Sponsorship and Corporate Hospitality

Description of Assessment Task and Purpose:

You are required to submit an individual written report, in 2,500 words (plus or minus 10%) based on a sponsorship plan for an event (or series of events). The purpose of this assessment is to judge your knowledge of the subject area, an ability to find and evaluate accurate and reliable information/evidence and present it in a clear, concise and professional manner.

As an independent event consultant, you are required to write a sponsorship plan for an event or series of events.  Your role is to write a sponsorship plan that will support an event or series of events to contribute towards the particular needs (aims and objectives) of a selected organisation.  In doing so, consider the potential for a relationship agreement between the organisation and the sponsor(s) in which the sponsorship objectives, commitments of all parties, opportunities for ‘activation’ activities and a means of measuring and evaluating the sponsorship agreement are all included.

The choice of event (or series of events) should be fictitious and inspired by personal and study interests and one with which you could have a personal affinity. The organisation is likely to be active in one or more of the following fields or sectors:

– Music and entertainment

– Art and culture

– Tourism, heritage and conservation

– Sport and recreational activity

– Community and neighbourhood The event (or series of events) should be small to medium scale, currently without a significant sponsorship profile and not a mega event. The specific choice of event must be agreed with the Seminar Tutor.

Learning Outcomes Assessed:

LO1:   Evaluate marketing communications and marketing strategies to sponsorship and corporate hospitality;

LO2:   Examine key issues relating to sponsorship and corporate hospitality for the sponsor and sponsee;

LO3:   Compare sponsorship and corporate hospitality packages; LO4:   Demonstrate academic and theoretical understanding with application to practical experiences of event sponsorship planning.

Knowledge & Skills Assessed:

Subject Specific Knowledge, Skills and Understanding: literature searching, referencing, written communication skills and subject-specific knowledge.

Professional Graduate Skills: adaptability, written communication, creativity, critical thinking, IT skills, problem solving, group or team skills, effective time management, working under pressure to meet deadlines, negotiation skills, leadership.

Emotional Intelligence: self-awareness, self-management, awareness of others, managing and supporting others, motivation, resilience, self-confidence. Career-focused Skills:  an understanding of the range of graduate careers, skills and attributes required by employers, a range of strategies to present skills and attributes to employers.

Format for Assessment:

The Report is 2500 words (plus or minus 10% – although the expectation will be that the word count will be at least 2500 words).  Evidence of task completion should be included within an Appendices and is separate from the word count.

For clarity, the word count starts from the beginning of the Introduction to the end of the Conclusions and Recommendations; therefore, Executive Summary, Table of Contents, and Appendices are NOT included in the Word Count. 

The sponsorship plan will be written in an adapted Report format with accompanying References and Appendices; and is likely to include the following key heading areas (though flexibility will be required depending on individual choices made):

·        Executive Summary (not included in overall Report Word Count and an estimation of the length of this section is about 300 words)

·        Table of Contents (not included in the overall Report Word Count and should be produced using MsWord Function of Insert, Index and Tables, Table of Contents).

·       Introduction (included in the word count and approximately 250 words)

o  Outline of the theoretical context of the report

o  Outline of the research context (the event)

o  Event aims and objectives

·       Main Body of the report will be approximately 2000 words, with the use of headings and sub-headings to provide structure to the content, which may include the following:

o  Initial Analysis: macro-environmental analysis and critical analysis of target market, consumers and consumer behaviour.

o  Marketing Communications: develop an understanding of target audiences (event and sponsor) and where sponsorship could fit in to the marketing communications mix.

o  Financial Planning: Projected costs and revenue considerations.

o  Sponsors: matching types and mutual benefits.

o  Targeted packages: sponsorship, hospitality services, and incentives.

o  Activation activities: opportunities in hospitality, social media, public relations and traditional advertising.

o  Evaluation of the sponsorship package, including evaluation of hospitality services offered as part of the sponsorship package.   

·       Conclusions (included in the word count and approximately 250 words).

o  Draw out the most significant points and use to formulate the recommendations.

o  Concluding the event sponsorship planning process. 

·       Recommendations (included in the word count and approximately 150 words).

o   Actionable points that are formulated from the Conclusions.

o   Supported statements (in-text citations).

·        References List (not included in the word count).

·        Appendices (not included in the word count) used to present detail only.