An Insider’s Guide to Event Sponsorships (From a Company That Spent $500K)

The secret weapon behind a successful event isn’t just great speakers, a cool venue, or sold-out tickets. It’s also the sponsors who bring in important revenue while adding credibility to your event.

When big-name sponsors put their logo on your event materials, they’re essentially saying: “This event matters.”

We know this firsthand because event sponsorships have been a big part of our marketing strategy. We’ve spent an estimated $500,000 on them, sponsoring everything from intimate industry meetups to massive international conferences.

Tl;dr: If you’re running events, you absolutely want sponsors like us.

But how do you convince companies like ours to open their wallets for your event? I spoke with Elysa Han, our events marketing manager, to learn what we look out for in event sponsorships.

Consider this your insider’s guide to winning event sponsors.

Nas Summit in Singapore. While it was a sizable conference, it was an event for both current and aspiring content creators who, on paper, are miles away from our ideal customer profile.

In fact, by our own calculations, 62% of event attendees were unfamiliar with our brand.

So, why did we write the check?

The main reason was that the value proposition was too extraordinary. For a modest investment, we received the same value as what would have cost 5X in other events. We had a booth, social media shoutouts, visible branding (e.g., on the media wall), and even event tickets.