Sponsor Direct Helps Nestlé Waters Manage Sponsorship, Product Placement and Product Donation Proposals

By Dan Migala
The Migala Report

For Nestlé Waters, sponsorships are a numbers game. And thanks to Sponsor Direct, the two numbers that matter most are being sliced.

"Time and dollars are all the tools we have to make our sponsorship the best they can be," said Melissa Perri, Associate Presence Marketing Manager for Nestlé. "Because SponsorPort saves us both time and dollars, it is a sponsorship director's best friend."

Perri said Sponsor Direct has helped the Greenwich, Conn.-based company save in the low five-figures in hard costs during the first months of operation while expanding the time quotient for greater efficiencies.

The software allows Nestlé executives to more effectively manage the growing challenge of organizing and sorting through unsolicited sponsorship proposals.

Prior to adding SponsorPort, Perri said Nestlé would receive hundreds of proposals on a weekly basis from properties. Because of the volume, many of these proposals would not see the light of day due to time constraints.

This universal sponsorship problem has changed and it has happened very quickly.

"The rate of adoption was a lot bigger and faster than we thought it would be," Perri said. "What surprised us the most is that SponsorPort has been embraced almost immediately by everyone, both internally and externally, from day one. This proves to us how much everyone on both sides of the table needed to bring some sanity to the solicitation process."

By implementing Web-based software, Sponsor Direct is helping Nestlé capture the enormous benefits and internal efficiencies made possible by moving from paper-based to the electronic management of incoming solicitations.

To help maximize the benefits of SponsorPort, Sponsor Direct has trained more than 50 Nestlé staff members to use the system internally and the company now has three portals for accepting unsolicited proposals. These three portals are for traditional sponsorship proposals, product placement opportunities and product donation requests.

"We chose Sponsor Direct because we believe that no other company combines their understanding of the technology and the sponsorship business," Perri said."We are now serving a greater number of opportunities and spending less time doing it. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to determine that using Sponsor Direct is a very wise business decision."

Since day one, Perri has continued to see a "significant decrease" in the amount of calls and mail. Monthly customer service calls regarding sponsorship inquiries alone have already dropped by 40% since they implemented SponsorPort.

And those are numbers that makes sense in any game.

To view NWNA's SponsorPort portals please visit http://www.nestlewatersnasponsor.com/.

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