黑料网 Students Learn Sponsorship Strategy at Riot Fest
黑料网 students at Riot Fest in 2024.
Students get a tour of Riot Fest from the festival鈥檚 director of business development. This fall, 黑料网 students are learning the art and business of what helps fuel Riot Fest — an annual Chicago music festival — and the event industry as whole: corporate sponsorships.
An important marketing tool, sponsorships offer companies an opportunity to partner with events, like Riot Fest, to boost their brand visibility and credibility.
Under the direction of Philippe Ravanas, a professor in the School of Business and Entrepreneurship, the class partners with Max Wagner, Riot Fest’s director of business development. Students analyze sponsor activations and develop sponsorship strategies designed to retain existing sponsors and increase their investment, as well as identify potential new sponsors.
Ravanas designs the course as a professional consulting environment. “They don’t work for me, they work for a client,” Ravanas explains. “And that dynamic raises the level of professionalism in the classroom.”
What Students Will Do
As part of the class, students attend Riot Fest, touring the grounds with Wagner and his team to evaluate how lead sponsors — such as Goose Island, White Claw, and Garrett Popcorn Shops — are activating their brands. By taking photos and conducting interviews with sponsor representatives, students assess each sponsor’s presence, evaluating the representatives’ interest in continued sponsorship and thinking of creative ways to expand and grow the sponsor’s participation at future festivals. They then present their findings to Wagner.
But this is just part of their work with Riot Fest over the term; they’ll also do the following:
- Research sponsors’ activities beyond Riot Fest to see what else they sponsor and how they are doing it.
- Evaluate sponsorship activities at local venues and festivals to determine what companies and brands are out there, and where and how they’re putting out their brand.
- Identify a potential sponsor for the next Riot Fest in a specific product category such as automobiles, banking, or cosmetics, potentially opening up new opportunities for Riot Fest sponsorship.
- Define, plan, and execute a sponsorship strategy for that potential sponsor.
At the semester’s end, Wagner returns to class to hear the pitches, offering candid feedback as if the students were his professional consultants.
“Students quickly realize their responsibility isn’t just to earn a grade,” Ravanas says. “Their accountability is to the client.”
Skills That Translate Beyond the Classroom
According to Ravanas, the experience offers students impressive resume material as students gain hands-on exposure to sponsorships. In the class, they practice critical thinking, presentation skills, and professional accountability in addition to using their creative lenses to evaluate activations and brand execution.
Now in its third year partnering with Riot Fest, the class offers a consulting model that not only prepares students for careers in entertainment marketing but also gives them the confidence to pitch ideas at the highest level.
“For students, it’s the first time they’ve advised the C-suite,” Ravanas says. “And it’s a story that stands out in job interviews and sets them apart in a competitive industry.”