Karen is a highly respected veteran of the Sponsorship industry and has amassed a wealth of knowledge and contacts over the past 30 years. Karen started Karen Earl Sponsorship in 1984, and continued on as Chairman after its name change to Synergy in 2008 until stepping down in April 2012.
As Chairman of the European Sponsorship Association, Karen continues to lead the from the front and steer the organisation which aims to protect and promote the industry, raise standards within it and offer its members various benefits, ranging from education, training, lobbying, guidelines, research and industry information to name but a few.
“To qualify as a great campaign, a sponsorship must not only have the obligatory – clear objectives, activations and results – but also a clever idea which creates the glue around all its elements. So, we all know that a sponsorship needs clear objectives about what it is expected to achieve. Without these, nothing can be measured or evaluated.
Before entering into any sponsorship, a company or brand needs to know exactly which parts of the business are going to be involved in the campaign – this determines which rights need to be purchased from the rights holder.
Before drawing up campaign plans, this is where the clever ideas come in. What’s going to make this campaign different? How is it going to capture people’s imagination and stand out from the crowd? What’s going to make the desired audiences want to engage with the programme?
An activation campaign then needs to use as many different tactics and channels to engage its audiences as necessary. These can include customer and employee engagement programmes, PR and social media campaigns, database acquisition – the list can be extensive and this is fine, as long as any activation relates back to the objectives. Just because a lot is done, it doesn’t mean a lot has been achieved.
And finally, and most crucially in determining a successful campaign, the results must be tangible. Robust research must demonstrate the success of the campaign and the achievement of the original objectives. Without this last piece of the jigsaw, a potentially great campaign can fall at the final hurdle.
If you look at the winners of the ESA Excellence Awards you will see why they have all the hallmarks of great campaigns.”
