When hosting a larger event, offering a mobile app can increase your attendance and revenue from on-site sales. Not only can these apps increase your bottom line and attendee satisfaction, they can also be a great tool for securing event sponsorships.
Event apps are a significant investment, but there are ways to leverage this expense so your event sponsors end up footing the bill. By turning an attendee amenity into an opportunity for sponsorship activations, your mobile event app can be a unique option to include in your sponsorship packages.
Here are just a few ways to get event sponsors interested in your event app:
- On-Screen Ads
Most event apps have the ability to display banner ads to attendees. While the display options for these ads vary from platform to platform, they have the potential to be seen by every person in attendance or specific groups within your audience. Through targeted ads, sponsors can push their content directly to members of their target audience and can have their ads linked to their website or social media pages. Ads can also encourage attendees to visit their booth, display, or breakout session if the sponsor will be on-site at the event.
Including in-app advertising options as part of your sponsorship pitch could entice the right organization to sponsor your event. The prospect of having high brand visibility as well as opportunities for re-engagement can even spur a low level sponsor to increase their sponsorship level to secure more prevalent ad space.
- Push Notifications
If sponsors are skeptical of the amount of activations they’ll receive with in-app ads, double the offering with push notifications. This way, sponsors can engage with your attendees both inside and outside the app.
Push notifications can be used to influence behavior at the event (such as offering promotions for stopping by the sponsor’s vendor booth, taking a picture at their sponsored picture wall/booth, attending a sponsored performance, etc.). This gives your sponsors the ability influence your attendee’s behavior during and after the event.
Whatever you do, make sure these notifications are used tastefully! If attendees receive too many notifications from the event app before they even reach the venue, they’ll be much more likely to delete the app all together.
- Data Collection
If sponsors are looking for something beyond engagement, many event apps offer ways to collect attendee data via surveys or interactive polls. This data can be vital to your sponsors, so try offering data collection/polling options as part your top tier sponsorship packages.
Typically, sponsors want to gather data on three main things; brand recognition, engagement, and intent to buy/act. If your sponsor has clear data on what brands attendees remember seeing at the event, which brands they interacted with, which brands they weren’t familiar with until your event, and how likely they are to purchase something from or engage with the sponsor in the future, they’ll have clear metrics on how successful their sponsorship actually was.
Many sponsors will be skeptical at first glance when offered mobile app opportunities. To prove that supporting your even through an event app is worth their investment, you need to have event data ready. By showing them the number of attendees they could potentially reach, what demographics typically attend your events, and the breadth of activation opportunities available to them, you’ll have a multi-faceted way to entice potential sponsors that goes miles beyond the traditional printed banner or ticket ad.
