Case Study Challenge

Upon reflection, the event organizers knew that in addressing the challenges facing them they could benefit from comparing the brand and assets of the $2013$ ITU WDC to that of other properties such as the Ottawa Marathon $($see Table $2$ for the Ottawa Marathon sponsorship categories and pricing$)$ to create a pricing strategy for their sponsorship opportunities. The organizers also realized that finalizing a sponsorship and sales strategy was essential. As the urgency of the situation became more apparent, the lead organizer created a $"$To Do$"$ file and listed, after some thought, the priority activities and key questions that they needed to solve right away to guide the team through the sponsorship sales process for the $2013$ ITU WDC$.$

There were a number of activities to undertake and some important questions to resolve. First, building on what had been done to date, the organizers needed to $($a$)$ articulate the assets that the $2013$ ITU WDC currently possessed that would attract sponsors by providing them with valuable exposure, $($b$)$ identify the assets that could provide other benefits $($i$.$e$.,$ benefits other than exposure$)$ to sponsors in various categories, $($c$)$ create additional activities that could be included as part of the event to build assets that would attract new sponsors or increased activation by potential sponsors, and $($d$)$ suggest potential sponsors and categories to be targeted for sponsorship sales. Second, the organizers needed to answer the question as to how sponsorship levels should be categorized and priced for the $2013$ ITU WDC and to identify comparable properties that could be used to help determine this. Clearly, sponsorship pricing is an inexact science, so a range of potential prices by category is what was needed at this stage. Third, before engaging a sales team to sell sponsorship for the $2013$ ITU DWC$,$ the organizers needed to critically assess how they could target and acquire sponsors for the event. Specifically, the sales team needed clear direction on the content to include in packages and pitches. In particular, providing direction on what to include in an introductory deck to send to prospective sponsors would be valuable to the sales team.