Getting the best sponsorships for organizations can help them increase their visibility throughout the industry. Sponsors enhance their image and boost credibility through events they support. Also, they help generate funds for capital and marketing needed to execute a successful event strategy.
If you are looking for unique ways to monetize your online events through effective sponsor branding, messaging, and exposure, you’ve come to the right place.
In this article, we will provide some creative ideas that can improve the advertising and promotion aspects of virtual event sponsorship to make it a success. We also recommend checking out our guide on the various types of event sponsorships to explore different options for your organization.
Quick Reads
1. Sponsored Games
Keeping attendees engaged during a virtual event is vital to its overall success. You can foster it by adding some activities while promoting sponsors at the same time.
Sponsors can think of the games and offer prizes for different activities. It’s a great way to reach out to attendees by giving them discount codes or other gift tokens as a way of showing their appreciation.
You can hold quizzes, organize challenges, or start a competitive play to engage virtual event participants. These activities can enhance the attendee experience while you highlight an event sponsor in between sessions.
If you opt to organize a fundraising event, find a way to sell raffle tickets online. Prepare the tickets and write donors’ names on them. Ideally, you can sell them days before the event.
However, distributing them during or after the event works as well. Attendees can also have the option of adding the cost of raffle tickets to their event registration fees.
Schedule a live stream raffle draw on the event itself. It will be easy for you to identify the winners with the written donors’ names on the tickets.
Once you’ve announced the winners, contact them and arrange delivery for the items they will receive.
2. Virtual Event Bags
A virtual event bag is a set of giveaways you can distribute to virtual event attendees. It can either be a physical gift that you can ship to an address or a digital one that you can send via email.
Giving gifts, souvenirs, and other tokens of appreciation to participants can benefit your virtual event. They help participants remember the event along with its sponsors, drive marketing efforts, which can also leave a positive impression on everyone.
As many event attendees find themselves in back-to-back video calls, virtual event fatigue can affect many of them and leave them tired. Together with your event sponsors, it would be best if you find alternative ways to keep them engaged through virtual event bags.
Virtual event bags will be easy for you to customize depending on your needs. Since you’re in control over the items to include inside the bags, coming up with creative sponsorship ideas that can delight and surprise the audience is necessary.
Mail physical event bags in advance before you kick off the online event. A welcome box that contains pens, a notepad, highlighters, a can of tea bags, and an event schedule can add excitement to your online event attendees.
These gifts create a unifying experience among online participants and leave them discussing the event once it’s over.
In the same way, digital gifts like an Amazon gift card can be a convenient and valuable substitute for a physical virtual event bag or cash. It allows attendees to make online electronic, home, or entertainment purchases.
3. Online Food Delivery
Recharge your virtual event participants’ energy during breaks in between. Food brings people together and creates room for networking opportunities.
It’s a good start to initiate surprise home deliveries to virtual event attendees. They could take the form of takeout food or a good bottle of wine for a virtual happy hour. Be sure to brand to the food packaging and bottle labels with your sponsor’s logo.
For example, you can send ‘snack packs’ that include candies or chocolates, coffee or tea, and a personalized card from an event sponsor for coffee or refreshment breaks.
We also suggest partnering with a sponsor to leverage an online food delivery platform to deliver a lunch set to their address and share meals together.
Another option is to provide attendees with a discount code, underwritten by the sponsor, that can lower the cost of their food orders.
4. Happy Hour Kits
A sponsored happy hour is a perfect opportunity to build excitement and engage virtual attendees. It can help boost their professional network and connect better as they discuss ideas over food and drinks online.
This unique approach can be a valuable opportunity for your event sponsors and partners to introduce themselves. Also, it’s a fun way for virtual event attendees to get to know each other and your sponsors in between sessions.
Begin the virtual happy hour event with classic food and beverage pairing. Prepare the drinks ahead of time and send them out to online attendees to make them feel involved.
Label the cocktail boxes with your event sponsor’s name. Most people would most likely keep and reuse the box while keeping you top of mind, especially if you prepared it creatively.
You can also avail of cocktail delivery service that can do fancy and delicious cocktails and mocktails to help you pull off a successful and satisfying virtual happy hour.
Keep the conversation light and approachable in this social event. To get the conversation started, encourage the audience to share three things they look forward to learning from the event.
5. Breakout Sessions
A breakout session is less structured compared to a general meeting session. It is considered a short session where a small group of attendees share ideas, talk about common issues and discuss the main theme and topics of the conference or event.
Also called a breakout meeting, it aims to take discussions to a more detailed level and seeks to promote active participation among attendees.
Sponsors can use these breakout sessions to communicate directly with your audience during the online event. Before the event begins, a sponsor's logo or message through a video can be displayed or played in front of attendees.
What's more, it's a great way to encourage professional networking while also giving your event sponsors an opportunity to get their names out there.
They can also set up a VIP room with unique content and special features—all branded with their message.
Since most organizers have utilized digital event strategies, tracking the number of participants and ad clicks on each room should be easy.
One way to use a virtual breakout session to engage online event participants is through virtual speed networking.
In this format, participants can meet many people and share their information quickly in a short amount of time. They will be directed to move to the next set of attendees they can connect with.
They usually discuss professional expertise and business goals during the one-on-one meetings. After the speed networking event, individuals can decide who they want to follow up with.
Glue Up's Speed Networking solution allows professional associations, chambers of commerce, and other membership organizations to host speed networking events virtually.
This solution lets your members share digital business cards, engage in one-on-one chats, and schedule meetings after the networking event.
Plus, other state-of-the-art features enable you to have a virtual networking experience that recreates the meaningful aspects of meeting face-to-face and connect without any of its limitations.
Sponsorship as an Event Marketing Strategy
Event sponsorships are essential as they can boost your organization’s credibility and enhance its image. They can also provide funds in exchange for brand exposure, attendee information, and speaking opportunities during a virtual event.
Now that you’ve gained some valuable insights on finding a new and creative way to get your event sponsors noticed, we hope you’re more than ready to take your sponsorship to the next level.
Are you planning a virtual event anytime soon? Make sure to book a demo of Glue Up’s Event Management Software. Leverage leading event technology to execute winning event strategies that can help you reach your event goals and objectives.
