Sponsorships can be defined as extending support to events, organizations, and activities through financial means or through products or services. With gamut of marketing and advertisement activities adopted by companies, sponsorship has achieved the highest growth rate among all. Through sponsorship activities companies seek to focus their image in the perception of the consumers. Unlike advertisements, they are found to be less avoided by consumers.
Companies are generally sponsor events, activities or person which adds to their image and also is relevant to its products and services. Non-profit organizations are highly dependent on such sponsorships. The sponsoring companies in turn gain a positive image in the market. Sponsorship activities also boost sales of a company through sample distributions. For instance, Idea Cellular sponsored the event “Talk for India “hour to protest against the terrorist attack in Mumbai, where the revenue generated was donated to support the Indian armed forces. The recycling campaign of Nokia, which was recently launched, encourages consumers to recycle their handset against which the company will plant a tree. This kind of campaign not only aids in building goodwill among the consumer but also enhances sales for the company. Now-a-days companies are sponsoring events to even cinemas.
The media coverage is incomparable in this kind of marketing tool. Sponsorships also help the sponsored companies organizing events to offer customers low rate tickets. Companies, especially telecom companies sponsor events, festivals and other such activities to increase their customer loyalty. For instance, KBC, which was a super hit television quiz show of Star Channel India was sponsored by Airtel India and enabled only Airtel customers to participate in the contest through SMS. This not only increased the customer base of Airtel but also enhanced customer loyalty by sponsoring a popular show.
Medium of sponsorship also helps to gain competitive advantage in an oligopoly market. It creates huge product awareness and its association with the event helps them to develop a relation with their targeted market within a very short span of time. For products and services for niche segment, sponsorship programs adopted by companies are very effective. On the flip side, with the gaining popularity of sponsorship programs, chances are big for a company to get lost among host of other sponsors, unless the concerned company is the main sponsor. To handle this issue to some extent sponsors for an event is generally divided into categories like magazine sponsors, radio partners, food sponsors, drink sponsors, co-sponsors and many others to ensure visibility of the sponsoring companies.This prevents overlapping of sponsoring companies.
Completed B tech in Information Technology under West Bengal University of Technology.Currently pursuing Masters in Business Administration(MBA) from Indian Institute of Social Welfare and Business Management(IISWBM),Kolkata with marketing as major specialization and finance as minor specialization. Have penchant for blogging and broadening my learning curve. Like to explore more insight on branding and its nuances. 
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