We're NFI and it bothers me...

Here’s one… remember at school when you didn’t get that converted invite to the ‘party of the year’ the whole class were frothing about?? Might just have been me… anyway, the feeling of not being invited to something everybody else is, ain’t a nice feeling; whether it's a birthday party or the “Worlds Largest Online Advertising Event” known to man…

If you work in the comms industry, there’s a strong chance you’ll have seen the ads promoting AdWorld. It looks pretty good and I’m toying with attending, but what caught my attention is an example of what concerns me greatly about the role and visibility that sponsorship/partnerships have in the overall universe of marketing. To put it bluntly, we’re not invited…

Not invited? Can’t you just buy a ticket? Well, yes, you can, but what I’m referring to is that our sector is unrepresented as one of the “Tracks” (topics/channels covered). You’ve got everything from Content Marketing, Conversion, Lead Gen, SEO, The Future of Advertising, Performance and Design, Social Media, eCom, Email, Media and Growth Hacking, but no sponsorship/partnership track - not even as an aspect of a different track. 

There’s a pretty formidable lineup of speakers (the great man Mr. Rory Sutherland along with the respected Mr. Seth Godin) and epic subjects covered that I genuinely think is something us sponsorship practitioners should attend, but it saddens me that we aren’t represented? 

In the case of the ‘Party of The Year’ at school, if you weren’t invited, it’s likely that you’re just not cool enough. WTF? Not cool? Unless you’ve lived under a rock your whole life, we’re the coolest part of marketing going. We wrote the book of cool? You need to wear protective gloves to touch us we’re that cool. 

I’m aware this is bordering on a rant, but I long for the day that we - as an industry - are seen, valued and invited to the events that are shaping the thinking of the marketing universe. Perhaps the reason we struggle with people thinking we’re all about ‘awareness’ and 'logo-slapping' is because we’re not at these occasions to share the stories about how we’re everything other channels aren’t; for starters, we exist in the real world. Go figure. 

To the organisers of AdWorld, I commend you for the quality of the cohort, speakers and breadth of tracks. It’ll be an awesome event. That said, if it’s not too late to throw some razzle dazzle to your party, give me a shout. I can pull together an unreal squad of our industry's finest like you’ve never seen before. 

The day we’re present at these events, we’ll know we’re doing the right thing and that the appreciation and acceptance of sponsorship/partnership marketing is gaining traction and putting our industry into the limelight in which it naturally and inherently exists. 

If you’re not invited to something, there’s a reason… Let’s work together to shout about the myriad reasons we offer.