When you can assemble great sponsors for your events, everyone wins. And the bigger your sponsors, the greater the benefits. But securing event sponsorships from big-name brands calls for a precise, strategic plan. Even more advantageous are the strategic partnerships you can make with those well-known brands. So, how do you go about landing some of the high-profile sponsors you need to elevate your events and your event planning business? Check out these proven ways to solidify some of the most strategic brand relationships in 2025.
Create A Solid Sponsorship Package
Sponsors seek an incentive to work with you, namely, visibility at different points during an event. An attractive sponsorship package is a major selling point when initially contacting sponsors. Packages can include visibility opportunities, deliverables, shoutouts, and even be scalable. A few aspects to consider when building a sponsorship package include:
- Sponsorship visibility: Clearly define how a sponsor will be seen by your event audience and at what scale. Live event streams, stage mentions, and logo placements on signs, merchandise, or digital platforms are all available options.
- Data analytics access: Sharing information can be just as tempting to a sponsor as visibility. Share your event metrics, such as audience demographics, brand impressions, and engagement rates through sponsorship platform tools so you and your sponsors can see how successful a particular event is.
- Audience engagement opportunities: Event sponsors want to engage with audiences in meaningful and impactful ways. Direct engagement opportunities like branded activation zones or technology, meet-and-greet breakouts, and even gamified activities all enhance a sponsor’s impact at your event.
- Exclusive rights to future events: To encourage long-term relationships with sponsors, you can even build exclusive sponsorship rights for future events.
Lead With Value
Win-win propositions are highly successful in the event planning world, especially with sponsorships. But these opportunities don’t always start out by being mutually beneficial at face value. As a New York event planner, you must be strategic and thoughtful when proposing sponsorship opportunities.
Insights for success:
- Deliver measurable results with post-event reports or a history of event analytics that sponsors can use to have an idea of brand reach.
- Have an intimate understanding of a sponsor’s goals and align them with your event’s objectives.
- Offer clear deliverables.
- Have clear communication practices with your sponsors at every level of event planning and execution.
- Build tiered sponsorship packages with well-defined budget accommodations.
- Consider integrating technology to enhance audience engagement with sponsor-branded content.
Leverage Your Creativity
Sponsorship relationships are dynamic, unique, and fluid. Having packages that can adapt to each sponsor gives you more opportunities as an event planner to build a solid working relationship. Lead with value to the sponsor first while highlighting sponsor goals that your event aligns with overall. Remember to include the mutual benefit with shared analytics or co-branded deliverables. Curate your audience to expand brand reach, such as influencers with large followings or other notable-name invitees.
Get to know your sponsors and get creative with your packages. Here are some ideas to help you align values with big-name sponsors:
- A sustainable event rooted in social responsibility, like a green business conference or outdoor clean-up initiative, might be a great option for eco-conscious brands.
- A tech-centric event, like a summit, startup competition, or product launch, might be suitable for fellow tech company sponsors.
- A health and wellness-centered event, like a marathon, mental health conference, or retreat, might be a great fit for big-name brands with similar health and wellness priorities.
Learn And Network More at The Event Planner Expo
The Event Planner Expo 2025 is a huge hub of industry experts and professionals. The network possibilities are endless, from big-name sponsors to other like-minded event-planning professionals. Build your event planning brand’s presence by securing a booth. See you in October!
