Thought-Leadership in Sponsorship

Thought-Leadership is a person or company that actively promotes and discussed ideas that are relevant to their peer-base. That by talking about a topic you become a leader in that topic. Their statements are often assumed to have the experience and knowledge behind them to support what they are saying.

Back in 1998 I moved to San Francisco and Thought-Leadershiped my way into a newly created position with an Internet organization. I then created a sponsorship program to raise unrestricted revenue from corporate marketing departments. After about a year, I was able to create mutually beneficial partnerships with eBay, Kimberly-Clark, Robert Half International, Readers Digest, Charles Schwab and the list goes on.

The cool thing about these partnerships back in the late 90's was that they were all--or mostly online. I knew that I had a golden opportunity to take this online community of older adults and sell the fact that corporation ABC could tap into this demographic, provide valuable information and connect on a different level (no, not banner ads).

The key was to ask the older adults what they wanted. Luckily they said online banking, eBay, health information and financial information. So, I went after key prospects with trusted names.

My pitch was simple: we have this lucrative community and we know this community. Lets talk about your marketing objective and we'll show you exactly how you can achieve it. Of course I would do my research as to not be surprised by their objective. Then I would give them a taste of some awesome things they could do. You know, get them excited about this partnership. It worked like a charm. The best part was that we could track, get feedback and make simple, quick changes immediately without losing major money...Yes, the Internet is amazing.

We made sure that everything that we did was to add value to the users experience. For example providing education such as online courses or online articles; fostering interaction and engagement among the users and/or the sponsor; or delivering something as simple as a new discussion group with lively topics.

I could go on but...Then in 2003 I moved to New York City. I did some informational interviews and networked like crazy. I then started my own company to help form mutually beneficial partnerships between corporations and nonprofit with an emphasis on the Internet. Some of the most rewarding moments came when clients or students (I conducted workshops and public speaking for nonprofits) suddenly got it. They shifted their thinking into marketing mode. The light bulb went off and they saw the value and assets that their properties had.