SENSES Foundation, one of Western Australia’s oldest charities, has taken sponsorship rights for the animal nursery at the Royal Show for the next three years.
As part of its sponsorship the foundation, which provides assistance to WA’s deafblind community, is looking for companies to adopt animals in the nursery.
In return the companies get various benefits such as signage, branded promotional materials and face-to-face contact with show visitors.
Promotional materials include children’s face masks in various animal designs that will be branded with sponsor logos and worn by thousands of children during and after the show.
There will also be bug-catchers and bookmarks, also to be branded with sponsors’ logos, featuring the deafblind alphabet spelling out words such as pig and lamb.
A variety of animals will be on display at the nursery during the Royal Show, which this year runs from October 2 to 9. These include the usual fare such as piglets, lambs and ducklings.
However, this year there will also be the not-so-little baby bull called Norton, or perhaps the emu eggs housed in a special hatchery might catch the fancy of a corporate buyer.
In the emu eggs’ case birth certificates and photos will be sent to the "adoptive parents" once their egg has hatched.
Sponsorship packages range in price from $3,000 to $10,000.
In the $10,000 category the benefits include corporate signage on the relevant animal pen, five 30 second commercial slots for screening on the giant screen in the main arena and six commercial passes for the duration of the show.
Senses fundraising and marketing manager Pauline Green said the reason the charity had chosen the animal nursery was because of the opportunities it presented to its clients.
The tactile nature of the nursery is a boon to deafblind children.
Ms Green said on the corporate sponsorship front it provided an opportunity for companies to become involved with Senses.
"If they want to take on a three- year sponsorship plan that would be great," she said.
"There are also opportunities for companies to get their staff involved with the promotion."
From the Royal Agricultural Society’s point of view, the promotion fits within its charter of helping other not-for-profit organisations.
RAS marketing manager Angela Thisainayagan said Senses would get a lot of benefit out of taking over the animal nursery in terms of fund and profile raising.
"There are actually quite a few charitable organisations that are on the showgrounds when the show is in progress," she said.
Probably the best symbiotic fit for the RAS out of all of those arrangements is the one it has with St John Ambulance.
St John gets the promotional benefits from its presence there and the RAS gets the benefit of having the first aid provider on site.
For the RAS this year’s Royal Show is also a milestone, marking 100 years at the Claremont Showgrounds.
Of course, the Royal Show is older than that, having previously appeared in Guildford.