Introduction
For a long time, sponsorship and events have been in existence and have greatly improved. Getz and Andersson (2010) defined sponsorship as the acquisition of rights and freedom associated with an event in order for the corporation to derive benefits from the association. Some of the biggest corporations across the world make significant contributions to the entertainment or sports industry. For example, companies such as Nike, General motors, McDonalds and Coca Cola have contributed billions of money in events industry. The emergence of the event industry attracted the corporate sector that wanted to gain from the tourist, economic and promotional value of events. The events sector has attracted more attention from the corporate sector where they develop relationships that are mutually beneficial (Frew and Robertson, 2008). For example, corporate sponsorship provides a source of income for an event industry. Similarly, events are the effective marketing tools for corporations aiming at commercial advantages. The essay explores the importance of the corporate sponsorship in the event industry. A Critical Discussion of the Importance of Corporate Sponsorship in the Event Industry Corporations use different methods that help them promote their products and services. One of the approaches used to enhance its business objectives of organizations is through sponsorship of events. Since the beginning of the last decade, sponsorship in events improved significantly. For example in 2001, corporates from around the world spent $25.1 billion to sponsor events (Shone and Parry (2004). A sponsorship is a mutually beneficial relationship that exists between two parties where one is a sponsor and the other one is the sponsored. Event managers and event organizers usually engage in tasks of identifying potential sponsors. They also manage the ongoing relationships with their sponsors in order to benefit from them. Event sponsorship is a mutual advantageous relationship that exists between organizations and major events. The corporate sponsor provides benefits in exchange for the association and relationship with sport or game events. According to the resource-based theory, an organization cannot adequately achieve its objectives while depending solely on its resources (Frew and Robertson, 2008). As a result, the event- sponsor relationship help the corporation benefit from the events that can help promote its products. Similarly, the event organizers benefit from corporate sponsorship by getting financial support. Therefore, this mutual relationship enables the event industry to benefit from sponsors. Hankinson (2005) stated that sponsorships are pursued by events such as sports events and they are purchased by corporations through the assessment of the benefits that can be derived from the relationship. Event organizers and managers therefore obtain knowledge of the significant benefits that sponsorship brings to the event. According to the exchange relationship theory, two parties can form partnerships that are mutually beneficial (Ambrósio et al., 2011). In the event-sponsor relationship, events managers seek financial investment, marketing expertise, in kind services, event brand enhancement and more importantly, product and service offers for event goers from sponsors. On the other hand, the corporate sponsor seeks brand awareness, enhancement of brand image, and product trial exposure and hospitality opportunities from events. The corporate sponsor will target to engage the business with the events. However, for the sponsorship to be of greater importance to the event, events managers need to for-create sponsorship platforms and provide a framework that enhances the relationship of event sponsorship. Another importance of corporate sponsorship is that it is an important source of income for event organizations. The corporate sponsorships help events to be held successful because of the additional financial support that corporates provide (Cornwell, et al, 2006). With the support of these funds, the events management can provide incentives, salaries and prizes to event participants. This shows that sponsorship facilitate the activities of the event. Additionally, more corporate sponsorship results to more events because of the support that the events get from sponsors. Nadav, Smith and Canberg (2010) stated that the events industry has expanded because of more sponsors that provide contributions in terms of financial and resource support. For example, the FIFA World Cup and Olympics Games have gathered significant resources from sponsors and at the same time facilitated the business growth of the sponsors. Additionally, the sponsorship of the Barclays Bank towards the English premier league has enhanced the growth and sustainability of the event every year. The event has attracted more people across the world because of the financial support from the sponsor. Therefore, sponsorship contributes to the growth of the event industry. Another importance is that the event industry can easily facilitate the exhibitions or events simply because a corporate has agreed to sponsor (Getz and Andersson, 2010). Since the purpose of a sponsor is to provide a wide access for its products, the event industry can also use the advertising platform of the sponsor to also market its events to a wide audience. For example, if Barclays Bank advertises its services on a TV while sponsoring the English premier league, the event managers can also use this advertising platform provided by Barclays
to advertise it match fixtures to a wide audience. However, Gwinner and Bennet (2007) stated that what is significantly important is that sponsors should be seen as partners in events. Therefore, the main purpose of sponsorship is to enhance the marketing of a sponsor’s products a source of income for the sponsored. This shows that corporate sponsorship is central to the resources and revenue of the event and even tourism industry. Another importance of corporate sponsorship is that it is a way of marketing the event. Through corporate sponsorship, the event can reach a wide audience by utilizing the support of the corporate. Additionally, Santana (2004) stated that no events can successful take place if there were no sponsors. In events, the corporate sponsorship constitutes the major financial backing. Corporate sponsors are very important because they help improve the event profile in corporate terms (Stokes, 2006). Additionally, corporate sponsorship is beneficial to event industry because it enable the industry to receive and helps them to defray costs and provide better and improved services to the people. Additionally, through sponsorship, some of the fans and people in the event can get attached to the sponsor. This shows that the importance of corporate sponsorship is to help develop careers of people in the event. Shone and Parry (2004) argued that there is evidence that loyal and committed funs can get attached to the sponsor that supports their interests. This indicates that sponsors help develop the interests and talents of people involved in the event. Similarly, Sponsorship is significant because if the products advertised are more appealing, they are likely to attract more people to the event. For example, if an international company markets its products in the name of sponsorship using an attractive language, the event will attract more people, especially the sports and other games events. Additionally, Sponsorship is a way of developing the relationships between the sponsor and the event organization (Getz and Andersson, 2010). The relationship developed between the two enables the corporate sponsorship to provide resources, services or funds to support events. An event in return offers the rights and associations that the corporate use for commercial competitive advantage. According to the collaborative relationship model, two organizations can benefit from each other especially if their resources can supplement each other (Cornwell, et al, 2006). In relation to event and corporate relationship, both parties can mutually benefit from each. For example, corporate sponsorship helps event organizers to address various issues related to international event management. For example, sponsorship helps to break the cultural and language barrier, and this makes an event to be accessible to the wide audience. Similarly, sponsorship helps corporate sponsors to become and associate with the events and tourism industry (Iordanova-Krasteva and Baxter, 2008). Corporate sponsors can contribute to the growth of the events sectors by facilitating services such as events venue, and by helping an event to publish and distribute useful information to users. Similarly, international events enable the corporate sponsor to access the global business market. This also shows that event industry and corporate sponsors benefit from each other. Hankinson (2005) stated that corporate sponsors facilitate various activities of an event and enhance the growth of event industry. For example, a single event may require services such as bus services, security, meal functions and entertainment services. As a result, corporate sponsors can help in facilitating some of these functions, which enhance the success of an event. For example, event managers achieve the objectives of an event through different support from corporate sponsors. Lim and Patterson (2008) stated that the events industry is likely to grow because corporate sponsors facilitate networking. For example, if a corporation sponsors two or more events, the events can easily network and this can help meet a significant number of people across the world towards the industry. However, Ambrósio et al., (2011) argued that for the corporate sponsorship to be of great importance to an event, event managers must effectively manage the sponsorship in order to ensure that the promised benefits are delivered from the partnership. Monitoring a relationship with sponsors ensures that enduring and positive relations are developed with sponsors. Therefore, event managers should continually asses the achieved outcomes from the sponsorship in order to continually engage in beneficial partnerships (Nelson, 2014). Sponsorship can be of great importance if event managers can understand, develop and apply a management approach that will ensure an event obtains strategic benefits from the sponsors. Additionally Gwinner and Bennet (2007) also argued that corporate sponsorship plays significant roles in the event industry. International events such as Olympics can reach the audience across the world through the effort of the sponsors. Though sponsors use events as a way of marketing their products, they facilitate the success of events by helping to attract more people. However, the objective in an event can only be achieved if event managers apply appropriate management. For example, event organizers need to apply different strategies that can result to strong relationships with the sponsor. Yeoman, et al (2012) argued that corporate sponsorship is not only important to the event industry, but also to the Corporation itself. Sponsorship is one of the ways through which corporations are using to reach the target markets. Corporates do not only sponsor an event because the event is worthwhile. They sponsor because there is a product or service that they want to promote. The sponsor uses the relationship to enhance its promotional objectives. At the same time, the event organizers derive financial benefits from the sponsor. Sponsorship of events especially the international events is an effective way through which corporations reach a wide audience. It is beneficial to international companies as sponsorship transcends language and cultural barriers. Santana (2004) argued that an international event involve a wide audience, hence it provides opportunity for corporations to reach a wide audience in marketing their products. For example, Weed (2006) stated that the Olympic held in Los Angeles facilitated the rapid expansion of businesses of the sponsors. Additionally, brands can get close to customers through corporate sponsorship. This is mainly because events allow people from different parts of the world to meet together and interact with various products from sponsors. Therefore, this shows that corporate sponsorship helps an organization to increase their profits by selling their products and services to a wide audience. The corporate sponsorship is very important to the event and tourism industry. However, Yeoman et al (2012) argued that the importance of corporate sponsorship to event industry can only be achieved if both the sponsor and the sponsored consider certain factors. Some of these factors include cooperation, communication, trust, long tern perspective and mutual understanding. Additionally, events managers should develop appropriate methods of attracting sponsors. The potential benefits of corporate sponsors can only be achieved if event managers select the trusted and reliable corporate sponsors. Nelson (2014) also argued that the sponsorship is beneficial if it adds value and enhances the objectives of an event. Similarly, not all the sponsors can enhance the success of an event. Therefore, events managers should identify and attract potential sponsors that facilitate financial success of an event. Santana (2004) noted that not all events-sponsor relationships can results to mutual benefits. In some cases, one party can benefit more than the other. The main objective for corporate sponsorship is to provide financial support to the events and in turn enhance the marketing and sales of a corporates’ products. In other cases, the sponsor can take the advantage to market products but in turn provide minimal financial support to the events. In this case, they market their products and services through the international event platform while providing minimal financial assistance to ensure event success. Similarly, the sponsor can takeover over the event and provide minimal assistance to support the events activities. Similarly, the event management team may also be interested in acquiring financial support from the sponsors and fail to support them in promoting their business agenda of advertising their brands to the targeted audience (Weed, 2006). This implies that events cannot necessary be mutually beneficial to both parties. Therefore, to make the sponsorship be beneficial to the event industry, both parties can make agreements and monitor the existing relationships between them. This will help both the sponsors and the event organizers achieve their objectives through corporate sponsorship. Conclusion The essay is an analysis of the importance of corporate sponsorship in the event industry. In the current environment, most of the events are facilitated by the corporate sponsorship that facilitates the success of events. Without sponsorship, most of events may not succeed or achieve the set objectives. Through sponsorship, event organizers get financial support that help in conducting events activities. Additionally, sponsorship enables marketing of events to a reach a larger audience across the world. Similarly, the sponsors also acquire benefits in return from events. For example, sponsoring helps corporates to advertise their business products to a large audience. This therefore shows that corporate sponsorship is mutually beneficial both to the business and to the events. Both the business and the event organizers need to develop trust and strong relationships in order for both parties to benefit. Additionally, the events management team must use appropriate methods to identify and attract sponsors that can enhance the events success. 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