Solo Ads vs. Sponsorship Packages
Introduction to Corporate Sponsorship Fundraising
One of the most powerful and effective ways to raise money for your high school sports program is by selling sponsorships and ads in your team’s media guide. Whether you're printing a traditional media guide, creating a digital media guide, or doing both, a well-structured fundraising approach can help you generate thousands of dollars to support your athletes, facilities, equipment, and team events.
Every time we onboard a new team at storyoftheseason.com, the first thing we do is schedule a fundraising kickoff call in which our Client Onboarding Manager educates our client on the essential elements of sponsorship or advertising sales, shares best practices, and explains our internal processes for onboarding sponsors, designing their ads and ensuring all deliverable to the sponsor are met.
In many cases, teams simply sell ¼, ½, and full page ads in their media guides and Story of the Season. In other cases, teams build comprehensive, multi-tiered sponsorship packages that offer various benefits to potential sponsors.
Furthermore, our Client Onboarding Manager helps our clients create their marketing materials including their Rate Card, email templates and sign up forms. Lastly, we work with each of our clients to create custom sponsorship packages and build them into the Rate Card.
But if you are going to do a media guide, you are going to have to be your own Client Onboarding Manager! And we are here to help! In this section, we will break down our tried and true process for selling sponsorships and ads in your media guide. Whether you are doing a media guide or just creating a corporate sponsorship program for your high school sports team, this section will cover it all.
Solo Ads vs. Sponsorship Packages
There are two main ways to sell ad space or corporate sponsors: solo ads (standalone page or partial page ads) and sponsorship packages (bundled advertising and perks). Understanding the difference—and when to use each—is key to maximizing your fundraising.
Solo Ads
These are individual ad placements inside your media guide. You set flat rates for each ad size, and businesses (or families) pay to have their ad featured.
Benefits:
Simple and straightforward
Easy for small businesses or local supporters
Great option for personal shoutouts or senior tributes
Example Ad Sizes:
Program Sponsor / Logo wall / biz name listed on page
Business Card Ad
¼ page ad
½ page ad
Full Page ad
Full Spread (2-pages)
Here is an example of a rate card with solo ad options: https://storyoftheseason.net/2024football/guyer/advertise/
Sponsorship Packages
These are higher-tier bundles that combine ad placement with added exposure. A typical package might include things like a full-page ad, website exposure, banner ad on the field, weekly social media promotions, in-game announcements or ad reads, logo on team merch, mentions at games, season tickets, parking spaces, or even season-long recognition.
Benefits:
Bundle multiple deliverables together to provide more exposure + value
Higher value = higher price
Allows you to offer more exposure for premium sponsors
Helps reduce the total number of sales you need to hit fundraising goals
Example Packages:
Platinum Sponsor: Full-page ad + logo on team banner + social media shoutouts + premium ad placement
Gold Sponsor: Half-page ad + logo on website + mid-tier placement
Silver Sponsor: Quarter-page ad + recognition in email newsletter
Here is an example of one of our Sponsorship packages: https://storyoftheseason.net/2024football/northville/advertise/
