Comments on: Sponsorship and Prizes – Will just a trophy do?

By: Rosie

Rosie — Thu, 16 Nov 2006 23:44:04 +0000

Oooh I think a trophey would make me happy out! Although the thought of money might encourage the blogger to actually attend the ceromony!!

By: Adam

Adam — Thu, 16 Nov 2006 22:48:28 +0000

If you were going to give a prize out I’d confine it to the top awards; best blog being one, Best Contribution to the Irish Bloggersphere another.

At the same time, given the nature of blogging, I can’t see people being pissed off at getting kudos and some stage time for work they don’t get paid for anyway

Not sure about the sponsorship pricing, as this kind of thing is out of my league (don’t know what a good price is)… I would think a single sponsor would push it too far into the realm of it being about the company and not the bloggers though, so a few sponsors would be best… that said I wouldn’t say no to someone willing to give 10k over, but as you know the terms are everything.

What about donations? Tell people to send in anon. contributions if they want to (anon because you don’t want people saying Blogger A gave 100 quid and coincidently won an award etc.)

By: adam

adam — Thu, 16 Nov 2006 22:31:08 +0000

I don’t think I’d sponsor a category at â‚¬500. I realise it isn’t a whole lot of money in the grand scheme of things, but personally I think people make events like this, not money, and pushing the boat out is akin to flushing. It’s your call, but my advice would be caution/frugality on the spending front where possible.

By: Patrick O'Doherty

Patrick O'Doherty — Thu, 16 Nov 2006 19:42:07 +0000

Having small chunks of advertising does seem like a good idea, fair play on that.

By: Johnny Beirne

Johnny Beirne — Thu, 16 Nov 2006 18:28:30 +0000

I agree with the above and for me, if I got some PR with Trophy and no money I would be happy. Can’t buy alot of PR with â‚¬50.

By: elly parker

elly parker — Thu, 16 Nov 2006 17:35:11 +0000

I think that if you only get one overall sponsor for the whole thing that it would give them a lot more sway and they could really try to push banners etc onto you.

IMHO it might be better to have the category sponsors as that would mean you could keep the advertising more discrete, and if you have 20 categories at 350 for the lesser categories and 500 for the top one (best blog, best group blog etc) that could easily raise 8k… and it’s more affordable for the companies that way too – I’d say that there are plenty of companies that would like to get involved but they couldn’t afford 8k or more… whereas companies that are willing to spend more could sponsor multiple awards – i.e. you could try to sell off the top three awards as a package for some more visibility on the night…

As for the actual awards, I think trophies are the main thing, that give people something to display if they so choose and a ‘warm feeling inside’ for longer than â‚¬50 – I’d say most people would end up spending that on drinks/taxis on the night…

Best plan would be to lay out exactly what the sponsor would get for their and include that in a virtual press release to any prospective sponsors, that way they can’t really argue and say they weren’t told!

Spot prizes do give people that aren’t nominated a bit more reason to come along, after all if there are 10 spot prizes and 100 people there, then that’s a 1:10 chance of winning something – and that’s certainly better than the euromillions!!