The Missing Middle: Why most events underinvest in sponsorship marketing (and what it’s costing you)
Here’s a pattern we see again and again in event businesses.
There’s a dedicated team (and budget) for delegate marketing - creative, data, paid media, CRM. Everyone’s clear on the mission: sell tickets, fill seats, hit numbers.
Then there’s the sponsorship sales team - often operating separately, focused on revenue targets, with limited marketing support.
And in between? The missing middle: sponsorship marketing.
That crucial layer where storytelling, audience insight, and data-driven targeting should connect marketing and sales. But in many event organisations, it simply doesn’t exist.
The imbalance that’s holding events back
Let’s put some numbers around it.
For many events, sponsorship and exhibition sales account for 60–80% of total revenue. Yet those teams often get less than 10% of the marketing resource.
That’s like building a Formula 1 car, then only putting fuel in half the tank.
The result? Sponsorship sales teams spend too much time explaining value, generating their own leads, and trying to create marketing materials - when they could be focusing on relationship building and closing deals.
Meanwhile, marketing teams are laser-focused on delegates - because that’s what they’ve been resourced and incentivised to do.
It’s not that anyone’s doing a bad job. It’s that the structure is outdated.
Why the gap exists
Historically, delegate marketing and sponsorship sales evolved as separate disciplines.
The problem? Today’s sponsors expect to be sold to like partners, but marketed to like customers.
Without a dedicated marketing layer supporting sponsorship, event businesses miss the chance to build that emotional connection and market credibility that makes deals easier to close.
What a dedicated sponsorship marketing function looks like
Building sponsorship marketing capability doesn’t mean just adding more headcount. It means building a bridge between sales and marketing - one that’s designed to drive commercial revenue.
Here’s what that can look like:
-
Audience intelligence: Deep data and insight to identify and profile sponsor targets.
-
Positioning and storytelling: Messaging that shows sponsors not just where they can be seen, but who they’ll reach and why it matters.
-
Campaigns that nurture sponsors: Content and comms that warm up leads before the sales team ever picks up the phone.
-
Sales enablement: Marketing assets and case studies that make sales conversations sharper and more persuasive.
-
Measurement and optimisation: Shared dashboards across sales and marketing, tracking not just leads, but conversion and lifetime sponsor value.
When these elements work together, sponsorship marketing becomes a true growth function, not an afterthought.
The commercial upside
Events that invest in dedicated sponsorship marketing see clear benefits:
-
Higher-value deals (because sponsors understand the strategic fit).
-
Shorter sales cycles (because the narrative has been built before the call).
-
Stronger renewals (because sponsors feel part of the brand story, not just a logo).
We’ve seen this across MPG clients who made the shift - creating integrated marketing strategies that sit across delegate and sponsor audiences, powered by data, creative, and targeted campaigns.
Why this matters for event leaders
Event CEOs and CMOs often talk about sponsorship growth as a sales challenge. But the truth is, it’s a marketing opportunity.
Sponsorship revenue grows fastest when sales and marketing are aligned - when both functions share one story, one audience understanding, and one data-driven plan to reach the right brands.
Without that middle layer - sponsorship marketing - you’re leaving money on the table.
Because the events that win the next decade won’t be the ones making more calls. They’ll be the ones telling stronger stories - to sponsors and delegates alike.
The takeaway
If your sponsorship sales team is working harder but not closing faster, it’s time to ask: Do they have the marketing support they need to succeed?
Dedicated sponsorship marketing doesn’t just make sales easier - it multiplies results. And in a world where 80% of event revenue depends on it, that’s not optional. That’s essential.
Want to know more?
Get in touch to discuss how dedicated sponsorship marketing could transform your commercial results.
So that you don’t miss future instalments of this Events CEOs’ Series, subscribe to MPG Insights to get email notification as soon as we publish the next future instalments.
