Hosting a Gala for Fundraiser?  Let’s get your photo booth sponsored!

When tasked to plan an annual auction, gala, or fundraising night, charities and non-profits will realize quickly that the costs can add up. In addition to food and libations, hosts are increasingly pressed to add additional entertainment and activities to set their special event apart. It is at this point, when we often get inquiries for photo booth rental.

But what do you do when you’re a charity or non-profit with a limited budget 

and can’t afford a photo booth rental for your event?

Well, you secure a Corporate Sponsor. 

Rather than thinking of a photo booth simply as entertainment at your charity event, your photo booth rental can serve a dual purpose and act as a vehicle for branding, promotion, and marketing for a Corporate Sponsor.

Steps to Secure your Corporate Sponsor:  

Follow these five simple steps to lock in a sponsor and create a mutually beneficial relationship with your Business Sponsor:.

 1.  Know your Cost.

The first thing we recommend is creating your ideal photo booth package with Reflection Photo Booth. You can see all of our services and add ons here. We suggest upgrading to the 4×6 print size for larger logos for your sponsor, adding a custom sign for the back of the booth and a custom start screen with business logos.  We can also collect cell phone numbers for text marketing (with a prior notice to the customer, ask more about this when offering this to your sponsor). By adding these options, you’ve now curated a marketing tool for your future sponsor. They’ll thank you later, trust us.  

2.  Mark it Up

Once you’ve created your ideal package, add an amount to your cost of renting the booth. By doing this, you’ve now created a profit margin that will help with your organization’s funding. Not only are you able to cover the cost of the photo booth rental, you’ll profit off our services, which makes this a win-win-win for everyone.  Some non-profits we work with double the amount of the cost of the photo booth and make the service a fundraiser!  But how?  We suggest adding the below additional sponsorship incentives to make this offer super appealing to your corporate sponsor:

1. Logo placement on event signage
2. Hyperlinks on your website
3. Complimentary tickets to your event
4. Announcing their services at your event
5. Announcing reminders to “Remember to have your photo taken at the photo booth sponsored by our generous friends at XX Company”
6. A set amount of Social media mentions leading up to the event and after

While these incentives have little associated cost, they hold a lot of value for a sponsor.

3.  Find Like Minded Companies

After you’ve created an incentive deal that a photo booth sponsor will benefit from, identify the demographics of the guests attending the event.  This is important because when you know your demographics, you can then determine what type of company would benefit most from marketing to your guests.  An example is to seek out an Oncology office or a cancer drug company for a cancer benefit gala.  

4.  Find the Marketing Decision Maker

Since you now know your demographics and which company would benefit from the audience, start contacting companies and find the decision maker on staff regarding marketing or sponsorship opportunities. Explain your photo booth sponsorship package, and all its associated benefits. It is a huge marketing tool to amp up their business, and let them know that they would be the exclusive photo booth sponsor. Sound fancy? Yes, it is! 

5.  Give the most interested a Visual

Once you have a strong lead who is interested in learning more, let them know we can create a mockup so they can visualize the experience. We can create a branded photo overlay for the print outs, and design their photo booth sign with their logo so they’ll know exactly what they’re benefitting from supporting your event. This will seal the deal for the sponsorship package.

Below are suggestions of benefits, items and ideas to include in your Corporate Sponsorship Package:

Make your Photo Booth Sponsorship Exclusive

Sometimes sharing isn’t caring. 😜 In our experience, exclusive photo booth sponsorships are more successful.  People love exclusivity so let’s make them feel super special!

We suggest reaching out to more than one company that could potentially sponsor your event. If you already have a lead from another sponsorship in the past, or know of a company that has been interested in working with your organization, start there!  

Benefits for your Corporate Sponsor:

 1.  Every guest walks away with a print out with your Corporate Sponsor’s logo on it. 

Business cards, flyers, and event programs end up crumpled in purses and tossed in wastebaskets almost immediately after any charity event. The lifespan on a photo booth print is significantly longer because it is a uniquely personal item to the owner. Are your guests going to come home and stick the charity event’s program up on their fridge? Probably not…but they might stick up a sweet photo with their significant other or bestie which just happens to be branded with your Corporate Sponsor’s logo. 

2.  Social Sharing

Guests receive a texted image of their photo booth image ready for social media.  Every photo shared socially at the event can include your Corporate Sponsor’s logo, @handle, and #hashtags in the text message.

Once you find a Corporate Sponsor, you can use a photo booth’s powerful social sharing capability to attach any social media handles or relevant hashtags to the uploads. If growing on social media is a priority to your corporate sponsor, this is a great way to help them achieve that marketing goal.  Guests almost ALWAYS share their texted photo on social media which is always branded with your Corporate Sponsor’s logo.

3.  Cell Phone Number Capture for Text Marketing

One way to maximize your Corporate Sponsors investment return is to offer collection of Cell Phone Numbers for their text marketing purposes.  Please note however, we will need to give each person a notice of this before they text the photo.  We’ve found about 50% of guests will allow this collection.

4.  They’ll be THE LIFE OF THE PARTY!

Our tagline is “WE BRING THE FUN” and we mean it!  We are NOT AN IPAD photo booth.  We can’t say that enough.  Guests are BLOWN AWAY at our booth and how much fun it is to use.  Our booth is BIG, INTERACTIVE and CUSTOMIZABLE.  We always hear the booth was one of the most fun activity at the event!  As adults, it’s not often we are encouraged to dress in props, be fun, goofy and silly, and that’s exactly what our photo booth encourages with every photo.  Your Corporate Sponsor can be associated with those Good Time Vibes!  Seriously, who wouldn’t want that?  

We hope these tips help you find a sponsor for your photo booth for your corporate event!  We would love to help you have a wonderful event!  Call, text, or email us anytime with questions.