Sponsoring and partnership management

In detail, they shall

• be aware of the limits 
• have understood to what extent these strategies are different from other communication measures
• be able to develop a rough partnership & sponsorship strategy and a rough implementation concept for both sponsors and sponsees
• know what success factors are important to consider by developing these strategies
• have an overview of the sponsorship market including its actors and driving forces
• have a thorough understanding of the role of the media within the sponsorship world
• be able to critically evaluate partnership & sponsorship strategies.

The course will adopt an international perspective whereas sports sponsorships will take a prominent role, therefore respecting their extremely high importance but also complex structure. Participants are expected to actively prepare upcoming sessions by reading all distributed material. 

This course presents different approaches to the planning, negotiation, implementation and control of partnership and sponsorship forms and strategies in the media, sports, arts, entertainment, causes and scientific field. 

Participants acquire an understanding of the key concepts, fundamental principles, best practice examples and theories in this area. 

The lecture provides insights into different strategic approaches such as ambush marketing, philanthropy, buy-in sponsorships and hospitality activities, celebrity endorsement, marketing and media partnerships, product and message placements, title partnerships and ownerships.

The participants shall – at the end of the course – be able to fully understand, evaluate and plan sponsoring & partnership strategies. 

• Partnerships for the goals

In presence

Lectures, Case Studies and Group assignment (analysis)

The grade is based on an individual exam of one hour (60%) and a group assignment (40%). 

Written Exam

The individual exam will have two parts:

1. Multiple choice questions & wrong and right questions 
2. Questions on theories and cases covered/discussed during class.

The best method to prepare for the exam is active class participation. Feel free to ask lots of questions and count on learning as much from each other as from the faculty. There will be questions in the exam related to discussions in the class that are not necessarily covered on the slides or articles distributed.

Group Assignment

The task for the group assignment is the following: Analyse either a company (as a sponsor) or an institution (as a sponsee). Evaluate their sponsorship, philanthropy, partnerships & ownership strategy. The group is free in its choice whether to focus on a company or an institution. Examples might be a big corporation from the service / industrial / IT sector, a UNESCO World Heritage site, a big museum, a University, an Opera House, a Football Club…

The following elements will be evaluated:

• Description of the strategic approach they use, covering their reasoning/ objectives, their measures, resources used etc.
• Benchmark analysis – comparing the approach to 1-2 competitors / similar institutions
• Has the group done some research (e.g. interview with the company/institution, other research)
• Your SWOT analysis of the findings
• Your recommendations on what you would improve, shall be structured in three parts:
  - Vision/Mission/Objectives
  - Strategy/Measures
  - Resources used.

There shall be at least 3 and not more than 4 students in a group. The group assignment shall be done in a “powerpoint” and additionally in a “word format” (written in word / delivered as a pdf). The powerpoint version shall be presented during the last module and summarize the key findings. The word document shall be written like an academic paper of 20-30 pages. An example will be shown during the lectures.