The Orchard PR men’s volleyball team that is – proud winners of the Plate competition at the 2012 Guernsey Open Volleyball Tournament. Congratulations from everyone here at Orchard!
For years Channel Islands’ challenges, events and initiatives have gone ahead thanks to hundreds of thousands of pounds of financial backing from the islands’ corporate sector. Often these have benefited essential charities and other worthy causes and typically the sponsor has demanded relatively little profile in return.
However, times are changing. The economic climate and extreme pressure on finances all round have resulted in sponsorship budgets reducing and in some cases drying up completely. As a consequence, we have seen some major events downscaling or being called off due to the lack of funding.
This is understandable. The financial environment means that, while corporate philanthropy undoubtedly still exists, businesses are going to think twice before signing a cheque.
The organisers of events now need to give far more thought to their relationship with a sponsor and it is no longer good enough to promise “media coverage” in return for a sponsor’s cash and then hope the media will come good. A sponsor deserves for the sponsored organisation to expend some considerable thinking and energy in ensuring that they get the recognition they deserve before circulating the sponsorship begging bowl.
Some recent research by the CIPR has highlighted the resilient mood of the PR sector in the Channel Islands, showing that the sector is still growing, despite the recession.
The ComRes survey of some 2,000 Chartered Institute of Public Relations members highlighted that the greatest growth has been experienced in digital PR, followed by reputation management, crisis management and strategic planning.