Newsletter: Are Your Underpricing Your Sponsorships? 🤝 How Strong Partnerships Survive Changing Moments 💪 ; Convos May be More Valuable Than Data 🗣️
Most sponsorship packages are still priced like it’s 2005.
You know what I'm talking about: gold, silver, bronze.
They use the same packages and pricing year after year, like they are stuck in the movie Groundhog Day.
Meanwhile, almost every other industry has embraced some form of dynamic pricing. Airlines use it. Hotels use it. Sports teams use it. Concert venues use it. And the list goes on and on.
Prices rise and fall based on demand, timing, inventory, scarcity, and customer behavior.
So Larry Weil (aka The Sponsorship Guy) and I started asking ourselves:
Why doesn’t sponsorship work that way, too?
So, that’s the topic of our next LinkedIn Live conversation on June 25th at 1pm EDT: Are You Underpricing Your Sponsorships? Is Dynamic Pricing the Answer?
The more we discussed this topic, the more we realized something important. The same sponsorship opportunity can create wildly different value for different sponsors.
For example, if one sponsor wants awareness, but another wants leads, should they both pay the same price?
And what happens when sponsorship inventory starts disappearing quickly? Should the last presenting sponsorship cost the same as the first one sold?
In our 20-minute conversation, Larry and I will discuss:
• The hidden ways organizations underprice sponsorships • How fixed-price Gold/Silver/Bronze packages are limiting revenue potential • How dynamic pricing could change the way sponsorships are sold and valued • Practical ways to think differently about sponsorship pricing and sponsor value
Most organizations spend their time trying to find more sponsors. But what if the bigger opportunity is pricing sponsorships more strategically? 🤔
✍️ Partnership Notes
One partnership insight that matters.
💪 How the strongest partnerships survive changing moments.
A Marketing Dive piece argues that the upcoming World Cup will test whether brands can truly prove the value of massive sponsorship investments. At the same time, Marketing Brew reports that NYC Pride is navigating another year of reduced corporate allyship and sponsorship support.
Together, the stories highlight an important partnership lesson: visibility alone is becoming a fragile foundation for sponsorships. On its own, exposure rarely justifies the investment. Plus, partnerships built primarily on visibility rather than engagement may indicate that a brand is chasing PR impressions more than relationships. Some nonprofits that relied heavily on “visibility partners” over the past few years are now learning how quickly that support can disappear.
Even Harvard Business Review recently argued that brands often get sponsorships wrong by focusing too heavily on exposure rather than engagement and emotional connection.
Meanwhile, Airbnb is showing what a more durable approach can look like. As part of its World Cup activation here in Massachusetts, the company is donating more than 1,100 tickets to kids through the Massachusetts Alliance of Boys & Girls Clubs. It’s a reminder that the strongest partnerships today don’t just attach themselves to big events. They also create local relevance and community impact. And that’s where nonprofits can score the winning goal.
🤑 Marketing Your Cause
One move you should steal.
💬 Conversation may be more valuable than data.
A Content Marketing Institute piece argues that marketers have become so focused on dashboards, metrics, and automation that they sometimes forget the value of actual conversation. Data can tell you what people clicked, viewed, or downloaded—but conversations reveal motivations, frustrations, and emotions. The takeaway for nonprofit marketers: analytics matter, but relationships still drive understanding. In a world overflowing with data, the organizations willing to listen closely may gain the deepest insights.
😎 Cool Jobs in Cause
Find your next adventure.
🤝 Director of Corporate Partnerships and Giving, Bronson Healthcare, Greater Kalamazoo Area
🤝 Sponsorship Program Lead, Children's Wisconsin, Milwaukee, WI
🤝 Corporate Relations Manager, Mount Auburn Cemetery, Cambridge, MA
🧠🍌 Brain Food
One thing that is feeding my thinking.
🍔 What if AI content becomes the fast food of the mind?
A provocative Washington Post essay argues that AI-generated fiction may offer the same kind of convenience and instant gratification that fast food offers consumers: fast, easy, and endlessly available—but not always nourishing. The takeaway goes beyond writing. In a world increasingly optimized for speed and efficiency, we may need to think more carefully about what depth, struggle, originality, and human perspective still contribute. Convenience can scale content. But it doesn’t automatically create meaning.
