Corporate sponsorship: a suitable match - Bell Canada's sponsorship of the Stratford Festival

The budget for the inaugural year of the Stratford Festival (1953) was $212,000, a sum which has grown to $27,250,000 this year. Bell Canada's continuing support of the Festival dates back as far as 1954. The intervening decades have brought more than budget changes; technology has altered many aspects of our lives, and marketing that technology has become a major concern for corporations like Bell.

Bell Canada recently made a commitment to provide three years of sponsorship to the Stratford Festival, an arrangement which will provide $200,000 annually for festival operations. The funds will help produce the Celebrated Writers Series (which this year includes Margaret Atwood and Peter Gzowski) and pays for extra pages in the house programmes. Bell Phonecentre stores will also promote the Festival. In return, the Bell Canada Advantage brand name appears on the festival's toll-free telephone line and on its internet site.

Stratford general manager Mary E. Hofstetter says that the new sponsorship explores "imaginative new ways in which two different organizations with a shared vision of excellence can work together to fulfill their strategic goals. It's a true investment in both our futures." This idea of two organizations with a shared vision is at the heart of corporate sponsorship in the 90s. Corporations are moving beyond simple philanthropy; they now seek out partnerships which are of mutual benefit to both entities.

Ken Gingerich, associate director of communications at Bell Canada, characterizes the new marketing style as "wiser utilization of money on more strategic areas."

Bell Canada employs definite criteria when selecting sponsorship opportunities, Gingerich says. "Does an organization's audience match our consumer profile? We then select those properties that we feel best allow us to reach those market segments."

Small arts groups might wonder at their chances of attracting a corporate sponsor when organizations like the Shaw Festival & Stratford Festival can demonstrate such large audiences. "We wanted to be associated with those two organizations because they do represent excellence in the arts," says Gingerich. But he adds. "We do support smaller organizations at a community level. For example, we're entering into a relationship with the Peterborough Art Gallery, we support the Kingston Symphony, the Upper Canada Playhouse. From our perspective, we receive many proposals within a given year from a variety of organizations and we have a selection or assessment criteria that all proposals are put through, and if they pass that litmus test, we then would consider a sponsorship arrangement with them."

What does Bell hope to gain from relationships with smaller arts groups? "We have moved away from philanthropy," Gingerich says. "We call it community investment. We invest in a community because we want to, but an investment also means that there has to be a payback. Even with a smaller organization, I can still demonstrate a payback at the local level."

Arts organizations need to do their homework when seeking sponsorships. "They should know who their target is," advises Gingerich, "regardless of who they approach. My philosophy is that a sponsorship must make sense in the simplest of terms, in that when you see the sponsorship, you say, 'well of course Bell Canada would be doing that because it makes such logical sense. All too often, I suppose, organizations will approach any company. It has to make sense to the company that they're approaching."

"I'm a strong believer in the power of arts marketing," says Gingerich, "and the value it can bring to any corporation."

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