Advertising in sponsorship program book

Since I am an EXCO member of the Malaysia Club Jakarta and being in the ad industry, I was tasked to coordinate and compile the sponsor’s ads for MCJ 14th Annual Dinner and Dance program book, of which I don’t mind at all and being able to contribute my services to fellow Malaysian.

Having an earlier experienced with such a mess, I thought I was ready this time round to whiz it by. But no, that was not the case. Anyway, I am not going to talk about the tedious coordinating work that is going to be on my plate for the next few days in order to get the program book ready for distribution by March 01.

There are some 30 odd sponsors for the event, a very good job done by my fellow EXCO and ADD Organizing Committee members. Among the sponsors, there are many well known companies or brands as they know the real value of advertising, hence, there wasn’t a problem in getting their ad materials since they engaged the services of an ad agency.

However, there are many sponsors who doesn’t seems to have a clue of what finished artwork, color separation film and proofs are. And by simply sending via email a PDF or JPEG file, cut and paste the digital photos, insert their company logo and type whatever their company is doing and there you have it, it’s their ad! Huh! Let alone idea or concept. Nevertheless, the final result of what have been provided by these sponsors is not going to be pretty.

The point here is that irrespective whether it is sponsorship or a brand ad, as long as the piece of medium that carries the logo/name/brand of the company, that is a communications channel, and IT IS AN AD. No two ways about that.

The real issue here is not about having the budget to spend to have a good ad or not. Neither is the intention to buy the table and to support the course of the sponsorship or, even to think that the ad is a bonus if it manages to can catch some potential client. This is just unacceptable reasoning and is exactly the opposite of doing real injustice to the owners themselves.