Our EBA team has a handful of global planners who specifically focus on creating innovative event sponsorship activation ideas for our clients to leverage. And it’s helped us produce tons 6-figure events and accrue over $7 million in sponsorships to date! So today, we want to share a handful of our team’s top activation ideas for virtual, hybrid, and live events.
What is an Event Sponsorship Activation?
But first, what exactly is an event sponsorship activation? Essentially, it’s any component of an event that can be leveraged for sponsors to interact and capture data from the event attendees. Today, event sponsorship activations are highly experiential to truly spark connection with audiences! Gone are the days when you could slap a logo on a sign and call it a sponsorship perk. You need to dig deeper! We’re sharing a few of our favorite ways next…
Favorite Event Sponsorship Activation Ideas from Our EBA Team
While we love traditional sponsorship opportunities like speaking opportunities, networking headliner opps, and local media coverage, we also like to get a little creative!
Mutual Pick: Lead Gen Gamification & Giveaways
While some brands think giveaways are overrated and overdone, they couldn’t be more wrong. Nearly ¾ of consumers want brands to run more giveaways! Let’s give the people what they want, ey? These are an easy way to spark engagement, extend brand awareness, capture more prospect details, and get your new products in the hands of potential consumers who are going to share! You can also tie in gamification here for extra positive results.
Alecia’s Pick: Insta-Worthy Moments
Not only do Instagram-worthy moments help extend brand awareness, but they also create a ton of user-generated content. Today, while 86% of brands understand the importance of UGC, only 16% have actually designed a UGC strategy. That’s where Alecia loves to dive in and create welcoming, Insta-worthy moments to spark that content. Whether it’s a fun photo corner or a pop-up within an event featuring a brand, there are a million and one options to get creative here and have people pull out their phones to take a shot and tag you!
Erin’s Pick: Interstitial Ads
No, not interspatial. While they do have a galactic impact, these types of ads are new to the event scene.
This is a word not many in the events industry have seen before, so it may require a little bit of explanation in your sponsorship kit. Interstitial ads are ads that take over the entire screen of an interface, the interface being the application or site hosting content for an event. They can be between sessions, during a session, during a featured break, etc. They can be leveraged during in-person, hybrid, or virtual events, which is also great.
This is a popular revenue generator for industries like gaming, where nearly 60% of developers use them to monetize. You can get ahead of event tech trends with this one!
Johanna’s Pick: Branded Wellness Breaks
After ditching the long commutes and takeout lunches working from home during the past few years, a lot of individuals are prioritizing their wellness in new ways. This means not ditching healthy activities when traveling for work again. That’s one reason why branded wellness breaks are so incredibly popular with sponsors right now. They want to show their dedication to health and wellness, mental and physical health, even if that’s not necessarily their niche. People want to shop, partner with, and support brands that care. This is a great way to express that to your target audience!
You could offer a rotating morning workout before start times, a meditation and mindfulness room complete with chair massages and acupuncture, and the list goes on. What would you want to see or take advantage of at an event? That’s a good place to start brainstorming wellness break ideas!
Zumrad’s Pick: Social Media Features
Social never goes out of style, it just shifts with the algorithms! Featuring sponsors in short-form videos on your channels is a great perk. Think fun reels or TikToks featuring their products, a FB Live Q&A with your mastermind groups, etc. Anywhere that they can connect with your people online, even if it’s a live in-person event, is a massive perk sponsors are searching for when it comes to event sponsorship activation.
Need Help with Sponsorship Engagement Ideas for Your Upcoming Events?
At EBA, while we love producing events from A to Z, we also help clients solely with their sponsorship strategies. Our sponsorship activation experts can get to know your brand, your goals, and your audience and help you strategically weave that into a killer sponsorship package that lands your dream sponsors.
Want to get started along the road to your next 6-figure event? Let’s chat sponsorship activation ideas.
In the interim, here’s a great podcast to listen to! Our Founder & CEO, Alecia May, talks about all things you should (and shouldn’t) do when it comes to landing event sponsors in 2022 and beyond.
