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Building Winning Sponsorship Sales Strategies for Music Festivals.

Andy Robertson

Sponsorship funding is a key part of every music festival and without sponsors any music festival will struggle to cover their costs let alone make a profit. Having the right sponsorship strategy in place can make the difference to an event’s success but what steps can organisers take to secure those all-important deals. 


Corporate sponsors do not just magically approach music festivals and offer funding, organisers are going to have to compete with other festivals and events for a slice of that elusive sponsorship budget. Time needs to spent building attractive sponsorship packages and having a great sales team in place.

Package Building.
T
he design of sponsorship packages is crucial to making an attractive proposition to potential sponsors. It is normal to offer differing levels on benefits for different budgets. A music festival has a lot of tangible benefits on offer so it's important to package these sensibly. The provisions of branding opportunities is key along with pitch spaces for exclusive sponsor VIP areas for example. Organisers should us the data they have on visitor attendance to present to potential sponsors giving them a full understanding of the audience demographics. The packages on offer form part of the tool kit that the sales team are going to use to open doors and close deals.

Sales Team. 
Large music festivals can often afford to have dedicated sponsorship sales teams and for smaller events responsibility may just fall on a single individual. If there is a team it’s crucial to ensure that it is led by an experience sales person who understands what potential sponsors want to get out of any deal. They should also be given the flexibility to be able to negotiate, within reason. Closing sponsorship deals is never the sole responsibility of just the sales team, it should be a combination of effort from everyone involved with the festival organisation. The sales team will open doors but to finalise a deal often requires input from festival directors, operations managers, producers, talent managers, the marketing team and hospitality managers. It should be a real team effort.

Potential sponsors need to feel comfortable with the festival in its entirety, from the secured performance artists already signed up to the operational logistics and contractor organisation. Can the festival marketing team deliver the branding opportunities agreed in a timely manner and how organised are the hospitality arrangements? These are key elements that will determine how successful the sponsor believes the sponsorship deal has been for them. Post event it is essential that the sales team follow up with the sponsor and fully understand their level of satisfaction. What went well and what did not, this review can help plan improvements for the future and assist in maintaining the relationship for repeat sponsorship at future festivals. 

For organisers planning their music festival using a software management platform like
Festival Pro gives them all the functionality they need manage every aspect of their event logistics. The guys who are responsible for this software have been in the front line of event management for many years and the features are built from that experience and are performance artists themselves. The Festival Pro platform is easy to use and has comprehensive features with specific modules for managing artists, contractors, venues/stages, vendors, volunteers, sponsors, guestlists, ticketing, cashless payments and contactless ordering. 

Photo by fauxels from Pexels

Andy Robertson
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