Do you wish to increase lead identification, collection and engagement at the next event you sponsor?

Sponsoring a virtual event is an excellent way to achieve this! Virtual events offer wider reach than in-person events and many ways to interact with participants to generate leads, increase brand awareness, and promote your products or services. With a strategic and creative approach, virtual event sponsors can achieve great results.

Sponsors should take advantage of all opportunities available to them, which on the Social27 virtual event platform include sponsored chats, microsite exhibition stands, playlists, sponsored sessions, and much more! In addition to the featured functionalities, there are several often-overlooked opportunities that you can use to give your event sponsorship a competitive edge.

The pandemic has changed the way we organize corporate events. Many companies have had to transition to virtual events to comply with social distancing measures. While this has created challenges for event organizers, it has also presented new opportunities for event sponsors.

If you want your business to stand out among other sponsors at your next event, try these following underutilized virtual event sponsorship ideas. In this article, we will explore different ways to creatively position your brand during a virtual event. To optimize the impact of your brand on event attendees, we go beyond just placing your logo on the site or event t-shirts.

Here is how you may identify 11 popular untapped prospects for online event sponsors:

1. Interstitial content:

If your organization runs virtual events, you are aware of how critical it is to meet your sales targets and gauge the performance of your operations. So how do you make sure that as many people as possible view your content? That’s where interstitial content comes in.

Interstitial content can be played before the start of virtual event sessions, during intermissions between sessions, or content. It’s a great opportunity to promote your products and services to a captive audience and encourage them to visit your virtual exhibition booth or upcoming sponsored session. This is a great way to increase visits to your virtual exhibition booth and push your advertising content out to the audience.

If you don’t want to create a video to push out as interstitial content, you can make use of session banners to display a clickable sponsored banner over a session to direct attendees to your website or exhibition booth. The efficacy of your content may be evaluated using data analytics, and it can then be modified to meet your company’s objectives.

Hybrid events are also a great opportunity to implement interstitial content, as both online and in-person participants can be reached at the same time. You may broaden the audience you reach with your advertising in this way. Ultimately, interstitial content is a powerful tool for businesses looking to reach their sales goals and measure their success.

2. Conduct a customized webinar:

Webinars are a great method to give a targeted audience important information.

You may provide special material that specifically answers the demands of your audience while enhancing your brand and demonstrating your expertise in your industry by sponsoring a tailored webinar. Be sure to collect analytical data on participant engagement to evaluate the success of your webinar.

3. Offer special bonuses for participants:

Offering exclusive bonuses or special deals for participants can be an effective way to attract attention and encourage engagement. Offer free products, discounts, or individual consultations to help incentivize participants to interact with your business and take action to become customers.

4. Customized Photo Booths:

Photo booths are a great way to entertain event participants, but they can also be used to promote your brand. By customizing the photo booth with your logo and slogan, you can create a memorable experience for participants. In addition, photos taken in the photo booth will be shared on social media, increasing your brand’s visibility.

5. Use analytical data:

Optimizing participant engagement analytical data is essential for evaluating the effectiveness of your virtual event sponsorship. By tracking key metrics such as participation rate, participant engagement, and conversions, you can adjust and improve the results of your sponsorship efforts. This data can help refine your event marketing strategy, adjust participant engagement strategy in real time and improve the overall event experience for participants as well as impact of your sponsorship.

6. Gameplay and Rewards:

Gamification, The Secret Weapon to Capture the Attention of Your Virtual Audience and Maximize Engagement

You know how challenging it may be if you’ve ever attempted to keep an audience’s attention during a virtual event. People tend to get distracted and lose track of the event. Here is where the use of gamification, a powerful tool for igniting participant interest and enticing them to interact with the event’s content, comes into play.

Gamification allows participants to become competitive and earn rewards by completing specific challenges or tasks to accumulate points and climb the leaderboard. But how does this work for virtual events? Event organizers can integrate gamification elements into their virtual event by using online platforms to track participants’ points and their progress on the leaderboard.

In addition to stimulating participant engagement, gamification can also help achieve sales and marketing goals. Organizers can use gamification to encourage participants to visit virtual booths, watch product videos, fill out surveys, or interact with sponsors. The data collected during these interactions can also be used for marketing data analysis to measure event effectiveness and identify trends.

Clearly, gamification is also useful for hybrid events, where participants can be present both in-person and online.

7. Create an immersive experience for participants:

Offering immersive experiences such as interactive games, live product demos, or online networking activities, can provide a memorable brand experience and generate excitement.

Don’t be scared to use your imagination as a sponsor; this is the finest method to create a lasting impact and leave an imprint on the participants’ thoughts.

The Social27 Virtual Event Platform recently organized a unique experience for sponsors by hosting a cooking class led by a renowned chef that participants could watch or follow along from their own kitchens. Imagine the satisfaction of participants as they were able to create a delicious dish by following the instructions of their favorite chef.

You may customize a range of unforgettable experiences to your brand and target market. You can host a virtual concert or DJ session, livestream yoga or exercise classes, organize a virtual escape room or mystery dinner, or even hold a Q&A session with a well-known company spokesperson (celebrity ambassadors, well-known executives, influencers, or industry thought leaders). Lastly, you can organize cooking or cocktail classes.

The goal is to find activities that excite participants and encourage them to talk about them with their friends or post on social media for maximum reach and increased brand awareness.

8. Gift tins and freebies:

Gift baskets and free gifts are a highly underutilized opportunity for organizers and sponsors of virtual events. Only 30% of event organizers send gifts to their participants.

During conferences and in-person events, participants often leave with numerous free promotional items that help them remember the booths they visited. Many in-person events also hold raffles or other fun giveaways. It is surprising that virtual event organizers and sponsors do not use more gifts or promotional items, given the traditionally positive reception that brands receive when providing promotional items at events. After all, who doesn’t love free stuff?

Sponsors should talk to event organizers to contribute to a pre-event gift basket. Even if you cannot physically send something to participants, you can provide digital gifts such as downloadable resources or a $5 Starbucks gift card. You can also organize a raffle for digital rewards such as e-gift cards for both participants or those who sign up for a sponsored session or happy hour.

Giving away free gifts helps create an emotional connection with participants, thereby increasing the likelihood that they will remember your brand. Participants also appreciate gifts, which can help increase event participation and engagement. So why not seize this underutilized opportunity to boost sales and achieve your event marketing goals?

Free gifts can also be used to incentivize participants to fill out surveys or provide valuable demographic data. Ultimately, the use of free gifts and gift baskets is a winning strategy for organizers and sponsors of virtual events. So why not take advantage of it to increase participation, engagement, and sales?

9. Custom Virtual Backgrounds:

Virtual backgrounds have become an essential part of online meetings. Why not use this chance to advertise your company?

You may support and advance your brand by designing a custom background using your company’s colors and logo. Additionally, this will increase your brand’s visibility during event recordings.

10. Session & Prize Sponsorships:

Instead of just displaying your logo on the event homepage, you can also sponsor individual sessions of the event. By sponsoring a session, you can have your logo displayed on the session page, in reminder emails, and during presentations. This will increase your brand’s visibility to session participants.

Prize sponsorships are an excellent way to promote your brand to event participants. By sponsoring a prize, you can have your logo displayed on the prize page, in reminder emails, and during the prize presentation. This will increase your brand’s visibility to participants and enhance brand engagement.

11. Virtual Coffee Break Sponsorships:

Virtual coffee breaks have become a common practice during virtual events. Why not use this chance to market your company? By sponsoring a virtual coffee break, you can have your logo displayed on the coffee break page, in reminder emails, and during the break itself. This will increase your brand’s visibility to participants.

Social27 Offers All That Sponsors Need

The world of events has changed. We have moved from in-person gatherings to virtual events. It’s time for event organizers and sponsors to adapt to this new era. Thankfully, Social27 offers a virtual event platform that can help sponsors achieve their sales and marketing goals.

Social27 virtual event platform offers a wide range of features to help sponsors connect with attendees in exciting and creative ways. Gamification, flexible content delivery, and more can be used to make your event unique and memorable.

The platform’s capacity to track data analytics helps sponsors to gauge the performance of their event and promotion, which is one of its benefits. Social27 can also help sponsors plan hybrid events, which combine in-person and virtual elements, to offer a more immersive experience.

If you’re looking to host a virtual event, Social27 A virtual event platform is an excellent choice.

Contact today to learn more about what they can offer event organizers and sponsors.