SPONSORSHIP SALES
An experienced sales team with the knowledge, network and hustle to sell your festival.
OVERVIEW
You've got sponsorship assets. We'll sell them.
Backed by decades of experience and millions in closed festival sponsorships, our sales team becomes your sales team — identifying the right brand partners, crafting the perfect pitch, presenting, negotiating and closing the deal.
From prospect to contract, we handle the sales process — so you can focus on the festival.
Whether you're launching a first-year event or scaling a flagship, festival sponsorship sales is where the revenue curve bends. Our team handles prospecting, pitching, negotiations, and contracting so your team can focus on production and programming. You get an embedded sales partner backed by a 25-year book of brand relationships — no ramp time, no learning curve, no fixed headcount to hire.
Whether you're starting fresh or scaling up, we'll bring new revenue, elevated brands, and longer, multi-year partnerships.
You don't need to build an internal sales team. You just need the right sales partner.
DELIVERABLES
A dependable, results-driven sales team dedicated to achieving your sponsorship goals.
Every engagement covers the full sales lifecycle — from opportunity sizing to signed contract. We bring the process, the network, and the tools; you get the revenue.
Revenue and Opportunity Assessment
Sales Tools Analysis (decks, assets, positioning)
Target Prospecting and Brand Research
Strategic Outreach and Communications
Meetings, Pitches, and Negotiations
Proposals and Presentations
Deal Point Memos and Contracting
OUTCOMES
Boost Sponsorship Sales
Maximize festival revenue potential and profitability.
New Revenue
Close new cash and in-kind deals that grow your bottom line.
Top-Tier Brands
Attract category leaders that elevate your festival's visibility and credibility.
Real-Time Reporting
Real-time pipeline reporting, meeting recaps, and communication transparency.
Long-Term Value
Secure multi-year deals and strategic partner relationships.
A Selection of Clients We’ve Helped Grow
JK MCKNIGHT
Your point of contact — and the sales leader behind AOI.
JK McKnight has spent 25 years in sponsorship development. He has sold millions of dollars of sponsorship for festivals across the country, personally designed and delivered hundreds of brand partnerships. Along the journey he developed a proprietary model, system, and process for acquiring new sponsors — and growing their annual investment — which he will customize to your unique festival and build out for you.
Read JK's full bioFrequently Asked Questions
The retainer covers our full-time sales engagement — prospecting, pitching, meetings, contracting, and reporting. The 10–15% commission is applied only to closed sponsorship revenue, so we're incentivized to bring in real deals, not just activity. Commission percentage is set at kickoff based on your existing sponsorship book, deal complexity, and category exclusivity requirements.
Deal timelines depend on your festival's sales cycle position, asset readiness, and category demand — but most engagements close their first significant deal within 60–90 days of kickoff. We front-load the strategic work in month one so outreach can start in month two, giving you time-to-close visibility from day one.
Under your festival name. We operate as an embedded extension of your team — pitches go out with your brand, contracts are executed between the brand and your festival entity, and reporting rolls into your finance function. AOI is the operator; your festival is the sponsor's partner.
We'll assess and preserve them. Existing relationships stay with your team; we focus on net-new prospects, category expansion, and upselling multi-year commitments on the incumbents you want to grow. You'll get a clear pre-kickoff mapping of 'AOI-led' vs 'in-house-managed' accounts so there's no confusion at renewal time.
Take your festival to the next stage
Schedule a free discovery call with our team. We’ll assess where you are, where you want to go, and exactly how we can help you get there.