Visitor Research Lures Corporate Sponsors

I do not envy fair and festival organizers. So many details, so many decisions, so many people to wrangle . . . and such small budgets. To be sure, all festivals and events could use an infusion of cash, but local festivals, and especially small-town rural fairs and festivals even moreso. A good strong corporate sponsorship is often seen as the golden ticket. After all, putting together a company with a group of people who are very likely to buy their products is a match made in heaven.

According to Planyourmeetings.com, companies sponsor events because sponsorships:

1. Enhance the reputation and image of the sponsoring company through association.


2. Give product brands high visibility among key audiences.


3. Provide a focal point for marketing efforts and sales campaigns.


4. Generate publicity and media coverage.

You may already know instinctively that your audience is perfect for a company, either for a minor or major sponsorship. But how to convince them? With some good visitor research, that’s how.

Unfortunately, companies aren’t usually swayed by your personal reassurances that their target customers will be at your event. Instead, they respond to data—numbers, statistics, “hard proof”. The problem is how to get them this data without spending much more of the money that is already so tight!

The Middle Tennessee District Fair, put on by the Lawrenceburg Rotary Club in Lawrenceburg, TN, decided to make the $2,500 investment into generating hard data to help them attract a corporate sponsor for next year’s fair. Because Fair organizers know that most people drive to visit the Fair from within an 80-mile driving radius, we profiled that geographic area using a well-known nationwide consumer profiling system called Community Tapestry. As it turned out, a particular consumer segment called Factories and Farms represented the vast majority of people in that area (indicated below in pink).

These folks represent classic rural life: they are hardworking families in small communities whose lifestyle emphasizes home and garden care, fishing and hunting, pets, and local clubs. And because the data is gleaned using huge databases of purchasing information connected to geography, we were able to connect high indexing rankings to particular behaviors. This is the kind of data that corporations and companies LOVE. For instance, consumers of the Middle Tennessee District Fair are 2.61 times more likely than the average U.S. consumer to listen to country radio and to have a satellite dish. They are 3 times more likely than the average U.S. consumer to eat at Hardee’s, and 4.29 times more likely to shop at Piggly Wiggly. They are more than 2.5 times more likely to own an ATV or UTV, and to hunt with a shotgun.

According to Fair organizer Keith Rohling, “This data will help us with our Major Sponsor selection for the MTDF. It gives us clear direction on "who" we contact and the benefits to them in becoming a major sponsor for our event.”

So which company will be the lucky one to sponsor an event with such a big draw of a particular type of consumer? Organizations like Field and Stream Magazine, Remington, Home Depot, Hardee’s, CMT… all of these would be excellent fits.

~ Shannon
shannon@northstarideas.com