Sydney Festival is the largest annual arts event in Australia and the most successful in attracting corporate partnerships. We raised more than $7 million in cash and in-kind support for the 2008 Festival, about one-third of our annual turnover.

Having recently been voted Sydney's most popular event in a Chamber of Commerce poll for the third consecutive year, Sydney Festival is renowned for aligning business with the world's most influential and popular artists and ensembles.

The Festival appeals to a wide range of Australian blue-chip sponsors such as the Nine Network, Nationwide News, ANZ, QANTAS, Lion Nathan and Samsung Mobile because we offer a compelling business proposition.

Association with the Festival delivers:
- A loyal, educated audience
- Acknowledgement across an extensive marketing campaign
- Broad media coverage
- Exceptional corporate hospitality
- Creative promotions, product placement and sampling opportunities
- Access to very influential corporate and government stakeholders
- Positive brand alignment
- Sophisticated measurement and research tools

In short, we are a sophisticated business solution and our award-winning business development team is committed to helping you achieve solid returns on any investment in the Festival.

PROMOTIONS

Sponsors can achieve direct contact with large numbers of consumers at major Festival events.

Festival First Night was a tremendous success for its first year in 2008, drawing crowds in excess of 200,000 to the city. The free Festival Jazz and Festival Symphony concerts in the Domain attract up to 100,000 people each night. The EnergyAustralia Family Nights at Darling Harbour drew 12,000 over three nights. In 2009, this will be operating as iiNet Films Afloat where highly acclaimed musicians compose tracks to cult-classic films   which you can watch on a superscreen over the water.

The Beck's Festival Bar ran for 13 nights in 2008, with capacity crowds  and the Samsung Mobile Festival Garden in Hyde Park attracted over 30,000 people. The Beck’s Festival Bar and Samsung Mobile Festival Garden are back in 2009 and promise to attract record crowds again as the hottest places to be in January in Sydney.

These, and other iconic Festival events, are opportunities for sponsors to reach consumers with messaging, product sampling, product sales and promotional giveaways.

Examples of Media promotions:
- Print competitions and giveaways in News Ltd titles
- Competitions are the most obvious way to bring together sponsors and our media partners, offering sponsors additional exposure and leverage through give always and cross promotions
- Cross sponsor promotions eg discounted outdoor advertising, radio & on-air packages

Domain Concerts: Festival Jazz and Festival Symphony Pre-Show Crowd Interaction
Thousands of people turn-up early to the concerts to ensure they get a prime spot to watch the show. To keep the crowd entertained there are four hours of pre-show programming with Sponsor products, MC, and televised activity to the main screen. This allows sponsors the opportunity to interact with the crowd and build brand awareness or experiences.

Ways in which Sponsors can leverage their on-ground activation:
- On screen branding at Domain Concerts
- Patron interaction with the public through product placement
- Staff engagement with Public Infrastructure set up to act as base for activity
- On-ground product demonstration/ displays
- On-ground sampling
- Access to the big screen (live cross, graphics, video, pre records etc)
- Access to the MC
- Access to the stage
- Creation of interactive consumer promotions/entertainment.

MEASURING EFFECTIVENESS

We are keenly aware that our partners deserve evidence that their investment is working.

Sydney Festival works with Woolcott Research to develop our annual qualitative and quantitative research projects.

To assist the Festival in providing our sponsors with comprehensive evaluation of their sponsorship, a proportion of the questions asked are focused on the effectiveness of sponsor activities and overall sponsor recall.

The Business Development staff has extensive experience working with major sponsors on research projects.

For more information contact Amalina Williams on 02 8248 6511 or amalina.williams@sydneyfestival.org.au.