Sponsorship and Web Design – Part two

Okay, so now were going to talk about my two events web designs. But first we have to ask why do they use websites?

Masterman and Wood put forward a number of different reasons an event would want to use an effective website:

•   Can be a source of information for employees, investors, sponsor and researchers.
•   Can be a source of information for current and prospective customers.
•  Can communicate information about the organization and its product offering in an interactive way.
•  Can create a dialog between the organization and the user.

Source: Masterman, G; Wood, E (2006). Innovative Marketing Communications - Strategies for the events industry. Oxford: Elsvier Butterworth-Heinemann.

They also go on to say that in its simplest form can just be an online version of the organisations brochure, but in this day and age I think a bad website can have a hugely negative effect on an organisations image!

Although we can all tell when we are on a bad website, the question must be asked what makes a good website? In terms of business it is felt a good website can be measured in 10 critical areas (Hart, 2003), for the purpose of this post I am going to create a table listing each of these areas and rate the corresponding event website out of 10 for each section. I will then bullet point why I feel this rating it appropriate. After doing this for each website I will compare the two. 

First up, Cisco Live's website:

Objective	Rating out of 10	Comments
Clear strategic objectives for the site which fit with other communication methods.	7	Clearly aims to inform potential attendees and exhibitors.
Customer led rather than product driven content providing different areas for different customer groups.	8	Provides ample information and previous attendee reviews. Has separate areas for attendees and exhibitors.
Value added content updated regularly and customized for different user groups	7	Data provided not available online anywhere else.
Content management ensuring a dynamic rather than static site.	7	Regularly updated homepage. Regularly updated multimedia including videos and ‘Virtual Tours’
Data quality management.	6	Ample data although could be biased due to no external sources.
Professional design and usability projecting a consistent corporate image.	9	Almost flawless design Easy to navigate Every page remains professional and standardised.
High interactivity and functionality allowing customers to contact key personnel in the organization and each other.	9	Relevant contact details easily available for each area of the website. Links to interactive platforms such as twitter and Facebook. Ample virtual tours and multimedia.
Easy to navigate and quick to download with regular usability testing.	6	Extremely easy to navigate and find desired information No dead pages found. One layout issue found where menu will open behind embedded video on homepage.
E-communications strategy to complement the website.	7	Effectively serves the purpose to inform Effectively serves the purpose to pursued potential stakeholders.
Effective marketing of the website.	8	Easily assessable links through Cisco websites Official website appears first on every search for ‘Cisco Live Europe’ across 5 major search engines.

Secondly, Rallye Sunseeker's website:

Objective	Rating out of 10	Comments
Clear strategic objectives for the site which fit with other communication methods.	6	Clearly aims to inform potential attendees. Also aims to encourage volunteers.
Customer led rather than product driven content providing different areas for different customer groups.	6	Informs well about history and details of the event. Has clear sections for different stakeholders.
Value added content updated regularly and customized for different user groups	4	Content it adequate but could easily be found elsewhere on the internet.
Content management ensuring a dynamic rather than static site.	5	Regularly updated ‘news’ section. Images not updated since I began the blog.
Data quality management.	6	Ample data through a variety of sources, including magazine reviews.
Professional design and usability projecting a consistent corporate image.	6	Out-dated design Looks to be all created in HTML rather than CSS or Flash. Usability is good being able to access desired areas of the site easily.
High interactivity and functionality allowing customers to contact key personnel in the organization and each other.	7	Comprehensive ‘Contact’ area of the website. Interactivity is low although there are live view features.
Easy to navigate and quick to download with regular usability testing.	4	Easy to navigate Many buttons are out of place, usability testing is probably not implemented enough. Pixelated images
E-communications strategy to complement the website.	7	Effectively serves the purpose to inform Effectively provides a platform to monitor the rally
Effective marketing of the website.	8	Official website appears first on every search for ‘Rallye Sunseeker’ across 5 major search engines.

Overall scores:

Cisco Live 2012 – 74/100

Rallye Sunseeker  - 59/100

From above you can see that I have placed Cisco’s website slightly higher than Rallye Sunseeker, but for me this was defiantly expected. Even if I had not looked at the website’s and I was asked out of a Technology Giant and a Local Rally who’s website I thought would be best ,I would have always gone with the Technology Giant, in this case Cisco. From my research I have concluded that it is not the content that makes Rallye Sunseeker’s website inferior but the design and general professionalism, to me their website looks very amateur and out-dated. There are some simple issues that even a GCSE level IT student would be able to fix, to me this sort of website always screams ‘Scam!’ and always brings up questions on whether it is legit. These days with online ticket fraud being so popular having a professional and sleek website could make the difference between good ticket sales and not breaking even.

Here are a few screenshots of where I feel Rallye Sunseeker has let its self down....

Pixelated background and out of place links.

Link buttons still with white background, borderless white background logos.

In conclusion I think both events websites serve their purpose well, they are both informative and easy to navigate, with stacks of information at hand. They both have interactive elements in them, in Cisco's case these are very aesthetically pleasing by being embedded well. At the end of the day both of these events are free to attend so all they need to do is encourage people to turn up, this is defiantly easier than trying to sell them a ticket. From the past few weeks of posting these blog posts I have seen changes in the websites and have never once found myself thinking there is information missing that should be there, something that is very positive.

Here we are, at the end of my blog. Tomorrow I am going to begin writing my report and I have to say I will not miss doing these posts! Although at times I have found them hard, I think they are vital to this type of industry and however much I hate writing them I still enjoy reading them! I would just like to say thanks for taking the time to read my posts, I know some of them are defiantly too long but teaches you for not giving me a word limit, I always manage to write too much! I have learnt a lot from this analysis and think next year I am defiantly going to go and visit the Rallye Sunseeker! 

Thank you and goodnight....

Sponsorship and Web Design

Welcome to my final marketing promotions post, sponsorship and web design….

You probably know the format by now, but just to remind you....

Firstly I will be giving some definition and academic basis covering sponsorship, followed up by detailing how it is used in both my events. I will then finalise by comparing the differences between my events and suggesting why these may occur. I will then follow roughly the same structure for web design.

Academic basis

Although there are many different definitions for sponsorship due to its wide use in business, for the purpose of this blog I will be focusing on this single definition by Guy Masterman. I have chosen this definition because I feel Masterman’s links to event studies mean it could be more relevant to this specific industry.

‘Sponsorship is a mutually beneficial arrangement that consists of the provision of resources of funds, goods and/or services.... In return for a set of rights that can be used in communications activity, for the achievements of objectives for commercial gain.’

Masterman, Guy (2007) Sponsorship For A Return on Investment, London: Elsevier

This definition basically explains that sponsorship is an agreement between two parties, that through the provision of resources (This could be anything from cash to tangible goods) One party will grant the other rights to conduct promotional activities (Such as brand name placement or billboards) for the objective of commercial gain.

When you think about it sponsorship is a very simple concept, but can have many different objectives, such as....

• Direct Sales Development: Driving sales, this could even be through exclusive sales rights.
• Brand awareness development: Making people aware of your brand and hoping in the future to increase market share. This is much harder to measure than direct sales due to the number of factors that could effect market share growth/decline.
• External corporate awareness development: Sponsorship can also be used to position or re position a brand as well as making people aware of its morals and values. Influencing and informing stakeholders can also be a result or corporate awareness development.
• Internal relations development: Creating goodwill via involvement with employees.

Source: Masterman, G; Wood, E (2006). Innovative Marketing Communications - Strategies for the events industry. Oxford: Elsvier Butterworth-Heinemann.

In terms of my events I will firstly start with who sponsored Cisco Live. From their website we can see that in 2012 their ‘Offical Sponsors’ were 3 different companies, each given a specific sponsor title.

 

- Technology infostructure company ‘Commscope’ were named the Official Cable Sponsor of Cisco Live 2012.

 

- Telecommunication software company ‘samwin’ were named the Official IP Telephony Application Sponsor for Cisco Live 2012.

 

- Finally interactive whiteboard giants ‘Smart Technologies’ were named Official Technical Solutions Design Clinics Sponsor of Cisco Live 2012.

 

From the titles of these sponsors it is clear that they have not just provided capital to the event organisers, they have provided products, support and possibly even staff to run them. In terms of how much this could benefit the Cisco Live as a whole it is very positive, they are receiving services and products that are vital to the running of their event for a reduced price, possibly even for free and in exchange they are promoting the companies to a huge audience.

 

On their website Cisco Live offer information on why it would be beneficial to sponsor/exhibit at their event....

 

-       Showcase new solutions

-       Interact with dedicated Cisco customers

-       Increase brand awareness

-       Generate new leads and sales opportunities

 

As well as the key sponsors I have mentioned, Cisco Live also have a list of Exhibitors split into different categories, there are so many it would be impractical to mention them all so I will just list the categories in order of importance:

 

-       Platinum Exhibitors

-       Cisco Platinum Exhibitors

-       Gold Exhibitors

-       Cisco Gold Exhibitors

-       Word Exhibitor Plus

-       Cisco World Exhibitor Plus

-       World Exhibitor

 

As each category goes down the number of Exhibitors lessen, their space for logos on the website also reduces. This implies that Exhibitors at ‘Platinum’ level will have provided much more capital, products or services to Cisco Live than say one at World Exhibitor level.

 

Now moving on to my other event, the Rallye Sunseeker. For the sake of not repeating myself I will just spend a brief amount of time on this subject as I have covered some of it in a previous post, to see the list of sponsors take a look about halfway down my ‘Marketing’ blog post.

 

From the list of sponsors we can see that they are not split into category’s of importance like Cisco Live. They are grouped together with the same size images, implying that they are all of equal importance. All but one, the main sponsor ‘Sunseeker’. The rally began to use the name Rallye Sunseeker in 1999 after being through a verity of sponsors. One can presume that luxury motor yacht company SunseekerSunseeker their headquarters and main factory is based in Poole.

 

The main advantage for the sponsors of being part of this event would be local business, they hope that by having their name included in this extremely popular event will lead to local people using their business. They could also want to be involved in the event for the ‘Internal Relations Development’ side of sponsorship, more of a reward to their workers, perhaps for them to be part of the corporate hospitality events that follow alongside the Rally.

 

In conclusion the two events have sponsors for different reasons, at Cisco Live the sponsors are their exhibiting as well as having their brand name shown. This implies that they are there for direct sales over brand awareness. On the other hand at the Rallye Sunseeker there would be very minimal sales, if any for the sponsors. After all Sunseeker would be insane if they thought they were going to sell a ten million pound yacht to some local rally fans! The sponsors are there to gain awareness that their business exists in the local area, and as I said to reward their employees with a day out at the corporate hospitality events along side the rally.  

In part two I will finally talk about the websites of my events, there advantages, disadvantages and how they differ! 

B2B and B2C

Good morning world….

Today I am going to have a look into the difference between Business to Business marketing and Business to Consumer marketing. I will give some examples of it at work and then explain how it is relevant and put into practise with my two events!

 First of all we will start off with a basic definition of a Business to Consumer model….

‘Business that sells products or provides services to end-user consumers’

(Source http://www.marketingterms.com/dictionary/b2c/)

From this very simple definition we can see that this type of business is aiming to sell to ‘end user consumers’, basically you or I, if we were to go into a shop and purchase a new television for our home would be an ‘end user consumer’. The same applies if I were to buy a ticket for myself to a music festival, I would be the end user, gaining enjoyment from the service I have purchased for myself.

On the other hand we have the Business to Business marketing model…

‘Business that sells products or services to other businesses’

(Source http://www.marketingterms.com/dictionary/b2b/)

This is essentially the opposite of a B2C model, it is a business model that sells to other businesses. (Pretty self explanatory eugh!) Although the methods of communication are different, both B2C and B2B event marketing models should involve the same planning considerations as described by Masterman and Wood (2006):

•       Situation analysis
•       Objective setting
•       Targeting
•       Positioning and message strategies
•       Communications budget
•       Implementation
•       Measurement, evaluation and control

Now that we have some academic basis I will go on to give some practical examples of how my events differ between the B2B and B2C models.

The first obvious difference of Cisco live targeting a Business market would be the way they communicate with their audience. As I said in some of my earlier posts business and leisure are often kept separate parts of peoples lives, therefore people do not want to be concentrating on business activities whilst enjoying leisure. They often ‘Close up’ and will not be open to influence from these markets.

A example of this would be Cisco Live’s limited use of the Social network ‘Facebook’, again as I said in a previous post Facebook is the worlds most popular social networking site yet it used very sparingly by Cisco Live. This is probably due to the fact that Facebook is often used for leisure rather than work, yes its true that Facebook is an amazing platform to market certain products but it is also true that its users could be resilient to other types, most notably ones that are ‘Work’ based.

Although slightly off subject, if you are at all interested in Facebook and how its marketing works the BBC Documentary ‘Mark Zuckerberg:Inside Facebook’ gives a great insight, whilst remaining enjoyable to watch…..

On the other hand of the Facebook story we have the B2C event ‘Rallye Sunseeker’. They utilise Facebook very well and have 1,858 followers with 389 of those actively taking about the event! That’s 21% of followers actively promoting the event to their Facebook contacts, word of mouth promotion at its best…. Their increased usage of Facebook can be linked to the nature of their event, it is a leisure activity and people are therefore more likely to be influenced whilst in a ‘leisure’ state of mind.

I will not go into the details of both Rallye Sunseeker's and Cisco Live’s visible marketing again as you can just view it from my previous posts but I will explain why I think Rallye Sunseeker appear to be conducting more.

The reason why I think I can see more marketing from Rallye Sunseeker is because I have been looking for it as a member of the public seeking a leisure activity, in other words a B2C customer. Yes I have actively followed some of it but I have also just come across various pieces through my day to day activities. On the other hand a B2B event such as Cisco live would not market to members of the general public, therefore making it very hard for me to see it. They would market directly to those who they know would be interested in their products, this would include direct mail outs to past, present and potentially new clients. There would also be marketing by word of mouth within these professional circles, more an ‘Underground’ style of marketing within large business circles.

 I hope this has given you a brief insight into the differences between B2B and B2C marketing in terms of my events, I know it has assured me that the lack of visible marketing for Cicso Live was not due to any fault of my own but just due to the nature of the event and the type of business it is in.

This blog is now coming too a close and in the coming days I will be posting my final updates about my events, this will hopefully include some kind of analysis into the events websites and a some corresponding data from reliable sources.

Here are a few sources I read before writing today's post: 

http://masterful-marketing.com/marketing-b2b-vs-b2c/

Masterman, G; Wood, E (2006). Innovative Marketing Communications - Strategies for the events industry. Oxford: Elsvier Butterworth-Heinemann.

Getz, D (2010). Event Studies - Theory, research and policy for planned events. Oxford: Elsvier Butterworth-Heinemann.