Sponsor Direct Launches Turn-Key Sponsorship Management & Measurement System

--New Strategic Partners Add to Sponsor Direct’s Leading Management & Measurement Platform Capabilities--

New York, NY, September 25, 2006 -- Sponsor Direct®, the leading provider of sponsorship solutions for the sponsorship industry, launches the first comprehensive sponsorship management and measurement system designed to help move the sponsorship industry from limited measurement and subjectivity to accountability and optimization. In order to facilitate the best-of-breed management and measurement solution, Sponsor Direct is forming strategic alliances with key industry service providers. This spring, Sponsor Direct announced the acquisition of SponsorAid in order to layer in Financial Valuations and a strategic alliance with Image Impact to add Media Evaluation Tools.

"At Sponsor Direct, we have been studying the sponsorship process for some time now and have developed a powerful sponsorship management platform based on a solid understanding of best practices and procedures. When mapped to an organization's sponsorship goals, organizational structure and the effective fulfillment and management of essential sponsorship information, our system will dramatically improve a sponsors ability to manage, measure, and maximize their sponsorship investments,” said Mark Rockefeller, CEO and Founder of Sponsor Direct.

Sponsor Direct's management and measurement approach includes a simple three-step process designed to help organizations identify how to optimize their internal processes and procedures for managing sponsorship information, how best to configure essential infrastructure to capture and manage that information, and finally how to set up a system of accountability for the timely and accurate delivery of information. The result is the ability to both manage and measure sponsorship programs consistently, efficiently and objectively in a timely fashion.

"There is an old saying that says you "can't manage what you don’t measure." We believe that the new, more appropriate statement for the sponsorship industry is that "you can't measure what you don't manage." Before you think about effective measurement in sponsorship, companies need to put a process and infrastructure in place to collect, centralize and manage all of the data associated with sponsorship initiatives,” said Ken Brenner, President of Sponsor Direct.

Sponsor Direct's three-step approach to optimizing the management and measurement of sponsorship investments begins with a sponsorship information management and process review. Once the review is complete, step two consists of the deployment of customized sponsorship management infrastructure. Once set up with a sponsorship management platform, step 3 includes the identification of all relevant external partners and the oversight of the required ongoing fulfillment of critical sponsorship results and data collection that ensures a sponsor’s measurement, management, and modeling needs can and will be met in a timely and cost effective manner. In order to offer clients a seamless solution and single point of contact throughout this approach, Sponsor Direct is launching an additional service to complete its technology offering called Sponsor Direct Specialized Services. The specialized services group will focus on managing the information and process review as well as ensuring accountability for data collection.

Sponsor Direct’s comprehensive Web-based sponsorship management solution, SponsorPort 2.0, now addresses the full sponsorship lifecycle including proposal and portfolio management with a special focus on sponsorship outcomes and performance. The functionality involved with performance measurement includes sophisticated analysis of the performance of the sponsorship agreement, performance against objectives, and performance of cost against budget.

"We know that sponsorship is effective and in today’s environment a requirement for building a world-class brand, but without a measurement tool that is widely accepted, growth in a highly accountable culture is challenging," said Paula Beadle, Vice President, Sponsorship & Events, Washington Mutual. "Sponsorship is a combination of good judgment and solid analytics and Sponsor Direct is responding to the industry's need to support what we’ve always known - that sponsorship is a valuable and efficient marketing tool."

SponsorPort 2.0 seeks to aid sponsors with the management and oversight of the entire sponsorship process including what Sponsor Direct refers to as the 4 major pillars of the sponsorship process: screening and sourcing, evaluation, execution and measurement. The final piece being added is a sophisticated sponsorship intelligence tool that allows for the customized creation of a sponsorship dashboard that will deliver critical sponsorship intelligence in real time.

Sponsor Direct maintains its headquarters in Tarrytown, NY, and a sales office located at 30 Rockefeller Plaza in New York City.

About Sponsor Direct

Founded in 2000, Sponsor Direct® is the leading developer of Web-based software applications that improve workflow and information management for corporate sponsors and their agencies. Sponsor Direct's software helps companies capture the enormous benefits and efficiencies made possible by moving from paper-based to electronic management of all information relating to sponsorships, product placements, and corporate contributions. No other company combines Sponsor Direct's experience in state-of-the-art Web-based technology development with an in-depth understanding of the sponsorship process. For a complete listing of Sponsor Direct's clients, please go to www.sponsordirect.com.

About SponsorAid

Founded in 2002, SponsorAid has provided a financial assessment for more than $200 million in negotiated sponsorship agreements. During this time, SponsorAid has managed the entire proposal submission process for event sponsorship on behalf of the Miller Brewing Company. Unique among companies offering Web-based proposal management, the essence of the SponsorAid solution is the systematic dollar valuation of sponsorship assets. SponsorAid allows properties to submit sponsorship assets according to highly delineated, quantifiable criteria, which is programmed to a database of 100,000 coefficients that calculates values in sixteen asset categories. The fourth version of SponsorAid technology will be introduced in April 2006, and will provide nearinstantaneous turnaround from the point of proposal submission to property valuation.

About Image Impact®

Image Impact® identifies, records, and measures all appearances of brand identifiers presented in targeted mass media programming, including signage, graphics, audio, and active or passive product placements. The quality of every brand detection is evaluated based on its duration, size, and whether or not they appear in isolation of competing brand identifiers. Image Impact® provides two important summary statistics: the Quality Index (QISM) and the Monetary Value (MVSM). The QISM measures the quality of the presentation's potential for impacting viewing audiences. The MVSM provides a fair market value of the brand placement opportunity.

Top of Page