THE ULTIMATE CORPORATE SPONSORSHIP

Tweet THE “TABASCO” OPERA

The ultimate corporate sponsorship was nearly 120 years ago in 1894 when the McIlhenny Company sponsored the TABASCO© Opera as a fundraiser for a volunteer militia in Boston. This year, in 2014, a local conductor will revive the historic TABASCO© Opera.

But let’s examine the details of this marketing decision made well over a century ago and compare it to sponsorship opportunities today.

Sponsorships are expected to perform a certain role in marketing, branding and advertising. This is the expectation and design of a sponsorship, however, many fail to deliver. Why?

Obviously, if you have your product name not only integrated into the opportunity, content or event, but your product is in the name of and the subject of the content, in this case an opera, your probability of brand retention increases exponentially. Does “brought to you by” have the same value as your logo or brand integrated into the show itself?

With an opera, you also have a strong focus by the audience on the content itself. There are no distractions, no DVR. Compared to sporting events where the focus is on the game and making a beer run, the opera audience is involved in the storyline which happens to center around your product. With sports there is little room to saturate your brand into the content.

As with most large events, there is continuing dialogue after the event. Sports talk dominates the airwaves following a weekend of football, unless your team lost, then not so much. Same applies to this opera which led to the retelling of the storyline and the continuation of the TABASCO© brand.

This opera was so well received and “buzz-worthy” that it was actually purchased from McIlhenny and taken on tour across the country.

Now, fast forward 120 years, for one of the ultimate, longest running sponsorship opportunities in marketing history, the opera is rediscovered and brought back to the stage to repeat its success and continue the extension of the original sponsorship.

So was that original sponsorship a good idea? Did it provide branding or increase sales? Did it deliver what a sponsorship should? Should you expect longevity from the sponsorship partnership?
It may be hard to quantify, however, one thing is for sure, it provided a value that could not be easily duplicated with the average corporate sponsorships out there today. The back story alone is one that took 120 years to create.

Where are these opportunities today? Well, I believe they need to be created. They are not visible, not readily available. Coincidentally, we are producing a few similar type of opportunities, maybe we have one that fits you. Its worth talking about. Maybe it takes a little bit of luck, but most likely it takes creativity and brain power, because this “opera” thing was genius.


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