Given this year’s much-anticipated program and electric atmosphere, the 2017 edition of the Relevent Sponsorship Marketing Conference promises to be unforgettable. The Relevent Conference is as unique as the city that hosts it, with a truly original mix of fun, function and future-facing exploration. This two-day event is a lively collection of talks, workshops and in-depth interviews that value active exchanges over passive information-gathering. Sponsorship experts, industry leaders and creative visionaries from all walks come together to share, learn and inspire one another.

By Samantha Phelan

You wouldn’t sponsor a live event and not have an on-site presence; you wouldn’t buy a banner and not ask for its measurements or placement to ensure optimization of space and exposure; you wouldn’t buy title partnership of the Super Bowl and then sit back and expect the sales to come in on mentions alone.  And yet, here we are in the digital space with seemingly complete complacency and no shame in our game.

Although sponsorship has really taken flight over the past few decades as an important marketing communication tool, it has been in existence for much longer than you would think. We retraced the origin and history of sponsorship, and it might surprise you. In this first post, we will focus on sponsorship before the 19^th century.