What Ice Cream Cones Can Teach Us About Sponsorships

A family eating ice cream cones at the St. Louis World's Fair in 1904 | Missouri Historical Society

It was a particularly hot and sticky day at the St. Louis World's Fair in 1904. As a result, people formed a long line in front of Arnold Fornachou's ice cream booth for something to cool them down.

Ice cream on a hot day makes sense, which is why Arnold ran into a problem: he quickly ran out of paper bowls. He tried washing and reusing the few ceramic bowls he happened to have on hand, but the wait time increased and people began wandering off in search of a cold treat they could get quickly.

In the booth next door to Arnold's, Ernest Hamwi—a pastry chef who had grown up in Damascus, Syria—was selling a wafer-like Persian pastry called a zalabia. Unfortunately for Ernest, not many people wanted his pastries on a scorching hot day; they wanted Arnold's ice cream.

Noticing his neighbor's struggle to keep his customers happy, Ernest came up with an idea. Grabbing a warm zalabia, he twisted it into a cone-like shape and rolled it in sugar. He then ran over to Arnold's booth and told him he could put ice cream in the cone and the customers could enjoy both at the same time.

Within minutes, Ernest and Arnold were working side by side - Ernest made the cones and Arnold scooped ice cream into them. By the end of fair, they were the most popular booth of all, and today, ice cream cones remain a popular choice on hot summer days.

So what can ice cream cones teach us about sponsorships? Well, a better word to use is partnership, and partnerships solve problems. When a problem is solved, everybody wins.

You see, Ernest wasn't looking for a sponsor. He was looking for a partner.

Sponsorship implies that you want someone else to provide you with something that you are incapable of providing on your own, while partnership implies that there is an exchange of value taking place.

Partnership is a “You scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours” relationship. Sponsorship is a “You scratch my back, thanks a lot” relationship.

We can learn from Ernest and Arnold that partnerships work because when we share our resources, we all win. If you are looking for a sponsor or are trying to structure your sponsorship pitch, keep in mind that most businesses aren’t begging to sponsor, but many of them are very much looking for partnerships. Subtle changes in phrasing can make a huge difference.

The story of the ice cream cone and the partnership forged between Ernest and Arnold is a perfect encapsulation of this famous quote from Mother Teresa:

"You can do what I cannot do. I can do what you cannot do. Together, we can do great things." - Mother Teresa

Bring something valuable to the table, and find someone at the table who can benefit from it. It's likely you'll ultimately both benefit together.