Week 9

Reading:

Chapter 13 – Sponsorship an Event Managements in Public relations: theory and practice / edited by Jane Johnston and Clara Zawawi. Crows Nest, N.S.W. Allen & Unwin, 2004. 2nd ed

I think the key points to remember from this week's readings were...

Sponsorship plays a large role not only for PR practitioners, but for companies and publics too. If executed correctly, sponsorship should benefit all parties that are involved in the event in different ways. There are 3 types of sponsorship; philanthropic, corporate & marketing, each with variations but the same goal that is to generate attention, goodwill and to even achieve image enhancement but if course to generate revenue at some level.

For a practitioner, care must be used when developing a sponsorship plan as other companies can behave in a manner known as Ambush Marketing, where they place themselves in coverage of an event to gain leverage and free publicity by being associated with an event.

The focus on Event Management was interesting for me as I am eager to learn more about this area. What came across as a key area for me was Tonge's 4 steps: feasibility, planning, execution and evaluation. This was elaborated and examined all areas of these steps, including some of the minor details that would have otherwise been assumed known. These steps made you consider just how much work is involved in creating an average sized event.

The readings made me think more about public relations theory/practice in that …

• PR practitioner's jobs entail a large amount of background and field work. In this sense, it can be a very practical, hands on jobs.
• Once again, careful consideration of the media was reiterated with the Event Management reading expressing the attention that needs to be placed on the media centers at an event. The detail that is required to ensure the press is happy was equal to that of the publics involved.