EXPERT PANELISTS DECIPHER THE ART OF “THE ASK” – CORPORATE SPONSORSHIP

Speaking to a room filled with representatives from all spectrums of the arts world, nine experts — from the museum, advertising, public relations, professional sports, financial and condo development fields — presented the workshop “What Counts in Corporate Sponsorship.” The event was held at the Adrienne Arsht Center and hosted by the Miami Arts Marketing Project of the Arts and Business Council of Miami.

Featured speaker Lisa Merritt, head of corporate sponsorship for the Perez Art Museum Miami (PAMM), provided insight from her 20 years of fundraising experience. She stressed the importance of a committed and active board of directors, implementing a matching gifts program and community-based projects with the corporate sponsor while providing benefits to that sponsor through maximum exposure.

She also pointed out that “during opening week at PAMM we got $1 million in corporate sponsorships. Hopefully that puts to rest that Miami is not a corporate sponsorship town,” she said.

Jennifer Strum, director of business development for The Heat Group and American Airlines Arena shared successful partnership strategies she uses on a daily basis. From something simple like using the term corporate partner, which for her helps leverage ticket sales, to positioning your product on your Website and strategic ticket sale marketing that “gives a portion of sales back to the corporate partner selling tickets to your event on their site. Also, raise the level of your brand to get on our radar,” she said.

PR gurus Marcia Martinez of Zakarin Martinez PR and Claudia Figueredo, president of Action Public Relations, provided expertise from their side of the fence. Their advice was to research before pitching as well as identifying and defining your market to a potential sponsor. Also, they said, think outside the box and plan innovative and unique collaborative events to attract a diverse audience.

For Patricia Garcia Velez Hanna, art director for The Related Group, her main goal, and one that everyone should emulate is “to create a legacy partnership where the donor realizes they will still be mentioned even years after their relationship with the institution is done.”

Putting it all into perspective was Rick Tomlinson, president of Tomlinson Financial, who said “we’re all competing for the same pot in terms of giving. For us it’s all about avoiding the hard sell and keeping accurate spreadsheets to help us evaluate what worked and what didn’t.”

The conversation about arts-partnerships continues with a panel as part of ArtTuesdays/Miami on Tuesday, March 11 at 6 p.m. at Books & Books, 265 Aragon Ave., Coral Gables. Moderator Noelle A. Galperin, senior strategy and marketing consultant leads a four person panel. Featured panelists are Janet Kyle Altman of the Kaufman Rossin Group, Laura Bruney of the Arts & Business Council of Miami, Etain Connor of High Tide Initiatives and Daniel Novela of Novela Law.