Sponsorship Activation: A Complete Guide + Real-Life Examples

The way brands activate sponsorships has come a long way. These days, just putting your logo on a banner or handing out freebies won’t cut it.

Sponsorship activation is all about using your sponsorship in smart, creative ways to actually connect with people. It’s about giving your audience an experience they’ll remember—and helping them get to know your brand beyond just a name or logo.

And it works.

According to Eventbrite, 69% of attendees prefer events that offer meaningful, transformative experiences. Another report by Freeman revealed 77% of people trust brands more after interacting with them face-to-face at a live event.

The numbers are clear—brands and organizers need to think outside the box when planning for sponsorship events. If you’re wondering where to start, this guide is for you. We’ll break down all you need to know about sponsorship activation, why it matters and how to plan for one.

We’ll also discuss the different types of activation strategies and inspire you with real-life examples from sports and other major industries.

Table of Contents

• What Is a Sponsorship Activation?
• Benefits of Doing Sponsorship Activations
• Types of Activation Strategies
• Real-Life Sponsorship Activation Examples
• How to Craft a Sponsorship Activation Plan with Visme

What Is a Sponsorship Activation?

Sponsorship activation is when a brand uses its sponsorship of an event, team or individual to connect with and create memorable, interactive experiences for its target audience.

This could be an immersive AR/VR display, a social media marketing campaign, an interactive kiosk or an autograph session with athletes. The goal is to go beyond mere logo placements and actively engage with potential customers to drive brand awareness, trust and sales.

Here's a quick example of sponsorship activation between two brands. Uber Eats set up a themed pop up shop at this year’s Super Bowl Experience in Las Vegas. Attendees could place in-app orders for various grocery items while waiting in line and then collect their products at exit.

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Benefits of Doing Sponsorship Activations

Planning a sponsorship activation can help your business in more ways than one.

There’s a reason top brands like Nike, Adidas, AT&T, Coca-Cola, Sephora and others show up with elaborate and incredible activations at events—it sure pays off. That's why it's still a commonly used corporate sponsorship activity.

Need more specifics? Here’s why you need to consider doing an activation for your next event:

• Maximize sponsorship ROI: Activations can drive better results than logo placement alone, including higher exposure, engagement, loyalty and sales. Brands can also keep costs low by leveraging the event’s existing infrastructure, which results in a higher overall return on their sponsorship investment.
• Increased brand visibility: Go beyond passive exposure—activations help you stand out in a crowded space by getting your brand in front of more people in a meaningful, memorable way.
• Cost-effective approach: By tapping into the event’s existing setup, brands can keep costs down while maximizing their impact—making sponsorship activations a smart investment with a higher return.
• Drive real business results: Activations don’t just look good—they work. From boosting engagement to increasing customer loyalty and driving sales, they help turn audience interest into action.
• Build deeper audience connections: Brands can utilize activations to offer multi-sensory experiences to their audience, which helps build emotional bonds. Live, interactive events are also excellent for creating a sense of community among your fans.
• Improve your brand image: Aligning your brand with initiatives your audience cares about demonstrates your commitment to causes that matter. This positions your brand as authentic, socially responsible and relevant, which boosts your reputation and builds trust.
• Stand out from the competition: Unique, memorable activations grab attention, highlight your creativity and show customers you care. This positions you as innovative and helps differentiate your brand from other players in the market.

Types of Activation Strategies

Planning an activation doesn’t just mean setting up a kiosk—although that’s a popular idea.

There are several different types of sponsorship activations you can opt for, including:

• Experiential activations: Engage your audience on a deeper level by creating immersive experiences. For example, you could set up interactive installations, utilize virtual or augmented reality, create relaxing zones for people to recharge, set up pop-up shops, and design Instagram-worthy sets and photo booths.
• Influencer partnerships: Collaborate with influencers and creators who have a strong connection with your target audience. They can help spread the word, create authentic content around your event, and add credibility to your brand and activation.
• Product sampling: Allow people to experience your product firsthand by offering samples or demos. Get creative with your presentation to make it more engaging, such as using videos, VR/AR, gamification and interactive elements.
• Games and contests: Tap into people's competitive spirit with games and contests that are fun, challenging and rewarding. This is a great way to get people actively involved with your brand and create a buzz around your products and activation.
• Branded wearables: Give people something they can wear long after the event is over. Some options include bracelets and wristbands, badges, caps, t-shirts, masks and even wearable technology that’s both functional and adds an extra cool factor.
• Social media campaigns: Using social media creatively can help you deliver memorable and highly engaging activations without investing too much in physical setups. For example, you could encourage people to share user-generated content or start a hashtag challenge.
• Digital activations: Extend the experience online with social media contests, branded filters, interactive polls, and event-specific hashtags. You could even live-stream parts of your activation or run pre-event challenges to build hype.
• Content-driven activations: Use content to keep the momentum going before, during, and after the event. This could mean creating teaser videos, behind-the-scenes footage, influencer collabs, or blog posts that highlight your presence at the event.

Real-Life Sponsorship Activation Examples

1. Vodafone and Wimbledon

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Vodafone joined forces with technology partner GiveVision to introduce 5G headsets at the 2023 Wimbledon Championships. These innovative devices allowed visually impaired fans to experience live tennis like never before. The headsets use Vodafone's speedy 5G network to stream footage directly from TV cameras so fans can follow the action in real-time using their own eyes.

The best part? Fans could watch from any seat in the house, not just from special "accessibility" areas that can make people feel left out. To spread the word, Vodafone had select visually impaired tennis fans test the headsets and made high-quality videos and photos.

The activation generated 132 pieces of coverage, most of them heavily branded, across top publications like The Times, The Guardian, The Independent, Forbes and BBC Sports. The campaign also garnered around 884,000 impressions on Wimbledon's social media.

A post-event survey also revealed that 63% of tennis fans felt more positively about Vodafone, and 41% were more likely to consider the brand after the activation.

Social media campaigns are another fun way to activate your sponsorship. Think photo contests, giveaways, or interactive polls that get your audience involved. Not only do they boost engagement, but they also help spread your brand across social platforms in a big way.

2. Coca-Cola and FIFA World Cup 2022

In 2022, Coca-Cola worked with sports marketing agency Octagon to organize the 5th FIFA World Cup Trophy Tour—a classic example of the balance between sports marketing and global sponsorship activation.

They took the famous trophy on a ride across 51 countries and six continents, hitting up all 32 qualified nations for the first time ever. The team planned engaging events in each market, targeting fans, Heads of State, customers, bottlers, media and influencers.

They also planned innovative activations, like the Coke Ink Studio, where fans could get custom temporary tattoos to show off their national pride. The tour also visited iconic landmarks all over the world, such as the Eiffel Tower and Wembley Stadium.

The tour clocked in at over 1,000 activation hours across 127 days, featuring 20+ FIFA legends and organizing 17 concerts. As a result, they engaged thousands of fans worldwide and generated millions of views on Instagram.

3. AT&T and NBA All-Star 2024

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AT&T's sponsorship activation at the NBA All-Star Weekend 2024 is a great example of how tech brands can engage their audience at large-scale sports events.

During the event, the carrier engaged fans both on the ground and online with connectivity-themed experiences. At NBA Crossover, they featured two digital games, "Dribble Town" and "Splashville”—representing the Eastern and Western Conferences.

Paul George's custom avatar acted as a virtual guide, providing real-time feedback and motivation. Fans also had the chance to meet players in person and participate in trivia.

The All-Star Mural gave attendees an interactive creative outlet, while those at home could join in via Snapchat AR filters. Finally, the "Shai's Shop" activation, developed with Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, offered exclusive premiums curated by the NBA All-Star himself.

4. Marriott Hotels and Manchester United

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Marriott Hotels teamed up with the agency 160over90 to plan a sponsorship activation called "United. Near and Far" for football club Manchester United's U.S. summer tour. The goal was to get fans excited about the partnership and give them unique experiences.

As part of the activation, the team turned a double-decker bus into a British-style pub garden with a 30-foot screen for match streaming. Marriott Bonvoy members could also take rides in traditional London taxis and get a chance to meet the players or travel with them on private planes.

They also got influencers and content creators to share glimpses of the tour on social media. The activation made a huge splash, with over 400 million impressions across broadcast, print and online media, and hundreds of guests attending the NYC “Match Day Viewing Party.”

5. Pinterest and Coachella 2024

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Pinterest's Manifest Station was a standout activation at Coachella 2024. The station featured photo setups and styling stations inspired by Pinterest’s aesthetic trends like fairycore, dark feminine and 2014 throwbacks.

They also had celebrity stylists offer personalized fashion advice and help people spice up their outfits with laces, bows, charms and other accessories. Attendees could then share their festival looks using Pinterest's new board sharing feature.

How to Craft a Sponsorship Activation Plan with Visme

Pulling off a successful activation requires both sponsors and event organizers to be on the same page, join heads and come up with a plan.

Here’s a breakdown of the steps involved in creating an effective activation plan:

Step 1: Identify goals and objectives

The first step in planning a sponsorship activation is to know why you’re doing it. What do you want to achieve from your initiative?

Take the time to clearly define SMART goals and objectives. Consider how the activation aligns with your overall marketing strategy and what you hope to gain from the investment. For example, your goals could include:

• Increasing brand awareness and reach
• Generating qualified leads
• Boosting product sales
• Enhancing brand image and reputation
• Strengthening customer relationships and loyalty
• Attract new sponsorship opportunities

Setting goals is important because they’ll serve as the foundation for your entire activation plan, including key areas of focus and metrics to track progress and success.

Step 2: Understand audience needs

To create a sponsorship activation that resonates with your target audience, you must first gain a deep understanding of their needs, preferences and pain points.

Conduct thorough research to gather insights about your audience, including demographics, psychographics, challenges, preferred communication channels, content formats and the type of events they like to attend.

You could also analyze feedback from any previous events or activations you’ve been a part of to get ideas or simply learn from past mistakes and wins. Share these insights with event organizers to make sure everyone is aware of attendee needs and expectations.

Here’s a customer persona template you can use:

Create your customer persona with this easy-to-edit template Edit and Download

Step 3: Brainstorm activation ideas

Now for the fun part. It's time to come up with creative activation ideas that align with your brand, goals and target audience. The ideas you consider should also provide mutual value to all parties involved—the sponsor, the event organizers and the attendees.

That’s why it’s best to not do this in isolation. Join heads with your sponsorship partner and discuss key aspects of various types of activations, such as interactive demos, games and contests, immersive VR/AR experiences, and influencer or social media campaigns.

Evaluate each idea based on its potential impact, feasibility and budget requirements. Make sure you encourage feedback from all stakeholders to prioritize the best activation ideas.

Visme’s whiteboard tool is excellent for brainstorming together. Multiple users can simultaneously edit a project, leave comments, annotate and more. Use ready-made whiteboard templates to speed up your productivity and make collaborative decisions faster.

Step 4: Discuss budget and logistics

Once you’ve finalized an activation idea, it’s time to plan the specifics that will actually make it happen. Schedule a meeting with sponsors and organizers to discuss the following:

• Available resources and infrastructure provided by the event
• Additional resources required for your activation (e.g., staff, technology, materials)
• Allocation of your sponsorship budget to various aspects of the activation
• Space requirements, setup and teardown times, and technical needs
• Roles and responsibilities of each party in executing the activation

Be transparent about your budget limitations and work together to find solutions that maximize the impact of your investment. Ideally, you should identify any potential logistical challenges early on and develop contingency plans to mitigate risks.

Step 5: Develop content and visuals

What’s at the core of any successful activation? Hint: Great content.

Whether you’re planning an interactive event, social media campaign or product demo, you need beautiful, engaging and on-brand content—both visual and non-visual.

You also need content to promote your activation, such as social media graphics, email templates, landing pages, signage and more. And let’s not forget about the presentation decks you’ll need for stakeholder meetings.

The good news is you can create all your content in one place using Visme. In fact, we have several sports teams using our software to plan and execute amazing, interactive activations. Here are some examples of our favorite use cases:

• Florida Panthers use Visme to design stunning, on-brand presentations, proposals and other materials to onboard new sponsors and create end-of-the-season recaps. They especially find Visme’s collaboration features useful to streamline workflows that involve multiple stakeholders and approvals.
• Denver Broncos football team uses Visme to create engaging presentations to communicate with internal and external stakeholders, such as sharing updates about activations. They’re big fans of Visme’s branding capabilities, easy customization and interactivity features.

So, what kind of sponsorship activation content can you create in Visme? Here are some ideas:

• Stunning presentations for pitching, brainstorming, planning and evaluating success.
• All kinds of promotional materials, from social media graphics to videos to emails to landing page visuals.
• On-site signage, flyers, logos, banners and even digital displays.
• Interactive digital experiences, such as animated characters, quizzes and surveys.

Browse thousands of customizable templates across 40+ categories and tap into built-in design assets like icons, stock photos and videos, audio, illustrations, characters and 3D graphics.

Sport Presentation Templates

Create captivating sports presentation online quickly and easily by getting started with one of Visme’s premade templates. Wow your audience and keep them engaged as they listen to you. Find a free template that you can easily customize for your own purposes.

Fitness Presentation

Design Brief Presentation

Soccer League Event Sponsorship Presentation

Best Exercises for Seniors Presentation

Sports Brand Social Media Kit Presentation

Athletic Sponsorship Packages Presentation

Create your product presentation View more templates

Additionally, leverage AI-powered design tools for writing, generating images, editing photos and even creating custom templates tailored to your unique requirements.

Make sure everything is aligned with your visual identity with the Brand Wizard. Automatically pull brand elements from your website and apply them to your projects. You can also manually upload your logo, fonts, colors, images, videos and templates to use later.

Creating interactive content in Visme is also incredibly easy. You can create quizzes, integrate your projects with tools like SurveyMonkey or Google Maps, build custom 3D animated characters, and design animated data visualizations—the possibilities are endless.

The best part is you can create all your activation content in Visme collaboratively with sponsors, event organizers and other key stakeholders. This helps you stick to the overall event theme and experience without compromising on your brand identity.

Step 6: Execute the activation

With your plan in place, it's time to bring your activation to life. Here are some tips to keep in mind during the execution stage to ensure everything runs smoothly:

• Communicate regularly with event organizers to stay aligned on progress and quickly adapt to last-minute changes.
• Test any technology and interactive elements prior to the event, and make sure your on-site team is well-prepared to engage attendees. Use Visme to design training materials, troubleshooting guides, infographics and checklists for this purpose.
• Monitor the execution closely during the activation to identify and address challenges in real-time. For example, you can track analytics in Visme to understand your activation content’s performance. Keep an eye on metrics like views, average time spent, shares, form completions and more.
• Capture photos, videos and testimonials throughout the event to document the success of your activation and gather valuable content for future promotions. In fact, you can put together this content in Visme easily. We have templates for video testimonials and case studies to help you present your activation highlights.

Step 7: Gather post-event feedback

Just like any other marketing initiative, your job is incomplete without a post-event evaluation of your activation. You need to know whether the activation met its goals, what results it achieved and what you can learn from it to improve future activations.

One way to gather all this data is to collect feedback from the attendees. Ask them things like:

• How satisfied are they with the activation experience?
• How likely are they to recommend or buy from your brand?
• What aspects of the activation did they like or dislike?
• Do they have any suggestions for improvement?

Visme’s form builder is a lifesaver here. You can easily create an interactive feedback form (no coding needed!) and share it directly with your audience using a link or QR code.

For example, you can ask people to fill out a short survey on their phones after interacting with your kiosk or participating in a game or contest. If you need help, here are some post-event survey questions you can ask in your feedback forms.

Finally, analyze and present the insights in a visual, easy-to-digest manner using a post-event report. Highlight the successes, challenges and lessons learned from your activation, and share your report with internal stakeholders and event organizers.

Elevate Your Sponsorship Activities & Plans with Visme

Executing a sponsorship activation can do much more for your brand than simply placing your logo on a banner. But pulling off a successful activation requires careful planning and the right tools under your belt.

Visme can help you streamline various aspects of planning a sponsorship activation, including stakeholder communication, collaborative brainstorming, creating amazing, interactive content, and even tracking analytics to see how your campaigns are performing.

Dozens of organizations and sports teams, like the Denver Broncos and Florida Panthers, are already using Visme to take their sponsorship activities to the next level. If you’re ready to join them, connect with our sales team right now and we’ll set you up with a personalized demo.

Written by Mahnoor Sheikh

Mahnoor is a freelance writer and content strategist for B2B SaaS brands (and a toddler mom). She loves to talk about marketing, sales, branding and visual design. When she’s not working, she’s chilling at home (or the beach), cooking gourmet dinners for her family or traveling the world. She’s currently based in Antalya. Connect with her on LinkedIn or check out her website.