How to Play

Description

Welcome to SimSponsors. This game simulates what it is like to run the sponsorship department for a big event. As the leader of the sponsorship department, you are faced with decisions that revolve around how to sell your limited amount of inventory. These decisions take into consideration the randomness of potential sponsors coming to the market and how your competitors are approaching these same decisions. The game involves elements of game theory, strategy, and a little luck which are all important aspects of how to build a successfull sponsorship businesses.

Objective

The objective of the game is to earn more profits for your event than your competitors. Each turn a randomly generated sponsor comes to market with a proposal and each player has the opportunity to earn profits by winning the proposal by submitting the most attractive bid. Once the game is over, the player who has the most profits will win the game. In the event of a tie, the game ends as a tie.

Basic Gameplay Dynamics

Sponsorship Inventory & Category Exclusivity: At the beginning of the game, each player starts with the same number of inventory units. These inventory units span across 4x different groups and 3x different tiers for a total of 12x pieces of inventory. The groups represent what type of inventory a sponsor may desire in their package (naming rights, social, signage, and hospitality) and the tier represents the reach of each individual piece of inventory (Tier 1 = 3k impressions, Tier 2 = 2k impressions, Tier 3= 1k impressions). Each player also has a category exclusivity tied to the 6x different categories of sponsors that would come to market (auto, banking, beverages, food products, airlines, and electronics).

New Proposals: New proposals are randomly generated at the beginning of a turn and are a function of (a) the category of the sponsor, (b) the sponsor’s desired level of reach measured by impressions, and (c) the different types of inventory the sponsor is looking to acquire across the different groups of inventory. For example, a proposal could be an auto sponsor looking for a total of 6k impressions across 3x different groups of inventory.

Winning Proposals: To win a sponsorship proposal, each player must combine inventory that they have on hand along with the category exclusivity chip that matches the category of the sponsor and then submit a dollar figure for their bid. The lowest bid that satisfies the conditions of the sponsor’s proposal wins the proposal. In the event of a tie, those who are in a tie have an opportunity to resubmit their bids. If it is a tie again, no one wins the proposal.

Bidding Constraints: A player can only bid on a proposal if they have the requisite inventory and category exclusivity chips to match the proposal. In the event that there is only one player that satisfies the conditions of the proposal then that player will automatically win the proposal at price per impression level that is equivalent to the highest sold in the market in prior turns.