OUR IMPACT IN NUMBERS
0%
centralised audit of activity & spend prior to implementation
£1.5m
spend centralised to avoid wastage & duplication
100%
automated evaluation, cross-charging and tax auditing
X3
increased return on investment from its consolidated sponsorship and corporate hospitality portfolio
The Challenge
Due to the pattern of Aon’s growth, the business had a diverse structure. Business activities as well as the approach to corporate hospitality differed between businesses and regions. This meant Aon used a variety of premium assets including hospitality boxes, season tickets and debentures. It also took part in hundreds of small event sponsorships and conferences.
Aon’s distributed approach to hospitality management had several implications. Firstly, the same guest could be entertained by multiple contacts within Aon for different events without any audit trail or method to identify the duplication.
In addition, staff were unable to see which tickets were available because Aon lacked a central inventory of sponsorship and hospitality assets. This led to people contacting third party hospitality agents to buy ad hoc tickets, for example for Premier League matches, incurring extra costs to the business. Additionally, existing inventory was not being fully utilised by teams when it could have been redistributed to other departments for use.
Aon’s agency, Generate Sponsorship, analysed the spend across a wide variety of suppliers. This financial analysis showed that over £1.5m was being spent every year on a mixture of hospitality orientated sponsorship, corporate hospitality at major events and ad hoc tickets.
Without a central purchasing, distribution or evaluation process, the business was experiencing a significant amount of duplication and wastage. Aon also needed a better way to see which events had the best outcomes for the business.
Specific obstacles and challenges included:
Inconsistent hospitality approaches due to a diverse business structure.
Multiple contacts entertaining the same guest without oversight.
No central inventory, leading to visibility issues and unnecessary purchases.
Underutilised assets and inefficient redistribution across departments.
Lack of unified purchasing and evaluation processes resulted in over £1.5m in annual wastage.
Solution and results
Faced with these challenges the agency recommended that Aon introduce central control for its hospitality management.
The agency identified the Sponsorworks Enterprise Platform as a solution that met Aon’s requirements because it could provide a single view of ticketing and hospitality management across the whole business. Aon agreed to roll out the Sponsorworks platform as it could start using the off-the-shelf software straight away. As a software-as-a-service (SaaS) product, this also meant Aon automatically benefitted from regular updates and enhancements from Sponsorworks.
Over 200 staff within Aon were given access to the software platform to request sponsorship and hospitality tickets. After training by the Sponsorworks team, Aon managed and ran the platform on a self-service basis. The platforms built-in reporting suite enabled Aon to instantly track spending and identify any duplications.
The new platform also allowed Aon to carry out automated cross charging and tax auditing. This simplified these processes for the finance department as all ticketing and hospitality management was controlled through one system.
Since Sponsorworks was introduced:
Over 200 staff now access a single, centralised platform for ticketing and hospitality management.
Automated cross charging and tax auditing streamlined finance processes.
Staff capture business objectives and guest details with each request, ensuring compliance and impact tracking.
Built-in reporting instantly tracks spending and identifies duplications.
The benefits:
Centralised tracking and an audit trail reduce duplication and improve efficiency.
Enhanced insights into spending enable cost reductions and more strategic event use.
Consolidated spending delivers better guest experiences and clearer business outcomes.
SaaS delivery ensures ongoing updates and enhancements.
