group, State Farm and Subaru of America, Inc. weigh in on how properties can help sponsors evaluate success:
BMO Financial Group
Offer in-depth audience research; keep sponsors updated on social media efforts
For BMO, properties should provide audience research that goes beyond standard demographic information to include data on lifestyle interests and how they view and interact with a property.
“That type of information helps us better leverage the partnership,” said Sandy Bourne, vice president of advertising, sponsorships, merchandising and special events.
For example, Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment uses audience surveys to track the percentage of BMO customers among attendees at NBA Toronto Raptors and NHL Toronto Maple Leafs games at the Air Canada Centre, providing a key metric the bank uses to track its sponsorship results.
“They have information that can help us evaluate and rationalize whether or not the property should be part of our roster,” Bourne said.
Properties also can help sponsors by keeping them up to date on what the property is doing in the social media space, she added.
“As properties expand into new technologies, it’s important that they keep sponsors informed so we can work together to develop better activation programs.”
State Farm Insurance Cos.
Properties should work with sponsors to establish metrics and determine roles and responsibilities at the beginning of a relationship; consider third-party research
To enable themselves to help measure success, properties must—from the start of the partnership—have a firm knowledge of a sponsor’s business and what it is trying to achieve.
“You can’t measure if you don’t understand our business and the objectives we’re trying to accomplish,” Fischer said.
Properties should work with sponsors to figure out how those objectives will be measured as part of the contract negotiation, he added. “Measurement on the back end is only as good as objectives set on the front end.”
Once measurement goals are set, properties should work with sponsors to determine roles and responsibilities on both sides to ensure there will be no gaps and no overlap in data collection, Fischer noted.
Determining those responsibilities, as well as the appropriate data to collect, will ensure the property is compiling relevant information: “Measurement is new territory for many properties. If a partner doesn’t view information as valuable, it’s a waste of the property’s time and resources,” Fischer said.
Where possible, Fischer believes properties should enlist the help of a third-party research firm.
“Results from a property always come with an asterisk because of the possibility the information could be self-serving to justify a sale or make an upsell,” he said.
Citing MLB and other properties that use research firms to measure TV broadcast exposure and Scarborough Research to track a sponsorship’s influence on consumer behavior, Fischer said, “That data is looked at more favorably because it’s from a neutral source.”
Subaru of America, Inc.
Provide post-sponsorship documentation that includes credible data; include sponsors in post-event attendee surveys
Properties can help sponsors measure success by providing fulfillment reports and other wrap-up documents that highlight a sponsor’s impact.
“Anything a property can do after an event to show they were genuinely interested in making the event a success in the sponsor’s eyes is a bonus,” said Todd Lawrence, promotions and sponsorship manager with Subaru of America, Inc.
Echoing State Farm’s Fischer, Lawrence pointed to the need for results featuring reliable data.
“If it seems like the numbers were just pulled together without any thought or solid reasoning, it’s a waste of time. A third-party market research firm can help produce a very good, unbiased report.”
Lawrence also called out the inclusion of sponsor questions in audience surveys as an important benefit properties can provide.
“Attendee surveys are a great tool if the sponsor is allowed to add a few sponsor-related questions,” he said.
Lawrence noted that sitting down to review data and survey results is a “great way to find things to make the next event better and is a perfect tool to begin renewal discussions.”
Jun 13, 2011
Jun 7, 2011
Drink Chocolate Milk
We love chocolate milk! We really do. It may sound like a commercial, but it really is the ideal beverage for student athletes to drink, heck, it’s good for adults too! We have several marathoners in our office who swear by chocolate milk as a recovery drink. The American Dairy Council is quick to extol the benefits: carbohydrates, protein, fluid and electrolytes to re-hydrate, and vitamins and minerals to help build strong bones and bodies. What we like BEST about chocolate milk though is how the ADA has stepped up to support high school student athletes in Ohio, Michigan, Tennessee and now Utah (and hopefully two more than we cannot announce yet - we don't want to jinx it!). The main objective for these campaigns is to get chocolate milk into as many hands as possible via product sampling at state association championship events. All of you reading know the importance of funding to not only high schools directly, but also to state associations. The support of the ADA and the local dairy associations goes a long way in helping out student athletes.
Please see how HTM, along with our Association partners, has positioned Chocolate Milk within the respective championships and Association literature.
In addition to the partnerships you see here, we also know that Dairy councils in several other states have stepped up and established very successful partnerships. If you have any questions regarding any or all of the initiatives involving Milk, please do not hesitate to contact Dan Malone at Home Team Marketing.
Finally - Thank you to the Dairy Councils in each of these respective regions for stepping up and helping the mission of School Based Sports!
Please see how HTM, along with our Association partners, has positioned Chocolate Milk within the respective championships and Association literature.
In addition to the partnerships you see here, we also know that Dairy councils in several other states have stepped up and established very successful partnerships. If you have any questions regarding any or all of the initiatives involving Milk, please do not hesitate to contact Dan Malone at Home Team Marketing.
Finally - Thank you to the Dairy Councils in each of these respective regions for stepping up and helping the mission of School Based Sports!
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