Kim Skildum-Reid is a corporate sponsorship strategist, trainer, coach and writer with 24 years experience and a blue-chip client list from around the globe including Target Corporation, Walt Disney Company, Qantas, Mazda and many more. Kim is also the co-author of two of the world’s bestselling sponsorship books, The Sponsor’s Toolkit and The Sponsorship Seeker’s Toolkit, plus The Ambush Marketing Toolkit.

Tell us about your background in sponsorship.

I have been in Australia for 17 years, working with major corporations from many countries including the U.S. and Europe, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, the Middle East and Asia.   I’ve worked for a number of Fortune 500 companies on sponsorships of some of America’s biggest events, concert tours, and sporting organizations.  I’m also a public speaker, media commentator and author.

What challenges do you face when working with events and clients in different regions, as you have a global business based out of Australia?

I need to use technology to be in a lot of places at once, and provide a lot of my services using technology rather than getting on a plane.  Of course, getting on a plane is always going to be part of the gig, but it doesn’t have to apply to every single job.

How is sponsorship changing in today’s marketing environment?

The principle that applies to all the recent best practice examples is that sponsorship is no longer win/win, meaning that is the sponsor wins and the sponsorship seeker wins. It is actually win/win/win. The third win is that your target market wins a meaningful benefit. Ten years ago, that meaningful benefit would have been 45,000 disposable visors being handed out at a football game or another meaningless throwaway. Now we’re providing things that are more meaningful. There aren’t boxes full of gear being handed out at these events any more.

We’re using technology, reusable techniques and also providing functional and emotional benefits. It isn’t about creating more new materials. It’s thinking about the experience and creating connections where people can have their experience enhanced, either by taking away the bad elements or amplifying the good elements.

How are you seeing marketers using a sustainable or “green” approach with their sponsorship efforts?

Reusable materials are a major trend – one of the best examples I’ve seen is Vodafone in Australia. They sponsor outdoor movie events and realized that people who came to the events were generally taking public transport or a taxi to get there. They realized that these people then had to carry their blankets and pillows to dinner afterwards, which was annoying. So they offered Vodafone customers a great perk. When guests entered the venue, they could show their phones and confirm that they were Vodafone customers and borrow a large branded floor cushion for the evening.

It’s a meaningful benefit. Their needs have been thought of and are being met, but it is something that is incredibly sustainable and sends a positive branding message. Those pillows are stored after each event and used again the next night, lasting the whole season.

Tell us about your book, The Ambush Marketing Toolkit, which received some shock reactions.

Ambush marketing is a very controversial subject and there are a lot of people who think that it’s clever, free or cheap. There are plenty of positive, cheeky things about it and then there are those who consider it unethical and immoral, calling it “parasite marketing”. But it’s not about sneaking your logo into games because that doesn’t give any more benefit to your brand than it does when a sponsor just plasters their logos on stuff, which has zero benefit. That concept is 20 years out of date.

The first half of the book is a real peek behind the curtain; then it goes through the specific strategies that you need to embark upon in order to ensure that you do not get ambushed. I took a very objective view and most of the reviews came out saying words to the effect of “We wanted to hate this book, but we didn’t”. Once people realized that I was shedding light on a very real topic, there was a lot of interest in it.

What is the most satisfying part of your work?
I love the light bulb moments.  It’s when you have a client or a room full of people that you’re training and all of a sudden the penny drops and they realize the incredible power of doing sponsorship well and simultaneously realize that it’s really not that hard.  Suddenly it’s like the door opens and what they’re able to do from then is extraordinary.  At that point, I can assist with the process.  I can support the process, but they’ve got it.  They know what to do.

Looking towards the future for the next year or two, what are your goals?

In the next year I think that a lot of sponsors are going to be loosening up their budgets and I’m seeing that already.  But they’re still realizing the importance of really being extremely shrewd and very strategic in what they do.  Ad hoc is just not going to cut it anymore and self-congratulatory, press release-generating sponsorships have no marketing benefit.  It certainly looks like this next year is going to be full of a lot of corporate consulting in the area of re-expanding portfolios in a highly strategic way.

Do you have any key recommendations for marketers undertaking complex sponsorship plans?

It’s important to remember that your job as a sponsor is not to connect with the event.  It’s not to connect with the team, the cause, the venue, your event partner or anything else. Your job is to connect with your target market.  That partner is just a conduit to help you to connect with them in a meaningful way.

Your job is to respect your target market’s event experience, not to diminish it in any way and to add value to that – not interrupting their experience, but being an invited, welcome, enjoyed and advocated partner in that experience.

Read Kim’s latest blog entry at: http://blog.powersponsorship.com/index.php/2009/09/12-steps-a-sponsors-guide-to-the-recovery/

Print is NOT Dead – It is Interactive!
By Barb Pellow for WhatTheyThink.com

With the increased focus on interactivity and multi-channel communications, marketers want to integrate online media with documents to enable a cohesive and unified marketing tool. At the same time, however, fully executing these multi-channel programs is often elusive. Although technologies like text messaging, short message codes, and PURLs are seen as promising, they lack a quick, precise, elegant encoding system to efficiently transport the recipient from paper to an online experience.

Marketers are beginning to explore QR (Quick Response) codes as the ultimate answer. A QR code is a high-density barcode readable by cell phones and simple PC cams. Recipients can quickly and easily interact with the QR-enabled documents they receive. By simply pointing their camera at the QR symbol, they are instantly connected to a QR-encoded Web page without ever having to remember or type in numbers and promotional codes—they just point and shoot.

On Wednesday, May 20, 2009, I opened the USA Today that was dropped off at my hotel room. The business section featured two start-up companies that are dedicating their businesses to QR codes. The first was ScanLife. Founded in 2000, ScanLife is dedicated to making QR barcodes a mainstay of the modern experience. ScanLife requires a Web-enabled phone and works on 400 different combinations of handsets and phone plans. Individuals can use their phones to download the free application from www.getscanlife.com, then use that application to scan ScanLife barcodes. The application opens the individual’s mobile browser and connects him/her to a designated Web link. ScanLife also enables consumers to create personal bar codes tied to Web links of their choosing. Teenagers can have a barcode linked to their Facebook page taped on a dorm room wall or silkscreened on a t-shirt. This will make QR codes viral.

The other company that was featured was Jagtag. Jagtag doesn’t require a Web-enabled phone—anyone using a Verizon or AT&T phone camera phone with text messaging can access the content. The consumer takes a photo of the tag and then sends it to 524824. If the person is an iPhone user, the code is mailed to iphone@jagtag.net. In response, the user receives a picture message that may contain an image, video, or audio.

QR Codes… It’s Time to Think Hard about the Possibilities!
Already a big part of mobile culture in Japan and Korea, it is not uncommon to see a QR code in a magazine, on a poster, or even online. More than 40% of mobile users in Japan regularly use their mobile phones to scan QR codes in advertisements. In fact, a lot of mobile phones in Japan come preloaded with the application required to scan such codes.

As mobile technology advances, it is time to imagine the possibilities and the ability to integrate print with smartphones. InfoTrends projects that 89% of new mobile phones shipped in the U.S this year will have cameras. Scanning a QR code with a camera-embedded smartphone will enable users to access Web sites and get real-time information. Using QR codes, business transactions can take place anywhere—users can download information from a movie poster while standing at a bus stop, access a Web site while reading an advertisement in a newspaper, or view a listing and take a virtual tour after coming across a home for sale.

Reality is Beginning to Set In
While the U.S. is off to a slow start, there are some “real world” examples and practical applications that effectively leverage print and mobile technology. It’s time to look at the multi-channel market and print differently.

During last year’s U.S. Open, Ralph Lauren introduced QR codes into its print ads, direct mailers, and store windows to send traffic to its new mobile commerce site. When scanned with a mobile phone with QR software, the codes directed the phone’s browser to a Web site where the consumer could shop for RL products.

The short-run label market represents a tremendous opportunity for QR codes and promotions. Coca-Cola Japan is giving away free bottles of its two new teas with a QR code promotion. Coca-Cola Japan sells a lot of bottled tea and many cans of coffee. Consumers who see the advertisement (example picture below) can snap the QR code with their mobile device, then bring their mobile device to a vending machine to obtain the free tea. The vending machine recognizes the scanned coupon as payment. (Consumers can pay vending machines with their cell phones in Japan, and these machines have built-in cameras.)

QR codes transform packages into multi-channel documents, and the applications and opportunities are limitless. In another example, two Portuguese wineries are using QR codes and labels to build out a social network called Adegga. This is an online community of wine lovers that dubs itself a "social wine discovery" service. Consumers that scan a QR code on a wine label will be taken to a special page on adegga.com dedicated to that particular wine. They can read other people’s comments about it, check prices, and read comments from the winemaker.

Printed maps are using QR codes to better guide tourists. The Regional Tourism Promotion Council for the Japanese prefectures of Iwate and Akita has produced a tourist map with QR codes. This is an area of mountains, rivers, and forests with many naturally occurring hot springs, temples, and historical sites. The QR codes provide a link to a mobile Web site where the user can select a particular interest (e.g., history, accommodations, temples, museums), and a Google Map is displayed with the relevant locations highlighted.

Canada’s National Post, a 200,000 circulation daily newspaper, has begun placing ScanLife codes on some print stories so readers can use their handsets to follow developing news coverage from the newspaper’s Web site.

What Does All this Mean?
The USA Today article that I came across provides evidence that QR codes have a place in the U.S. market. I firmly believe that the marriage of print, QR codes, and mobile technology are the ultimate in multi-channel communications. While some are running away from print and putting all their eggs in the online basket, savvy marketers will consider going offline and getting their BRAND in front of the consumers on the street. They will reach consumers who are unchained from their home computers and connect with them via signage, packaging, interactive magazines and newspapers, catalogs, and direct mail. Graphic communications service providers need to realize that print is not dead… it is interactive!

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