BE MOBILE 2015 FRANCISTOWN MARATHON

SPONSORSHIPS

Pettinger (2007) has sighted that there are many methods used by organizations to make the public aware of their products and one way of doing this is through sponsorships of events. The writer focused on the be mobile marathon event for local and international athletes.  The sponsors were Be mobile , Coca Cola Company, The Voice and many others.

Sponsoring an event involves having brand ambassador who sell their product to the clients in which the learner was a volunteer to the Coca-Cola brand as shown by below picture to the athletes. The volunteers offered Coca-Cola drinks, bottled water for free to all attendees. This is supported by Clarke and Chen (2007) and Bowdin et al (2002) that being a sponsor could be for social causes like charity. The marathon all proceeds were for charity. Similarly, Meenaghan(1983) cited in Kim (2014) agrees with the view of offering free drinks as his definition implied that sponsorship is offering any kind of assistance it could be money or in kind. Arguably Kim (2014) stresses the point that sponsors need to evaluate an event before sponsoring it.

 Bowdin, Allen, O’Toole, Harris and McDonnell (2012) allude that for an event to be successful all team members must

work together from planning to execution. All this paid off as the event managers and the volunteers coordinated well.