Does Your Perfect Storm Sponsorship Include These 5 Criteria?

I was stuffing attendee bags for niche conference yesturday and noticed there wasn't as much swag as years gone by. Others noticed this as well and commented that companies just aren't sponsoring like they used to. My marketing brain went into "Are they crazy?" mode. This conference is perfect to promote new and innovative products. The people who come here are influencers and highly educated. Many are journalist looking to write about new things that will help our environment or third world countries. This audience writes books, they speak or perform in large audiences all over the world. This conference is the perfect storm to groom accidental salesmen for your product. I admit i do not know the circumstances behind the lack of swag and I don't know what the criteria is to sponsor a conference of this magnitude. I would hate to miss out on a chase like this do be a sponsor.

So here are five tips on how to make an intelligent decision on what conferences to sponsor and they all have to do with the audience:

1. Are they influencers?
2. Are many of the C level leaders in their companies?
3. Are they members of the press?
4. Did they pay a substantial sum to attend and are there less than one thousand attendees?
5. Is the purpose of the conference to spread ideas? 

Bonus criteria: Would your product wow the attendees, speakers and staff?

So do a little research and get big pay back for your sponsorship. Oh and if I make you a million with this little bit of advice, cut me in for a few bucks.

Fred Abaroa
The Marketing Imagineer
Fred [@] TMIFred.com
@TMIFred