Association Field Report (March 23, 2020)

 
Transcript:
Hi friends, it’s JP Moery, here is today’s update from the field.
I just spoke with a client today about converting their face-to-face live event to an online series of webinars and live streaming events. We talked to them about converting some of their sponsors, and maybe some existing ones, to this new platform. To be candid with you, there’s a lot of interest in this type of delivery in a variety of industries as associations are adapting, pivoting, and changing the delivery of their information.
Frankly, this was something that was already happening but now it’s just accelerated more.
Here’s some recommendations that we made for them:
One. Before you start doing it, and before you start converting, think about the sponsor and understand their sponsorship objectives. The desire right now might be to move and try to get additional revenue streams for your association in a critical time, but think long game. Face-to-face events are going to come back. We’re going to get out of this. My guidance to you is to think more about the objectives that they have and how you want to position them as you develop these webinar sponsorship programs.
Two. Determine the sponsorship involvement. Are you going to have minimal involvement from them and consisting of a logo placement, branding on the registration page announcing the webinar, or a listing on the slides that are used during the presentation? Or are they going to introduce the speaker? Or is there going to be a brief commercial break of let’s say, 60 seconds, among the 30-minute delivery of the webinar program? That’s an idea.
Or, is the sponsor delivering content? Is it their content that they are delivering? Determined by how much engagement you have with to sponsor, across different points of engagement, will determine what the pricing should be.
Three. The final thing I want to mention to you is to consider packaging this webinar sponsorship with other inventory that you might have like newsletters or social media promotion. How are you going to save the webinar and put it on your website for archives? Think about packaging a live webinar or a recorded session with some of your other things. This may also affect what the package looks like and how you build that program to make it valuable not only for the sponsor but also for the members that are more and more engaged with the content as they work remotely.
Hope this is helpful for you. We’ll be in touch tomorrow.