Part 1 : Sponsors & Sponsorships

Sponsorships mean many things to many people - what are the key elements that make a sponsorship different to an advertising package?
The term "sponsorship" can cover many types of promotional activities (which sometimes actually include advertising). In general, sponsorships are intended to create an association or bond between the sponsor and the site publisher. This is accomplished through co-branding, sponsored content, and other means.

Often, the objective is to get the user interacting with the sponsor's brand on the publisher's site, as opposed to a banner ad which pulls the user away from the publisher's site.

Publishers have enough trouble determining the value of banner inventory - how should they set about determining a price for sponsorship deals?
Pricing is a challenge, and can become a contentious issue between sponsor and publisher...there are several approaches that can be used, either alone or in combination.

For example, an "advertising value" approach would calculate the value of the sponsor's exposure based on a cost per thousand impressions (CPM). An "activity-based" approach would assign value to each specific activity, whether it be co-branded web pages, original content, etc., and have the sponsor cover direct costs plus a premium. Of course, the marketplace will always indicate what price a site publisher can reasonably expect to charge.

There are other mitigating factors here, such as exclusivity, length of the agreement, the nature of the relationship between sponsor and publisher, which may affect pricing in either direction.

And how do you best go about finding and securing sponsors?
That's a really individual question...each publisher must identify and define who their web site audience is, then determine which companies would like to reach that audience. A good starting point would be other web sites and publications targeting your audience - which companies are actively marketing to this audience? Of those companies, which ones seem to be active on the Net?

Once you've developed your target list, it's back to "Selling 101"...contact your prospect, introduce yourself, identify the decision maker, determine their needs, etc....

Are sponsorships something you can arrange through agencies, or does it require more direct interaction with the end customer?
We've done both routes...though in general, we first approach the potential sponsor directly. They may decide to refer us to their agency, or bring them to the table. We let the sponsor define the parameters.

Cultivating agency relationships is a separate, longer-term marketing process. We have a dozen or so key agencies that we communicate with regularly, just to update them on new opportunities and keep our site "top of mind". The agency can either be your best ally, or your worst enemy - you have to respect the agency-sponsor relationship and be able to manage a three-way relationship, if need be.