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Looking to increase brand awareness and generate new leads for your business? You should consider sponsoring a sports event and what’s interesting is that it needn’t cost the earth. In fact, sports sponsorship is affordable and within the reach of most small businesses. You just need to open your eyes and look around for the opportunities.

According to Wikipedia, ‘To sponsor something is to support an event, activity, person, or organization financially or through the provision of products or services. A sponsor is the individual or group that provides the support, similar to a benefactor.’ The key here is that you don’t necessarily have to put your hand in your pocket to become a sponsor. It may be the case that you can provide a service or product(s) that the event organiser needs in return for a branding opportunity.

Team Big Red Cloud Ironman 70.3 Dublin 2015Here at Big Red Cloud we are always on the lookout for events of any kind that will afford us the opportunity to generate brand awareness of our cloud-based accounting software to small businesses and accountants. In August 2016, our CEO, Marc O’Dywer participated in Dublin’s first ever half Ironman. Marc arranged for the team at T3 tri club to wear Big Red Cloud sponsored tri suits. We were not an official sponsor but 27 members of the T3 tri club carried our brand across the south Dublin course.

Leveraging the passion for Ironman competitions, we were able to generate a low cost but highly effective sponsorship opportunity.

Why sponsor a sports event? Sports events are worth exploring for a number of reasons:

  1.  They are associated with positive activity and that’s good for your brand. Be seen, be active.
  2.  There is generally a range of options available to suit your budget.
  3.  An occasion to reach out to existing customers and meet then outside regular business hours.
  4.  Opportunity to build new relationships with prospective clients.
  5.  You can use the sponsorship as a team building day out for your staff.

The inaugural Dublin 7s Festival will take place in Donnybrook on May 28th and for Big Red Cloud it’s the ideal opportunity:

  1. To be seen and be active. Sevens rugby is active and an engaging spectacle for those watching.
  2. We were able to engage with the event organisers to find a sponsorship package that reflected our budget.
  3. We’ll have customers there and it’s a great opportunity to meet and engage socially.
  4. No doubt there will be a large number of small business owners in attendance who we can reach out to.
  5. Our staff will kick back and enjoy the day’s sevens rugby.

Why sponsor a sports event may not be the question.  It really should read, why not sponsor a sports event?

Marc O'Dwyer

After completing a Graduate program in Marketing, Marc’s impressive sales career began at Allied Irish Banks, Pitney Bowes and Panasonic where he received numerous Irish and European sales performance awards and consistently exceeded targets and expectations. In 1992, Marc’s entrepreneurial spirit led him to set up his own business, Irish International Sales (IIS). Initially, this company was a reseller for Take 5 Accounts and Payroll software. Within four years, IIS became the largest reseller of Take 5 in Ireland, acquiring four other Take 5 resellers. He also found time to set up two mobile phone shops under the Cellular World brand and a web design company offering website design services for small businesses. In 2001, he bought the majority share in a small Irish software business, Big Red Book. At that time, the company was losing money. The company became profitable within two months, and Marc then acquired a payroll company to compliment Big Red Books Accounting products. In 2003, IIS were appointed as Channel Partners with SAP for their new SME product, SAP Business One. Marc sold his Take 5 business and concentrated on developing this new market for SAP As a result, by 2007, IIS was recognised as the largest Channel Partner for SAP in EMEA (Europe Middle East and Africa). In 2008, the IIS Sales Manager bought the Company from Marc in an MBO. He launched Big red cloud in June 2012, the online version of big red book, to date the company successfully converts 59% of trials into sales and the number of customers is growing rapidly. Marc continues to run both Big Red Book and Big Red Cloud which now support 75,000 businesses. He is a very keen sportsman, having played rugby for 20 years, represented Leinster at under 16 and under 20 levels, and league squash with Fitzwilliam Lawn Tennis Club for 10 years. Marc has competed in 11 Marathons, including the London and Boston Marathons, and has completed several Triathlons and Half Ironman races. He has also completed six Ironman Races in Austria(x2), Frankfurt (Germany), Nice (France) , Mallorca (Spain) and Copenhagen (Denmark)

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