The ESB Event Sport Business - an overview

The idea to found ESB was dates back to the year 1993. A study authored by the swiss consulting agency Team Informations Center AG, St. Gallen found that the significance of sponsoring as opposed to traditional forms of advertising would increase considerably in the nearer future. The study dealt with the efficiency of customer-care events. Team Informations Center AG came to the conclusion that these events fail to reach the majority of customers, and even worse: hardly ever reach the important ones.

The small number of event-marketing tools available on the market led to the idea to provide an overview of those events that allowed external sponsoring.
These events were then registered in a database, free-to-use for prospective sponsors. The concept of ESB Event Sport Business was established.

The first results were however sobering. Instead of promising marketing-concepts, the office was flooded with begging letters. It became clear, that ESB’s core business had to be education rather than brokerage.
ESB’s profile evolved systematically over the next years – however not without drawbacks. Three target groups were defined:

  • Companies who engage with sponsoring or plan to do so,
  • Clubs, associations and other organizations who seek sponsors and 
  • Agencies and consultants specialising in Sponsoring and Event-Marketing.

In order to reach these target groups, our databases are fed continuously.

ESB now offers the following services:

  • The online Sponsoring-Börse and its market letter. After taking over the Amway Sponsor-Börse in 2004, esb-online.com has become the only working internet platform for sponsors and sponsor-seekers.
  • Various Congresses held annually, such as:
    • ISPO SpoBiS in the course of the ispo (Munich) with more than 1600 participants.
    • sport.forum.schweiz (Lucerne): More than 400 participants
    • KulturInvest (Cologne): Roughly 150 participants
  • Seminars, such as:
    • How to find Sponsors
    • Sport Sponsoring: Factors of Success and Controlling
    • Event Marketing and Event Sponsoring: Factors of Success and Controlling
    • Evaluating and Increasing the Value of Sponsoring Packages
    • Professional Management of Sponsoring and Event Projects
    • How to find Patrons
    • Workshop: Intensive Sponsoring-Acquisition
  • Extra-Occupational Courses
    • Sponsoring-Management
    • Event-Management Main Level and Basic
    • Product Management Football Event
  • Publications and studies on contemporary trends in the sponsoring and event marketing industry, such as:
    • Event-Planer (Collection of Checklists)
    • Sponsoren gewinnen leicht gemacht (published by WRS-Verlag)
    • Sponsoring-Barometer Schweiz 2006/07 (Study)
    • Die Event-Landkarte 2004 (Study)
    • Der Sponsoring- und Event-Ansatz (Book)
    • Merchandising-Planer