When Marketing Becomes a Bad Fit: Choosing the Right Sponsors
I once maintained a spreadsheet of businesses we absolutely should not approach for sponsorship. Well, technically, it started as a list of potential sponsors. It had two columns:
businesses that would be a great fit for our show
and businesses that our hosts had already made fun of on camera
Guess which column was longer?
The Show Was the Product
During my ten years at 13WHAM ABC, part of my job was finding opportunities for advertisers to sponsor station products. Those products could be anything from contests and community events to original programming and digital content. One of my favorite projects was a Facebook Live show featuring two popular news personalities, Matt Molloy and Scott Hetsko.
The show was unscripted, unpredictable, and frequently hilarious. Matt and Scott had the kind of chemistry that made people want to tune in just to see what would happen next. They could make an ordinary conversation entertaining, especially when they started giving each other a hard time. That was the appeal. This also made selling sponsorships a little more complicated.
The Sponsors Not to Contact List
I was one of the show's administrators, monitoring comments and helping manage the audience interaction while Matt and Scott entertained viewers. After the first few episodes, I noticed a pattern. The guys had opinions about things. Lots of opinions. And occasionally, those opinions included poking fun at businesses that, under different circumstances, might have been perfectly reasonable sponsorship prospects.
So I started making a list.
One column included businesses that would appreciate the show's personality and unscripted chaos. These were advertisers that might enjoy being part of the joke and wouldn't expect a carefully controlled, polished presentation.
The second column included businesses that Matt and Scott had already made fun of during the show. Those were the advertisers I probably shouldn't call. The second column grew considerably faster.
To be clear, this wasn't an official blacklist or a judgment about whether those businesses were good companies. It was a practical reminder that pitching a sponsorship to a business after your hosts had publicly poked fun at it might not be the strongest opening conversation. Imagine calling a prospective advertiser and enthusiastically explaining how wonderful it would be to associate their brand with two local television personalities.
Only for them to respond: “Aren't those the guys who made fun of us last Tuesday?” Um, why yes.
Sponsorship Fit Is About More Than the Audience
When marketers evaluate sponsorship opportunities, we usually start with the audience.
Who watches? How many people can we reach? Does the demographic align with the advertiser's customers?
Those are important questions, but they don't tell the whole story. A sponsorship also needs to fit the personality of the content. Live@13WHAM wasn't a carefully scripted commercial environment. The humor, spontaneity, and interaction with viewers were the reasons people watched.
Trying to turn it into a polished advertising vehicle would have undermined the very thing we were selling. We needed sponsors who understood what they were getting into. Dunkin' became one of our longest-running sponsors, supporting a daily $10 gift-card giveaway. It was a simple activation that gave viewers something fun to participate in without requiring the hosts to change their personalities. The sponsor was part of the experience rather than an interruption. That's what we wanted.
Not Every Advertiser Is the Right Partner
There's a temptation in sponsorship sales to focus on inventory. We have an audience. We have a platform. We have available sponsorship elements. Who has the budget?
But a good sponsorship isn't simply a matter of matching available inventory with an advertiser willing to pay for it. You also need to consider the people delivering the content and the expectations of the audience receiving it.
Would the sponsor appreciate the show's humor? Would the hosts feel comfortable with the integration? Could the advertiser participate without demanding changes that would make the show less entertaining?
And, in our particular case, had the hosts already spent several minutes making jokes about the company?
That last question wasn't something I remember seeing in any sponsorship sales training. Perhaps it should be. The point wasn't to eliminate every potential risk or make sure nobody ever said anything unexpected. We knew the show was unpredictable. That's why people liked it.
The goal was to find advertisers who understood that unpredictability and saw it as part of the opportunity.
When Marketing Becomes a Bad Fit
On Monday, I wrote about the awkward product placements in The Truman Show, where Meryl interrupts everyday conversations to enthusiastically endorse products. The joke works because the advertising feels completely disconnected from the moment.
Our challenge at Live@13WHAM was different, but the underlying lesson was similar. We weren't trying to squeeze advertisements into a scripted show. We were trying to find sponsors who could comfortably participate in an unscripted one.
That's why understanding the content matters just as much as understanding the audience. A sponsorship can make perfect sense based on demographics, reach, and budget, yet still be a terrible fit for the personalities or experience involved. Sometimes the best opportunity is the one you decide not to pitch.
The Story Behind the Strategy
I spent years finding creative ways to generate sponsorship revenue for broadcast and digital properties. I enjoyed that work because it required more than putting together a rate card. You had to understand what made each property valuable, what advertisers hoped to accomplish, and how to create an opportunity that benefited both sides.
The Live@13WHAM list was a funny example of that process. It was also surprisingly useful. One column helped me identify businesses that could become great partners. The other reminded me that a sponsorship proposal shouldn't begin with an apology for something the hosts said last week.
The lesson has stayed with me well beyond broadcast television. Whether you're sponsoring a podcast, partnering with an influencer, supporting a community event, or developing a branded content series, the best partnerships respect the personality of the experience.
Sometimes the biggest sponsorship opportunity isn't finding another advertiser - it's finding one that understands what makes the show worth watching. And preferably one your hosts haven't already made fun of.
Want to see for yourself? Live@13WHAM is back! Matt and Scott have restarted the show as a weekly Wednesday night feature, airing at 8 PM on the 13WHAM Facebook page. I can't promise they've gotten any better at staying out of trouble. 😉
