In the quest for innovative brand alignment strategies beyond traditional sponsorships, we’ve gathered insights from CEOs and marketing experts. From hosting your own brand event to embracing “unsponsored” projects, explore the five unique alternatives these professionals recommend for strengthening your brand’s presence and resonance in the market.

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Contents

1 Host Your Own Brand Event
2 Support Social Causes
3 Engage in Experiential Marketing
4 Embrace ‘Unsponsored’ Projects
5 Create Content Partnerships

Host Your Own Brand Event

Instead of sponsoring someone else’s event, consider hosting your own to really showcase your brand. By creating your own event, you can control every detail, ensuring it fully represents what your brand stands for.

This personal touch can make a big impression on attendees, leaving them with a memorable experience that truly reflects your brand’s identity. Investing in your own event allows you to directly connect with your audience in a way that’s engaging and authentic, making it much more effective than simply having your logo on a sponsorship banner.

Matias Rodsevich, Founder & CEO, PRLab

Support Social Causes

Supporting social causes that resonate with your audience is an effective alternative to traditional sponsorships for brand alignment. Consumers in today’s purpose-driven market, especially Millennials and Gen Z, are attracted to brands that take meaningful stands.

As per Cone Communications, 87% of customers would buy a product because a company took a stand on an issue it cared about, while 76% would stop using the services of any brand supporting issues contrary to their beliefs.

From my experience, support for social causes has the power to change how people view a brand. Once, I worked with a local company in our community that was facing challenges in terms of how it could distinguish itself from others offering similar products and services.

Rather than spend money on traditional sponsorship initiatives, we instead resolved to back a local environmental undertaking significant to our community. As a result, this led to an increase of 30% in customer engagement and loyalty. The brand was no longer just another shop; it became part of the community fabric.

Not only does supporting social causes align your brand values with those of your audience, but it also brings about positive word-of-mouth communication among buyers. There is nothing more powerful than brands making an impact that people want to share stories about.

Building such a kind of brand, starting from identifying problems and beginning relevantly, will be useful since one gets closer aligned with its target group and continues doing something good for mankind at large—a win-win situation indeed.

Soubhik Chakrabarti, CEO, Icy Tales

Engage in Experiential Marketing

Sponsorships, at their best, bring energy to a brand. However, brands should have more confidence in their abilities to show up in the world. With more creative, experiential thinking, brands can replicate sponsorship energy independently. Do you want your brand to be aligned with sports? Great. Throw a sporting event. If you put Gen Z employees in charge of your socials and production, it doesn’t even need to be high-budget. Really, it all goes back to creative thinking. Be more of a guerrilla marketer. Pretend you have no budget. Think like a college kid.

Remy Smidt, Brand Strategist, Fazer

Embrace ‘Unsponsored’ Projects

I think of brand alignment as simply ensuring every aspect of a brand—such as its messaging, identity, customer experience, and partnerships—aligns with and supports the brand’s core values and mission.

Basically, talk is cheap. Do you walk the walk? Sponsorship can be a powerful alignment tool; it provides tangible reasons to believe what you say about yourself is true.

That said, sometimes a more powerful alternative to underwriting something and hanging your name all over it is the opposite.

Bandit Running’s “Unsponsored” Project, which works a bit like an influencer model, is a great example. It challenges the standard sponsorship models for sports and aligns perfectly with their brand’s mission and reason for being.

The Unsponsored Project provides two-week deals for unsponsored athletes at the U.S. Track & Field Trials. They receive unbranded, all-black Bandit apparel and cash to cover expenses.

This “non-sponsorship” of the event is getting way more attention than the logos covering the venue and competitors, while solving athletes’ challenges and boosting up-and-coming competitors, at a fraction of the cost of event sponsorship.

Michael Nicholas, Partner, Farm

Create Content Partnerships

One specific alternative to sponsorships for brand alignment is content partnerships. In a content partnership, a brand collaborates with a media outlet, influencer, or content creator to produce content that aligns with both the brand’s and the partner’s audience interests and values.

Why content partnerships can be effective:

Targeted Engagement: Content partnerships allow brands to engage with a highly targeted audience that is already interested in the content being produced. This focused approach can lead to more meaningful interactions and higher conversion rates compared to broader sponsorships.

Authenticity: By integrating a brand’s message into content that feels natural and relevant to the partner’s audience, content partnerships can create a more authentic connection. This often results in more genuine brand perception and trust among consumers.

Creative Flexibility: Content partnerships offer flexibility in terms of format and message. Brands can collaborate on various types of content, such as articles, videos, or podcasts, allowing for creative freedom and the ability to tailor messages specifically to the audience’s interests.

Shared Resources and Expertise: Both parties in a content partnership bring their unique strengths to the table. Brands provide resources and industry knowledge, while content creators bring expertise in crafting engaging content. This synergy can enhance the quality and impact of the content produced.

Overall, content partnerships offer a strategic way to align a brand with relevant audiences and create meaningful, engaging experiences that go beyond traditional sponsorship models.

JP Duberg, Marketing Manager, Sun & Ski Sports