Sponsorship

Sponsorship - National Cherry Festival 2011

Remember the sights, sounds, and smells of a summer celebration in your hometown when you were a kid?  Happy days return to Traverse City's beautiful Lake Michigan shores each summer with over 100 events, including free air shows over the Bay, a music concert series, wine and culinary galas, an art fair, colorful parades and marching bands, sporting events, rides on the midway, pie-eating contests, clean blue skies, warm sunshine, crowds of smiling faces and loads of luscious cherries prepared every way you can imagine!

Benefits Of Being A Sponsor

• Over 500,000 on-site visitors over an eight (8) day period
• Turn-key, demographically specific event sponsorship programs
• Media and Public Relations opportunities: Corporate image enhancement through grass-roots community involvement and statewide media campaigns
• Radio and television interview opportunities
• Direct access to consumers through on-site displays, product distribution and sampling
• Tailored cross-promotional, activation and leveraging opportunities
• Grocers' cooperative marketing campaign with up to fifteen regional stores 
• On-site signage and banners
• Editorial mention and advertisement in Festival "Official Program" -- distribution 50,000
• Couponing opportunities
• Client and vendor hosting opportunities
• Company staff participation opportunities
• Attachment to National Cherry Festival website and social media assets

Audience Demographic/ Lifestyle Makeup:

The estimated annual attendance at the National Cherry Festival is around 500,000.  Attendance figures are the result of a cross reference of city police counts, ticketed venue counts, and Event Director counts. Direct and indirect economic impact is estimated at about $26 million annually, including 450 jobs (or $7.2 million in wages).

National Cherry Festival Visitor Survey Results Indicate:

• Over 55% reported they are age 25 to 54;
• 62% were female;
• 44% had children under 18 in their household
• Median Household income is $87,500
• Average attendance is for 5.1 days;
• Over 80% gave the Festival a satisfaction score of 8, 9 or 10 out of 10 

Acclaimed by NBC's Today Show, and noted as one of the nation's top festival events by USA Today, Travel Michigan, The Food Network, Rand McNally, Newsweek's Budget Travel, American Bus Association, Private Clubs and Coast-to-Coast magazines, the National Cherry Festival is attended annually by nearly 500,000 people.  Midwest Living Magazine named the National Cherry Festival to its prestigious list of "Best in the Midwest" and Traverse City as "one of the top five food towns."  USA Today named the region one of the "top ten places to enjoy local wines."  More kudos in 2010 as AOL Travel News named Traverse City a "Top Ten Beach Town" and a "Top Ten Coolest Towns in the States!"  Recently, May 22nd's Parade Magazine named the Cherry Festival a top 'foodie' destination in its "Eat Your Way Across America" feature.

If this sounds like an atmosphere that would be conducive for presenting your company's products or services, then you've guessed the National Cherry Festival's number one asset.  National Cherry Festival sponsorships help companies and their brands build social capital by aligning with the Cherry Festival events and experiences that consumers are passionate about.  Our survey of Festival guests bears this out, as 83% rated their experience at 8, 9 or 10 on a 10-point scale.  That's a huge endorsement which converts to loyalty and an emotional connection for those companies that support and invest in the National Cherry Festival.

A community-based volunteer organization founded in 1926, the mission of the National Cherry Festival is to celebrate and promote cherries, tourism and community involvement.  The National Cherry Festival, Inc. is a private, non-profit organization.  The Festival is finaced through proceeds from ticketed events, some nominal event participant entry fees, vending fees, memberships and a comprehensive Corporate Sponsorship and Membership Program.  A separate 501 (c)3 "Festival Foundation" supports charitable, educational and historic restoration activities.  The National Cherry Festival does not receive direct financial support from local, county or state governments.

Many companies choose to become involved with the National Cherry Festival through our experiential marketing and event sponsorship program.  Festival events are defined as activities that are planned and produced by the Festival.  Sponsorship investments vary from $3,000 to over $100,000 commensurate with the level of benefits and ROI a sponsoring company will receive.  Promotional display partners are also welcome to take advantage of this exceptional one-on-one opportunity with consumers.  The Presenting Sponsor of the National Cherry Festival is Verizon Wireless; Official sponsors include the cherry industry, Toyota and Pepsi Cola.

The over 2,00 Ambassadors, Event Directors and Corporate Team and Community Share volunteers who plan and produce the National Cherry Festival represent a total community-wide commitment and loyal affinity group. The eight-day Festival showcases the beautiful Grand Traverse area, truly a world apart, and our prized, extremely healthful super-fruit, the cherry - CHOOSE CHERRY!!

We hope you'll consider joining the National Cherry Festival's sponsor family.  We're confident that the sponsorship programs we are proposing will encourage customer loyalty and demonstrate your relevance to consumers.  Besides, it just might bring out the kid in you that you've probably missed for a long time!