Happy Groundhog Day! – just kidding

The most watched sports event in the United States takes place this Sunday in Dallas – Super Bowl XLV kicks off on Sunday at 6:30 pm ET and an estimated 100 million Americans will be watching. While this pales in comparison to the World Cup Final viewership, it is a big deal nonetheless. [Sidebar: Two articles with World Cup references: People Get Ready, The Visibility Train Is Coming and Savings Goals]

Unfortunately, our plans for a big party were dashed when our two teams (the Baltimore Ravens & New England Patriots – I believe you can cheer for two NFL teams) failed to advance past the divisional round of the playoffs three weeks ago. While still disappointed, we remain very interested in the outcome and will definitely watch with more than a passing interest. The same cannot be said for a large chunk of the 100 million or so viewers who tune in for the “event” aspect of the Super Bowl, but not for the game that is actually being played. These are the same viewers who watch the Super Bowl commercials with, as much, if not more, interest than the game itself. Mind you, there’s nothing wrong with that; there have been some great commercials that have debuted during the Super Bowl – Coke’s Mean Joe Greene and Apple’s 1984 spring to mind.

With the thought of ads and sponsors in mind, I felt that it was high time to discuss this site’s corporate sponsors, the business aspect of sponsorship, and what their support means to CPO Rising.

After nine months of publishing CPO Rising, I decided last September to offer three slots for site sponsorship. Hubwoo signed on in October, BravoSolution in December and I expect a third will come aboard soon. As part of the 12-month sponsorship program, each sponsor receives:

• A Logo with hyperlink placed above the “Latest, Tags, Comments” widget on the right hand navigation bar on all site pages
• 100 word description and logo on a Dedicated Sponsor page
• Up to four CPO Rising article licenses (delivered in pdf format)
• Unlimited references to Bartolini’s CPO Rising content (with citation) during sponsorship period
• 15%-20% discount on all other Ardent Partners products and services
• Quarterly review and discussion of the main themes, topics, and trends covered by CPO Rising
• Marketing/branding/sales benefits derived from a partnership with an industry leader and industry leading site

I want to be clear that there are no other deliverables or agreements associated with a site sponsorship (i.e. pay for clicks, editorial influence, editorial focus, direct and indirect contributions, etc.) nor are there any business agreements with other companies regarding CPO Rising. These other kinds of offers/deals/relationships are commonplace in the industry and media publishing and we make no judgment about those practices – we just don’t do them here, nor will we. I do believe it is important to be clear about our practices at CPO Rising.

This means that all of the articles that you see on CPO Rising will continue to be original content produced solely by Ardent Partners. We get our ideas from the ongoing/regular conversations that we have with our readers – procurement executives from around the world – and from our own primary research. Sometimes the different articles and series’ that we publish are weeks and months in the making, other times they are completed just minutes before our deadline (like this article). In all cases, we are trying to promote best practices in and progressive approaches to the exciting and challenging world of procurement (and, as Vishal likes to remind me, AP as well).

At 13 months, CPO Rising remains a passion project, but it is also a revenue generator (albeit, small relative to the parent firm). We will continue to publish CPO Rising come rain or come shine, with sponsors or without – but candidly, we really hope the site grows its readership and its sponsorships. We greatly appreciate our current sponsors and we hope that their sponsorships of CPO Rising play an important role in helping them achieve and surpass their goals. To that end, we plan to continue our strategy of producing regular, independent articles on the topics that matter to Chief Procurement Officers.

We greatly appreciate our readers too – here is how you can help:

1. When you find an article of value/interest, share it with a friend.

2. Visit the Sponsors Tab to learn about our sponsors. If the sponsors offer solutions that your organization needs, investigate them in more detail. Finally, if you engage with them, let them know you learned about them here at CPO Rising.

We now return to our regularly scheduled program.

Tagged in: Ardent Partners Research, CPO Shop Talk