Event Strategy Consultant Richard Morris believes that industry sponsorship needs a major shake-up.
“As an industry, we haven’t changed how we sell sponsorship packages. That isn’t just in the almost 30 years that I’ve been involved; it hasn’t changed in the previous 60 or 90 either!” says Richard Morris. Having been in the industry since 1998, starting as an operations assistant on the Ideal Home Show and working his way through multiple companies until he founded Active Media Events, he hasn’t seen much change in sponsorship.
“Sponsors’ behaviour has always been led by what we the organiser put in front of them and we’re not very good at that as we don’t give much creativity to help a sponsor achieve what they truly want. The organisers who are willing to have a more in-depth conversation to understand what the sponsor genuinely wants and vice- versa are the ones who build longer-lasting partnerships and ultimately deliver greater value for everyone involved.”
The traditional packages of bronze, silver, and gold create a hierarchical system that doesn’t actually address the needs of a sponsor, says Richard: “Just describing what these standardised packages include isn’t enough. There are a lot of benefits listed that probably won’t mean a lot to someone who’s in one of their first marketing jobs and that’s who the deck will normally land with. Typical gold benefits list things such as ‘satellite symposium’ which can be better described as amplifying your voice – that’s what it does for the sponsor. There are also things like soapbox sessions which shift the conversation and sponsorship of an evening section which can be classed as a networking package.”
“Simply getting rid of the hierarchy system and selling packages that sponsors actually want will make things easier for everyone involved,” explains Richard. “Sponsors don’t know what bronze, silver, and gold means but if you label packages as ‘engagement’ and ‘leadership’ for example, these focus on the actual benefits and outcomes rather than just listing components.”
Richard believes the industry often overlooks the true value a lead can represent to a sponsor: “When a sponsor meets the right customer, that conversation could lead to anything from a £500 sale to a £50,000 deal,” he says. “For example, in sectors like infrastructure, where companies delivering major projects are meeting government ministers and decision-makers at events, those introductions carry enormous value.
We’re bringing the right people into the same room, and the outcome could be a multi-million-pound deal. That’s something the industry should be recognising far more in our sponsorship pricing mechanism.”
“When an event is done, people just disappear,” Richard comments on the issues often faced post-event. “Sponsors and exhibitors will go off and chase the leads they’ve picked up and six months later, when we ask them to rebook, they’ve got no concrete ROI because those leads haven’t turned into deals due to the long sales cycle. Where we miss a trick is not providing a document summarising some of the intangible metrics that can be difficult to measure straight away. This way, in six months’ time when someone asks what they got out of the sponsorship and there’s been no direct sales made, they have datademonstrate the positive outcomes. This will put the organiser in a better position straight away for the next selling cycle.”
Looking ahead, Richard believes change will happen gradually: “Real progress will come when we’re able to use data in a far more sophisticated way and properly understand why delegates are attending and what challenges they’re trying to solve. AI has huge potential to improve our understanding of attendees’ needs and motivations.”
Catch Richard’s talk ‘Stop selling space, start selling outcomes: re-engineering sponsorship for 2026’ on Stage Two at The Meetings Show on 25th June!