58. Strategies for Success in Event Sponsorship

Speaker A: Welcome to Sales and Marketing Fry Talks where we share insights, best practices and anecdotes from technology companies. Join us live on LinkedIn or subscribe to our podcast. And now to the new episode. Today we have a very interesting guest, uh, Hando Sinisalo, the founder of the Marketing Parrot, one of the leading agencies, event agencies in Baltics out of Estonia. And we invited Hando uh because you know the, the events and um, you know event sponsorship is something what every marketeer consider as uh, one of the key, you know, tactics when it comes to the, you know, uh, creating the audience, generating awareness, generating leads and so on and so forth. And that is uh, now back after the COVID and we see more and more events happening, more and more uh, companies organizing their events. But the question is what the outcome of these events. And um, when we had just a brief conversation with Hando, he said, you know what happens that uh, there are quite many companies who are kind of investing money to these uh, sponsorships or to the events. But uh, in the end uh, they are coming out pretty frustrated uh, about the outcomes and the same actually with the audience who comes to these type of events. And then maybe they are not getting what actually they were expecting. So therefore we invited Hando to share from his 20 year experience what are these uh, things what companies should do and should not do when it comes to the events organizing and organiz organizing events and uh, then sponsoring the events. So welcome Hande.

Speaker B: Hello. Thank you, thank you for inviting.

Speaker A: Yeah, it's a big uh, pleasure to have you here. And um, as I already introduced quite extensively this topic, I think we need just uh, maybe to go right away into uh, the conversation and uh, uh, maybe let's start with your experience with the event uh, events. So you mentioned that it's over 20 years but can you share a bit more about your journey? How did you started doing this and how widely is this experience?

Speaker B: Yes, um, my background is in journalism. So I graduated uh, the university, uh, journalism department and did my master's degree in the US in the field of communications. And since then I've been working as a journalist and editor and managing director of uh, media companies. And then approximately 20 years ago I was invited by my friends to join them in the events company. So basically uh, events and media are very similar because if you uh, think of uh, yourself as an editor who actually is a curator of the program that audience would like or would benefit from, then uh, there is not a big difference whether you are editing a magazine, inviting uh, the authors to contribute or if you produce uh, a program for a conference where you also need to uh, have contributors, uh, authors, uh, speakers who will present. And then your role as a conference producer then is to uh, make sure that uh, the whole thing uh, actually works out well as a whole. So basically how these different uh, contributors align um, with each other, uh, what would be the expectations of the audience, et cetera. And obviously um, you know, doing that. Uh, you also have uh, you know, basically two kinds of uh, uh, presentations in a typical conference program. Uh, some of them are uh, you know, very simply saying, some of them are the ones you pay for. So basically you would find that an author or a speaker or a guru from somewhere and you pay a speaking fee and then you hope that the audience would like it. And then on the other hand there are uh, uh, sponsors or companies who are interested in reaching the same audience and who are willing to pay money for that opportunity. So basically uh, as a participant you would probably see on stage some speakers that are experts and the organizers have paid for. And then you would see also some speakers who represent companies uh, who are sponsoring the event and actually have paid money to uh, uh, speak to you. So basically, and very often you very easily can make a difference because uh, everybody who has attended the conference, they probably have some uh, uh, negative experience with the speakers who try to sell them uh, their products or services directly from the stage. And I have done these events. I have organized events um, in over 30 countries. Uh mostly in Estonia where I work with the biggest uh event company or media company Aripa, which is part of One Year Group. I've been working over 10 years but also with the different partners from very different parts of the world. Uh, from Europe, from uh, countries like Slovenia or Netherlands, uh from Asia, from countries. Countries like Malaysia and India and Indonesia and South Africa and Ghana. So the. The range is pretty wide.

Speaker A: Yes, it sounds quite, quite, quite an exciting. Yeah to to probably be in all these places and uh, have this experience of events and uh. But uh. What. What interesting is that when I was preparing for this conversation I also looked up for some statistics and um. Uh, apparently uh, most of companies, as I already mentioned, it's uh. Nearly to over 80. 80, 80% of companies actually when they were surveyed they said that they are planning to invest into different type of events and sponsorships uh in coming years. Right. So they really see it as a, as a main of main channel for them. Same time, uh, a bit less than that but. But also very significant like over 70%, 71 I guess. Percent was saying that they are not getting what they actually were expecting in terms of the ROI from these events. Based on all this experience, what you just uh, kind of mentioned and these geographies, can you maybe mention uh, what are the main reasons on your opinion why this is happening?

Speaker B: Well uh, there's one main reason and the reason is that the companies just don't know how to do it. So basically it's a lack of skill, it's lack of experience and uh, probably also it's expectation management issue in many cases. So basically uh, uh, I would say that speaking uh, at the event and being present in media like a PR is in a way very similar. And also these two methods uh, of uh, uh, communicating are very much intertwined. So they are aligned with each other and they go together. So um, basically what is the biggest mistake? So maybe I would start what not to do is when you uh, uh, cooperate with some uh, conference and then you would send your sales guy or somebody who is responsible in selling your products on the stage and hope that 30 minute uh, sales pitch would generate leads. And then after the end of the conference you would leave the event with business cards or any other format of leads. And then the day after conference you can close the deals. So this is uh, first of all it's a wrong expectation, then it's a very wrong format to do so. And uh, the result would be that uh, everybody is unhappy, uh, the audience is unhappy because they are, they got a bad presentation. Then the organizers of the conference are unhappy because uh, the delegates uh, gave a very bad feedback. And then obviously at the end of the day the sponsor is unhappy because they paid money and they got no results. So uh, this is something to avoid. Uh, don't do that because this is not going to work unless there is an exception, unless this is an event where everybody expects to be sold at. For example, if you manage to gather the audience, uh, who is really interested in uh, your software or whatever product you're offering and they are already you know, near the bottom of the funnel or they are close to making a decision or choosing what product to buy and they really want to know the features. Let's say uh, if you want to buy a car, you are already, you know, you have the money, uh, you are in the final stage and you need to decide whether you want to buy Audi or BMW or Mercedes. And obviously if these, you know, the representatives of these companies would come to you and then you want to know everything, you want to test drive, you want to know all the uh, features and specs, then you're interested. But if you're not in the process of buying car, and maybe you want to buy it in, in the future, you don't want to know uh, all those features and specs because you are not interested at this point of time. And another statistics, I think uh, it was uh, published by a LinkedIn Institute is that uh, in total only 5% of the audience is ready to buy at any given moment. Meaning that 95% of people you are approaching are not uh, in the position of making the buying decision right now. So you need to influence them uh, uh, to become buyers so you can't really sell to them. And this very often applies to the conference audience as well. So if you are a speaker, you're a sponsor, you go to the stage, you see 100 people in the audience, then only five people maybe are willing to buy tomorrow. 95 people in the audience are not willing. And then if you bore them with your sales stock, they will leave uh, unhappy.

Speaker A: Yeah, that's a very, very good and valid point. And we also um, were talking about this uh, for quite long and we are preaching the same um, like that you need to recognize and you need to respect so called this buyer journey, right? And uh, if you do so then your chances to, to be more efficient in marketing are uh, way higher than you just uh, you know, go and try to sell to everyone. And uh, yeah it's, it's very important. But uh, when it comes to this kind of um, when you think that you come to this event and you have uh, probably recognized that you want to use it more for building your brand, maybe, or maybe uh, building a trust. What would be the best approach for preparing for such type of kind, um, of event based on your experience?

Speaker B: Yeah, I would say setting the goals is the first thing. And then um, the most uh, probable goal you are able to achieve is that you would uh, uh, show yourself and your company as an expert in the field. So uh, you actually uh, you build your brand, you become a knowledge leader, a thought leader. And I think this is the most uh, the best way of uh, or one of the best ways of building that thought leadership. So your goal would be to educate the audience to offer them some value. And this applies to every kind of content marketing, being it speaking at the conference or you know, uh, blog article or podcast or whatever. Uh, you, you have to deliver some value to the audience and, and the value is not describing your product or reading the features list or whatever. So it's it's about helping your audience to solve their problems, uh, giving them advice. And this is what you can do on a conference stage. And basically if you manage to do that, if you uh, offer that advice, if you are being useful and interesting for the audience, they would naturally come to you uh, uh, for more advice. And then when you already have this contact with them, if they trust you, then uh, sometime in the future you may be able to sell something to them. So it's all measurable. You can actually when you um, uh there is very often a question of that. What kind of goals should you set for speaking at the event? And the goals could be uh, uh, most of the event organizers actually monitor the feedback nowadays. It's done uh, very often with some digital tools like event app, but like we actually quite often do it also in the old fashioned way with uh, the printed uh, feedback forms. And then uh, one way would be to ask from the organizers what was the feedback? Uh, did the audience actually like my presentation? And the higher the points are, the better, uh you have achieved the goal. Then the other thing would be you know of course the total reach, how many people you reached. But uh, this is the kind of the physical event space is not uh, the end of it because uh, what clever companies do is that they can use uh, you know, if your speaker is on the stage very often, you know the setup is nice, you know there is a big stage, good, uh, lights, uh, you know sound, everything is well done. So you actually might feel like a little bit like a rock star on a stage. And if this is recorded, uh, then you can use this recording from that event later in your own media. Uh, you can actually maybe if it's a 30 minute presentation it's possible to even use shorter bites uh in social uh media you can put it on TikTok or uh, reels or wherever and a longer1 on YouTube on your own website and you can actually reuse it many times. So uh, also the photos from the event, very often the uh, professional event uh organizers have also very good photographers. So for example in my experience uh actually the speakers, they really appreciate if you later share them uh the photos while you're on stage. Because very often these photos really look nice. They actually look, the photos look much better than the real thing itself. Uh you know, especially if the photographer captures the speaker with a relevant uh, background slide. Uh, uh, and another thing with the event photos is that um, very often the audience looks very bored because nowadays people, they are maybe using their phones, they are not paying Attention. Then there are some moments when they kind of wake up when they do something, maybe they laugh, maybe they applaud. Or you as a speaker can even encourage them to raise their hand or do something. And then these moments can be photo photographed or videotaped. And then, you know, this also shows you uh, as a speaker, uh, being um, interesting and uh, engaging with the audience. So these are these little moments you should also uh, pay attention to.

Speaker A: That was a very good tip what you just gave. So guys, if you are on the stage and you see this photographer coming in into the room at that moment, you should definitely do something to attract more attention, to attract more emotions from the audience. So that when the photographer take a picture that is recognized on the picture. And then afterwards you can really show that you're. Yeah, yeah.

Speaker B: But you can actually, you can prepare that. You can actually talk. I would suggest to talk to the photographer beforehand and say, look, uh, you know, five minutes after the beginning of my presentation, then I'm going to make a joke and I hope my joke is funny and everybody reacts to it. So you can actually uh, cooperate with the photograph because, uh, uh, it's not so easy to capture these moments because they happen usually in a very short time. Uh, then, uh, we recently had a speaker, uh, from the advertising agency from Sweden in our recent uh, uh, conference. And what he asked to do was that he asked everybody, uh, at some point of the presentation to uh, uh. To turn on the flashlight, uh, of the phone. Yeah. And do it like that. So basically we had uh, almost 500 people in the audience doing like that. Wow. And then of course, you know, the photo of such thing, uh, it looked impressive as a rock star on the stage. So this little things that look really good on photos and videos, you know, you should prepare for that. Yes. Roland, I have a question.

Speaker C: Yes, uh, Handel, I think you have quite, um, interesting and also demanding job of being kind of curator. Trying to balance, uh, in your conferences, the interests of sponsors, the interests of public. Right. And then you probably bring in some kind of a headline. Performers, headline speakers. But what would be your advice to, let's say to starting and small companies and somebody who has a really good story, uh, how should they reach out, let's say to you, how should they pitch your story, uh, just to, you know, make sure that you hear them out and uh, they have a chance to be, let's say, reviewed. And you can then decide does it make sense to invite them as a speaker to your conference? Or maybe not.

Speaker B: Well, uh, it always helps uh, to have some experience before. Because what I've seen is that uh, you know, even in big companies, uh, it's not so easy to find somebody who's a good speaker. Ah. So it doesn't have to be. Very often the best speaker is not the CEO or somebody, uh, on a C level sometimes it can be somebody whose job title is not as impressive, but uh, he or she might be a very good speaker. So I think that this is the most important thing is that the speaker must feel uh, confident on a stage. Uh, the speaker must have some natural abilities speak. Of course, you know, it is uh, partly it's like a gift or a talent, but you can definitely improve and learn it as well. So it helps that if, for example, if somebody would pitch me and I have seen the person on stage before and I liked it, then definitely it helps. And then uh, all kind of video material is always good. So when I, when I search for a speakers then uh, very often if somebody recommends me somebody, then I Google and then I uh, search on YouTube. And uh, very often when you see uh, uh, this recording on YouTube, you also get an idea if he or she would be a good speaker because you know uh, this video shows and uh, also the topic. So if somebody approaches me with you know, unknown speaker, unknown company maybe. But if the topic is very relevant then uh, we can discuss together. And uh, me as a program curator or producer, I also try to help. So uh, uh, very often what we do is that if the speaker sends me the slides then uh, we uh, actually change something. So uh, I'm giving some advice how to change the focus or maybe leave out. Because the biggest mistake everybody does is that let's say if you have a uh, uh, 20 minute or 30 minute presentation and usually the first slide is about the background of the company. I've seen you know, people stuck to that slide for 15 minutes. So they, they tell the, the history of the company, you know, and all the little details. So this slide supposed to be 20 seconds, not longer. Because people don't want to hear about uh, you uh, they want to get some valuable uh, advice from you. So this is kind of the. Absolutely. The most important thing is that when you're on stage, when you get this stage time, you have a chance to show your presentation. Keep in mind that people don't care about uh, you, your company, they only care about themselves. So your job is to help them to uh, navigate through whatever problems they have and offer them advice. So uh, you know, don't brag about how good you are. Your company. Yes.

Speaker A: Yeah, it's. It's a very valid uh, advice. And we. We also uh, often mention the same to our uh, clients and uh, to the audience. Especially when they are preparing some content or webinars. It's very common mistake that uh, people spend too much time talking about them instead of actually talking about the topic and uh, sharing the knowledge. Right. And they miss the opportunity because time is limited. The attention span of the audience is very, very short. If you are not catching their attention, uh, at right time, at the right moment, you are not able to keep it. And then they turn to the phone or just in the worst case scenario, just leave the room, uh, and that's it. Yeah. You also mentioned that you was running uh, those events, uh, or participating in events in over 30 countries. And uh, very often, uh, our companies like companies from smaller countries like Latvia, Estonia, Baltics and even in Europe in general, they are looking for, you know, being present in bigger countries like the US The UK and maybe Asian markets, China and so on. And uh, when they go there, they suddenly face some different reality. And in some cases it's more visible and it's uh, you know, much more different and some are not. But based on your experience in uh, such a wide geography, uh, what could you maybe advise and uh, share us, maybe even some funny stories in terms of those cultural uh, differences, uh, what we need to take into consideration while preparing for such events?

Speaker B: Well, I would say when it comes to uh, uh, you know, uh, audiences, uh, uh, kind of um, uh, resistance to sales pitch, then Baltic countries are leading the world. Uh, I would say countries like Estonia, uh, Latvia, Lithuania, uh, audience, you know, they completely hate if somebody starts to sell something from stage, even, you know, very short slide about the background of the company. You already get, uh, you know, on the feedback forms that uh, somebody's comments about how bad it was and uh, bigger markets. So um, when you go to the UK or US or Germany, then uh, there people are more tolerant, uh, towards uh, you know, sales from the state. So actually in those countries I've seen, um, really, you know, top people from top companies in the world doing uh, quite heavy sales pitch. And uh, uh, the audience, uh, is not leaving. They are there, they are applauding. So uh, and I think my theory that is in our countries like Latvia and Estonia, uh, people have very limited respect towards uh, you know, high uh, position people. Because, you know, the prime minister, you know, you can meet the prime minister in Rhimi, uh, after work, uh, you know, waiting in the queue to buy some milk, literally. Or you most likely went to the same school together with uh, another minister or president. So the difference between uh, uh, ordinary people and those top people, government people or managers of the companies is non existent. When you go to a big country like us then uh, you see huge differences. So if you're a top CEO of uh, a global company or a government minister, then you are uh, you know, like a God. You are on a completely different uh. League. Yeah, absolutely. And then uh, actually uh, people are more tolerant. So if you are uh, uh, if you are then selling from the stage and you are a uh, CEO of I don't know, Microsoft or Google or whatever big company, then everybody, you know, because the fact itself that you are in the same event together with that top guy is already. So this leads us to this fame factor. And uh, you know, coming from a small country like Latvia or Estonia or Slovenia or Malta or any other uh, you know, I would say that our business people should leverage more uh, our uh huh, government people. Because you uh, know in very many cultures, especially in Middle east, in uh, Arab countries, also in China, uh, basically many big markets, uh, uh, if you manage to be together with somebody with uh, uh, kind of impressively sounding job, uh title like uh, you know, vice secretary or minister of some, you know, affairs, that helps. So uh, basically even sometimes I would suggest to try to uh, pitch uh some sort of a panel where you can be together with some top official from your country and then uh, you know, uh, pitch uh, uh, the event organizers this way. And uh, just to give you an example, I was recently, last December actually I was attending the uh, COP Climate Conference in Dubai. And this is like the really top event of the world with uh, heads of state of many countries. And you know, I think they had like 70,000 people there. And I was also moderating some panels in Estonian pavilion there. And uh, basically um, um you know what happens there is that uh, at uh, some companies, uh, even you know, traditional way of thinking would be that the more people you have in the audience the better. So you have maybe 1,000 people in the audience, great success. You have only 10 people in the audience, no success. But in the B2B world or even you know, business to government world, the big numbers don't matter, the quality matters more. And very often what I saw there was that the conference room M was pretty much empty. Maybe like 10 people in the room. But then uh, some business people managed to be in the same uh, discussion panel with some very important people from the government or, you know, European Commission or, you know, whatever important organization. And the fact that they were in the same panel really, uh, helps to build relations for the future. So it's like an icebreaker. If you are in the same panel with somebody, you want to, you know, build relations, it always helps because you spend some quality time together preparing the event, you know, being on stage after event. And then you get a lot of, um, uh, you get a very good video and picture material. So maybe even if the hall was almost empty, uh, the pictures also show that you were together on stage with some important person. You can use those pictures later in social media. You can use the video later in YouTube, on YouTube or any other channel. So this is a completely different aspect, uh, how you can, um, basically you can say I was, our CEO, was speaking at the world's biggest event in Dubai, COP28. Nobody knows if there was one person in the room or, you know, 10,000. Uh, it shows the level that you're in the same league. You are in the world's most important event. You are in the same league with some other people. And this material can be used for pr, uh, you know, in the future. And it's very helpful. So you need to think in a very clever way and actually being in the same panel, uh, and this is a very good way of combining, uh, sales, communications and marketing. So for example, if you, let's say, uh, you're an uh, advertising agency, uh, manager, and you are interested in, uh, a big client, uh, I don't know, in the Baltic countries it can be like a Swede bank or Telia or any other. A very good way would be to, uh, if you are sponsoring the event, uh, maybe to arrange the panel that you, as an advertising agency, uh, head, you would be in the same panel with top clients like Swedbank, Tele, uh, many others. And then maybe the main benefit out of this event is not that you get leads from the audience, but maybe the benefit from the event would be that you actually break ice. You build relationship with those other people who are in the same panel. And maybe sometime in the future you can do business with them. So, uh, you know, if you are thinking of the events, then, you know, being alone on stage is only one option. Maybe sometimes it's even better to arrange a panel and being on stage with the people you want to, uh, build relationship with in the future.

Speaker A: Yeah. So, uh, these were really valuable insights. Even I learned also quite a lot, uh, from you.

Speaker C: So.

Speaker A: So thank you for sharing. Maybe before we Wrap up. Uh, could you maybe share your thoughts on what, what, what waits, uh, us in terms of these events. Uh, how do you see the future of the events and event sponsorship, considering all the changes and especially you know, the emergency between digital and physical. And you know, how do you see in very short, like what should we prepare for?

Speaker B: Yeah, during, During COVID like most, uh, event organizers were really worried. They thought that uh, you know, this digital events will kill, uh, the physical events. But it didn't happen vice versa. After Covid, people were even more interested in getting together. So uh, this, this was a myth. Uh, the other thing actually what I see, uh, mainly in Europe is, is that uh, uh, even many speakers refuse to fly. They say that, you know, the carbon footprint is big, so uh, if they cannot uh, travel by train, they are not coming. And this is actually a trend I see also in some uh, big event companies are pitching, saying that look, uh, uh, when you choose the event location, choose uh, the place where the train connections are the best. And obviously these places are not Estonia and Latvia. Uh, they are even not Portugal or Finland. Ah, so it has to be Germany, uh, or Netherlands or any place with a good train connection in the center of Europe. So this could be in the future a challenge for uh, event organizers from uh, small countries in the ages of Europe. Then another trend I see is that uh, the kind of the hybrid model. So uh, in the future the event probably would be that uh, there is a physical event where people on stage, this event will be broadcasted so many people can uh, see live on video. Then you can later watch these videos. Then uh, the content from this event, uh, the speeches will be published in the form of uh, another small clips, long clips, uh, text, uh, podcast audio. So you see a lot of integration. So uh, uh, when planning an event, think uh, outside the conference room itself. So there are so many other ways of reaching even bigger audience, uh by other means. Uh, so I would say that this is probably the biggest trend.

Speaker A: Very good. So thank you for sharing and uh, maybe before we kind of say goodbye to each other and to our uh, listeners and uh, those who joined us live, uh, you are organizing uh, in Baltics, uh, probably one of the biggest B2B marketing conference, uh very soon. Could you maybe share a little bit more details on that? And what shall we expect from that?

Speaker B: Yeah, we have Tallinn now, uh, 4th and 5th of June. Um, we have uh, the B2B conference. It's a two day event and for the first time in uh, history we also uh, give out Marketing uh awards for B2B uh not only campaigns but marketing strategies as well. So most of the advertising and marketing awards are uh, about uh B2C or at least uh the winners are for B2C uh because uh it's quite uh impossible to compare let's say the ads for ice cream or beer with ads for computer software or uh cleaning service or whatever. So this is unique B2B marketing competition uh at that conference and at the conference we cover uh both marketing and uh sales topics and we have speakers from uh uh, multi countries, uh Sweden, uh, uk, Romania. So uh, it's a pretty wide range. We have over 20 speakers uh two days and we expect uh almost 200 delegates uh from all over Baltic countries to Thailand. So uh, check the program on the website.

Speaker A: Great, great, thank you. We are definitely uh recommend uh considering coming to this event and moreover myself and Rolance, we will be there as well. So guys, if you uh interested to talk to us and uh to many other experts, really highly, highly recommended uh event for uh this beginning of the summer right before you go for the vacation.

Speaker B: Yes. Hopefully the weather will be nice too.

Speaker A: Yes, we also are looking forward to it. Thank you very much and um, thank you for coming. Thank you for such an interesting uh you know uh, story and uh insights you shared with us and also practical, very practical I think recommendation that everyone who is uh planning to be part of the upcoming events can definitely leverage. I think uh, they are very, very uh useful. Thanks for this uh Hondo. Thanks. Thank you for your time. Thank you everyone who was uh with us today. I just want to quickly remind that uh, if you uh interested to, to get more insights you're always welcome to follow our company webpage and uh LinkedIn uh profile page. Uh just, just uh go and search for IBD consulting. We also have a special hashtag on LinkedIn available for this uh FryTalk episode so that you can uh find them all and uh scroll back and see there were already over 50 uh plus uh different episodes with uh speakers who shared a lot of uh interesting stuff. So feel free to subscribe to our podcast version of these conversations on uh platform of your choice. So thank you for being with us. We are looking forward for our next conversation then wish you just a great Friday and wonderful uh weekends. Uh yeah, thank you very much for being with us this Friday. Yeah, bye bye.