5 creative ways to use sponsorships to turn your events program into a revenue driver in 2025
Events present CMOs with a unique opportunity to engage target contacts and unlock high-value revenue opportunities for the business. But when events don’t go so well, they can leave Marketing with a six-figure bill to pay and little to show for it. This risk is particularly concerning as we enter 2025, with Forrester Chief Research Officer Sharyn Leaver explaining that “improving revenue processes” is a must for marketing leaders this year.
A great way to mitigate the risk of owned events is to secure sponsorships. When used strategically, sponsorships can accelerate business opportunities and increase ticket sales while also offsetting event costs. Based on our experience executing thousands of events for high-growth B2B brands, here are five creative ways you can leverage sponsorships to turn your events program into a revenue driver.
1. Secure sponsors that will drive decision-makers
One of the most effective ways to use event sponsorships is to partner with sponsors who can drive key contacts to your event. Audience platform Wynter reports that the B2B buying process typically involves as many as five different decision-makers. For enterprise deals, that number can be even higher. In-person events are one of the best ways for your sales team to engage these stakeholders, understand their needs, and provide product education. But with so many people involved in the buying process, your team may not have the relationships they need to get all key decision-makers to attend.
By partnering with sponsors that can increase your brand’s credibility in market and bring target contacts to your event, you can help your team engage their target accounts and accelerate existing sales cycles. AI platform Dataiku, for example, has frequently partnered with industry heavyweights Nvidia and Snowflake for their annual Everyday AI conference, whose stature in the space helps Dataiku build trust with event attendees.
2. Partner with sponsors that increase credibility amongst new audiences
High-growth brands often live by the adage, “if you’re not growing, you’re dying.” And for good reason–venture-backed teams are constantly under pressure to expand to new audiences and increase revenue opportunities.
In such cases, it’s usually Marketing that’s challenged with driving these new target audiences to attend events. A company historically focused on selling to the SMB sector, for example, may aspire to drive enterprise attendees in order to cultivate higher-value opportunities.
One of the biggest challenges in successfully driving target audiences to attend and interact at your event is lack of trust. New audiences may not know about your brand, and even if they do, they may not be aware of how your services can benefit them. This lack of trust can undermine your opportunity to positively engage–recent research from Forrester notes that trust in a vendor is currently the “most important” factor in decision making for buyers, with Ian Bruce, Principal Analyst at Forrester, describing it as the “prime determinant of purchase intent.”
Partnering with sponsors that have a strong reputation amongst these ancillary target audiences can build credibility for your brand across the audience. When VIP attendees have greater trust in your brand, your sales team will be positioned to have better conversations and unlock revenue opportunities at the event.
3. Offset event costs with tiered sponsorship packages
In addition to partnering with the right sponsors, marketers can also increase value by evolving the structure of their sponsorship offering. But securing multiple sponsors for your event can be difficult when different sponsoring partners are looking for different things. While some partners may be willing to invest in keynote speaking opportunities and VIP afterparties, others may only have the budget for a limited presence. In such cases, offering “one-size-fits-all” sponsorship packages will fail to capture the demand of more enthusiastic partners and price-out partners with less resources. By creating tiered sponsorship packages with clear value differentiation, however, you can offer the right opportunities for each partner and capture as much value as possible.
The most successful approach to sponsorship tiering that we see across our client base is to offer numerous sponsorable moments throughout the event of different levels of value. Instead of using generic lanyards, napkins, and coffee cups, position these elements as affordable branding opportunities for low-tier sponsors. Offer top-tier partners the opportunity to elevate their presence at the event by sponsoring VIP ancillary activations, such as executive networking sessions and advisory boards. Furthermore, you can allow partners to supplement their sponsorship package with add-on items, such as speaking slots and private meeting rooms.
By offering tiered packages and providing partners with the flexibility to tailor sponsorships to their needs, you can increase the value of your sponsorship packages and offset the costs of running your event.
4. Maximize revenue opportunities with GTM partners
High-growth SaaS startups rarely achieve success on their own. More often than not, brands earn customers’ trust by partnering with like-minded teams in their space and developing a joint value proposition. Events offer a great opportunity to align with GTM partners and convey your joint value proposition to target accounts.
Three ways in which you can integrate a joint-value prop into your event agenda are:
Set up demo stations that allow attendees to see how partnering products can be used in action
Schedule fireside chat conversations with customers who have activated the joint value use cases successfully
Present collateral and downloadable content that allows attendees to dive deeper into your joint value prop at their own pace
One of our clients, for example, built a custom wall designed to showcase “partner stories” for each of their event’s sponsoring partners. By displaying joint messaging and case studies in a unique and striking way, the wall provided GTM teams with the perfect springboard for diving into co-marketing use cases with attendees.
5. Source sponsorships for internal events
Though most of our discussion thus far has focused on external-facing events, it’s worth noting that internal events can also represent a notable investment for SaaS businesses. Company offsites, hackathons, and sales kick-offs are important for aligning employees and improving morale. But they can also come at a significant cost, especially for companies with a distributed workforce. By inviting vendors and partners to sponsor your company’s internal events, however, you can offset event costs while also providing educational value to your employees.
One client, for example, partnered with an external company to sponsor meals for their internal event, as well as a closing party at the end of the event. This didn’t just create a better employee experience, it also supported more efficient spending—budget saved on meals and activities could be reallocated to external events or other GTM activities, funding revenue programs across the company.
Developing the role of sponsorships in your event process can improve revenue generation and offsets costs, but it can also increase complexity. Additional sponsorable moments means more vendors to manage, and VIP experiences require ancillary event planning and execution. To run a successful and efficient event, you need to develop your sponsor offering without impairing your ability to execute the event itself.
Prospect Events partners with high-growth SaaS brands to execute the multitude of details that go into a winning event, so that you can remain focused on optimizing outcomes for the business. If you’d like to explore how you can take your event program to the next level in 2025, you can contact us here.
Written By: Joey Colvin