Landing A Great Sponsor...Even In THESE Times
05-20-2009, 02:59 AM
#1
Registered
Thread Starter
Landing A Great Sponsor...Even In THESE Times
Hi Guys...
A LOT of you have asked about the posting that I put up below about help with your Sponsor Proposals...
As I stated in the post, I can really only help a few of you (time constraints) so unfortunately while I'd like to help everyone as much as possible, I thought the LEAST that I could do is try to post some advice and pointers based on a LOT of pretty high-level experience that I have had over the last several years…so, here goes...
First, before you even approach a potential sponsor, it is VERY important that you do a few other things...
DMA RESEARCH- You have to look at the race sites/series that you are going to race in...Physical markets, or DMA's (the actual media term) are VERY important to some sponsors, depending on their business model. Some sponsors do this for fun because they enjoy boat racing, but MOST (including the $250,000+ money) really have to make the decision to get involved solely on how this will equate to NEW revenues for them.
For the most part, while there are some really great race sites in small markets, they are the least attractive to sponsors, as a rule. The exception to this is if these small markets have outstanding spectator attendance, media coverage, and of course TV.
The bottom line is go race in the biggest markets that you can!
RACE SERIES SELECTON- This kind of coincides with #1, but is a bit different. As we all know, there is a lot of turmoil and "unsettledness" between the 3 sanctioning bodies in this sport, and as I am a rookie when it comes to the make up of the 3 series, but at that, speaking strictly as a professional sports marketer, it is clear to me that this sport is VERY confusing because there are too many classes, sanctioning bodies, and absolutely NO direction at all, at any level.
Now, please, before anyone gets angry at that statement, please understand that I am giving you the view strictly from a Corporate America standpoint, and NOT a racer or even a fans perspective. Nothing personal...
Here is what is very interesting about this fact though...You can actually use this to your advantage. Because there is a lack of any real direction, I would strongly suggest that you select the best races (biggest markets/spectator crowds) from each series, and attend those. I really WOULDN'T concern yourselves with the points championship NEARLY as much as I WOULD concern yourself with making your race team as attractive as possible to Corporate America.
With the current state of the sport as confusing as it is for the casual fan, they frankly won’t know the difference. There isn’t enough of a loyal fan base to consider this much of a risk. You need to be where the masses are.
IDENTIFY YOUR TEAM STRENGTHS- This may sound very cliché, but it really isn’t. You have to look at what makes YOUR team attractive to a potential sponsor.
• Do you have the ability to show up 3 days early with the boat and do appearances, media events, VIP rides, and other promotions for your sponsor? If you have a full-time job, this could be difficult…
• Is your ENTIRE boat available to be wrapped in vinyl with a graphics scheme that a sponsor is willing to pay for? If not, that is another roadblock…
• Do you have a dedicated team of 3,4,5+ people that go to the races with you and can help with small (50-100 people) hospitality tents, cooking/catering, photos/pr/coordinating media, making sure the boat is PRISTINE, coordinate accommodations/travel, etc…? This is pretty important…
• Would you be willing to apply vinyl wraps to EVERY SINGLE PIECE OF RACING EQUIPMENT YOU HAVE? Lol…Sorry for the caps, but this is such a small detail that SO many teams DON’T do…
• Do you have other “Small” sponsors that you have strong relationships with? These could be VERY valuable business-to-business relationships to a new sponsor.
• Do you own a business that could provide value to a sponsor? Or maybe a business that you could use the boat for to gain new business? An example of this would be if you manufacture aftermarket cylinder heads…So, you approach Summitt Racing about carrying your products, and if they agree to feature them in their catalog and give you a minimum stocking order of $250,000, you’d make them the primary sponsor on your boat as an added value, at no extra charge…See how these deals are done? Everyday!
IDENTIFY YOUR VERTICALS- What this means is that once you figure out what your teams strengths are, the strengths of your racing series/race DMA’s, and your overall offering, you then use this to determine who your immediate core group of industries that you believe that you would serve well is. For example, if you own a bar or restaurant, I would consider that a huge leg up to your competitors if you were to approach Applebee’s, or Coors…You understand how to reach that customer much better than a guy who works for UPS and races on the weekends…Now, on the other side of that, the UPS guy has relationships with a few hundred businesses that he sees every week/every day at work…He surely is friendly with most of them and could approach them to learn what they do to find new customers, relationships, etc…So, as you can see, this strategy can work for anyone.
CREATE A FULLY ACTIVATED PROGRAM- Fellas, this is by far the biggest challenge in this whole proposition, but if you address it correctly, it can also be the most fun! Let your creative juices flow…! This is ABSOLEUTELY what will determine whether or not you will be successful with procuring a corporate partner for your team or not…
Simply put, YOU HAVE TO THINK LIKE A BUSINESS OWNER!!!!! What would you have to see from a team if THEY APPROACHED YOU? Speaking for myself, I am THE hardest person to sell something to...So, when I am creating a value proposition for a company on a motorsports platform, I ALWAYS put myself in their shoes...What would it take to sell myself?
Here is what this is…If you owned a restaurant, and you had good food, service, and were very proud of the reputation that you built in your community, saying NOTHING about sponsoring my race boat, I asked you if you would give me $20 for each NEW paying customer that came in and ate in the next week, as a TRACKABLE result of MY EFFORTS, would you? Before you answer, I know exactly what you are thinking…$20 each? WOW! That’s expensive! It isn’t…considering that if he spends $20 on his dinner, but likes the food, the service, the place in general…He’ll go back 4 more times this year, next year, the year after, etc…So, in the first year, the restaurant owner sees this NEW customer 4 times, and $100 from him…NOW its worth it, right? Of course it is…
Now, I don’t know about you, but I’d stand out front in a chicken suit for that guy, knowing that every car I flagged in was worth $20 to me…See the point? That could add up quick…
Now obviously, this is a funny example, but I CAN’T STRESS ENOUGH that this is the way that you have to approach this…In the above example, I am more likely to get a radio station involved to talk about how cool my “Joe’s Steakhouse” boat is, invite me as a “FREE” value-add to a remote that they are doing for a big advertiser in turn for lots of mentions of my sponsor and our upcoming race this weekend, and that is where I will hand out 500+ “FREE DESSERT” coupons to this guys restaurant, along with 2 for 1 coupons for tickets to the race (which the promoter would LOVE you for...AND you are helping build your sport), and registering people for a drawing to win a ride in my boat as the navigator during the race (these entrantries go to the restaurant so he can mail them an invitation to a nice wine tasting or something). How much value did you just give this restaurant??? And tomorrow I am doing this with another radio station, or better yet, a TV station during one of their community events…See how this works? Now this restaurant would SURELY pay you $5000 to do this…And he’ll REALLY be hooked when you take him and his wife, girlfriend, or both for the ride of their life in the boat!
There is a LOT more to this, and maybe if you guys are interested in making this a sticky, I can kinda make a series out of this and hopefully it will point you all in the right direction and help you chase this dream with some success!
Let me know if I can help….
A LOT of you have asked about the posting that I put up below about help with your Sponsor Proposals...
As I stated in the post, I can really only help a few of you (time constraints) so unfortunately while I'd like to help everyone as much as possible, I thought the LEAST that I could do is try to post some advice and pointers based on a LOT of pretty high-level experience that I have had over the last several years…so, here goes...
First, before you even approach a potential sponsor, it is VERY important that you do a few other things...
DMA RESEARCH- You have to look at the race sites/series that you are going to race in...Physical markets, or DMA's (the actual media term) are VERY important to some sponsors, depending on their business model. Some sponsors do this for fun because they enjoy boat racing, but MOST (including the $250,000+ money) really have to make the decision to get involved solely on how this will equate to NEW revenues for them.
For the most part, while there are some really great race sites in small markets, they are the least attractive to sponsors, as a rule. The exception to this is if these small markets have outstanding spectator attendance, media coverage, and of course TV.
The bottom line is go race in the biggest markets that you can!
RACE SERIES SELECTON- This kind of coincides with #1, but is a bit different. As we all know, there is a lot of turmoil and "unsettledness" between the 3 sanctioning bodies in this sport, and as I am a rookie when it comes to the make up of the 3 series, but at that, speaking strictly as a professional sports marketer, it is clear to me that this sport is VERY confusing because there are too many classes, sanctioning bodies, and absolutely NO direction at all, at any level.
Now, please, before anyone gets angry at that statement, please understand that I am giving you the view strictly from a Corporate America standpoint, and NOT a racer or even a fans perspective. Nothing personal...
Here is what is very interesting about this fact though...You can actually use this to your advantage. Because there is a lack of any real direction, I would strongly suggest that you select the best races (biggest markets/spectator crowds) from each series, and attend those. I really WOULDN'T concern yourselves with the points championship NEARLY as much as I WOULD concern yourself with making your race team as attractive as possible to Corporate America.
With the current state of the sport as confusing as it is for the casual fan, they frankly won’t know the difference. There isn’t enough of a loyal fan base to consider this much of a risk. You need to be where the masses are.
IDENTIFY YOUR TEAM STRENGTHS- This may sound very cliché, but it really isn’t. You have to look at what makes YOUR team attractive to a potential sponsor.
• Do you have the ability to show up 3 days early with the boat and do appearances, media events, VIP rides, and other promotions for your sponsor? If you have a full-time job, this could be difficult…
• Is your ENTIRE boat available to be wrapped in vinyl with a graphics scheme that a sponsor is willing to pay for? If not, that is another roadblock…
• Do you have a dedicated team of 3,4,5+ people that go to the races with you and can help with small (50-100 people) hospitality tents, cooking/catering, photos/pr/coordinating media, making sure the boat is PRISTINE, coordinate accommodations/travel, etc…? This is pretty important…
• Would you be willing to apply vinyl wraps to EVERY SINGLE PIECE OF RACING EQUIPMENT YOU HAVE? Lol…Sorry for the caps, but this is such a small detail that SO many teams DON’T do…
• Do you have other “Small” sponsors that you have strong relationships with? These could be VERY valuable business-to-business relationships to a new sponsor.
• Do you own a business that could provide value to a sponsor? Or maybe a business that you could use the boat for to gain new business? An example of this would be if you manufacture aftermarket cylinder heads…So, you approach Summitt Racing about carrying your products, and if they agree to feature them in their catalog and give you a minimum stocking order of $250,000, you’d make them the primary sponsor on your boat as an added value, at no extra charge…See how these deals are done? Everyday!
IDENTIFY YOUR VERTICALS- What this means is that once you figure out what your teams strengths are, the strengths of your racing series/race DMA’s, and your overall offering, you then use this to determine who your immediate core group of industries that you believe that you would serve well is. For example, if you own a bar or restaurant, I would consider that a huge leg up to your competitors if you were to approach Applebee’s, or Coors…You understand how to reach that customer much better than a guy who works for UPS and races on the weekends…Now, on the other side of that, the UPS guy has relationships with a few hundred businesses that he sees every week/every day at work…He surely is friendly with most of them and could approach them to learn what they do to find new customers, relationships, etc…So, as you can see, this strategy can work for anyone.
CREATE A FULLY ACTIVATED PROGRAM- Fellas, this is by far the biggest challenge in this whole proposition, but if you address it correctly, it can also be the most fun! Let your creative juices flow…! This is ABSOLEUTELY what will determine whether or not you will be successful with procuring a corporate partner for your team or not…
Simply put, YOU HAVE TO THINK LIKE A BUSINESS OWNER!!!!! What would you have to see from a team if THEY APPROACHED YOU? Speaking for myself, I am THE hardest person to sell something to...So, when I am creating a value proposition for a company on a motorsports platform, I ALWAYS put myself in their shoes...What would it take to sell myself?
Here is what this is…If you owned a restaurant, and you had good food, service, and were very proud of the reputation that you built in your community, saying NOTHING about sponsoring my race boat, I asked you if you would give me $20 for each NEW paying customer that came in and ate in the next week, as a TRACKABLE result of MY EFFORTS, would you? Before you answer, I know exactly what you are thinking…$20 each? WOW! That’s expensive! It isn’t…considering that if he spends $20 on his dinner, but likes the food, the service, the place in general…He’ll go back 4 more times this year, next year, the year after, etc…So, in the first year, the restaurant owner sees this NEW customer 4 times, and $100 from him…NOW its worth it, right? Of course it is…
Now, I don’t know about you, but I’d stand out front in a chicken suit for that guy, knowing that every car I flagged in was worth $20 to me…See the point? That could add up quick…
Now obviously, this is a funny example, but I CAN’T STRESS ENOUGH that this is the way that you have to approach this…In the above example, I am more likely to get a radio station involved to talk about how cool my “Joe’s Steakhouse” boat is, invite me as a “FREE” value-add to a remote that they are doing for a big advertiser in turn for lots of mentions of my sponsor and our upcoming race this weekend, and that is where I will hand out 500+ “FREE DESSERT” coupons to this guys restaurant, along with 2 for 1 coupons for tickets to the race (which the promoter would LOVE you for...AND you are helping build your sport), and registering people for a drawing to win a ride in my boat as the navigator during the race (these entrantries go to the restaurant so he can mail them an invitation to a nice wine tasting or something). How much value did you just give this restaurant??? And tomorrow I am doing this with another radio station, or better yet, a TV station during one of their community events…See how this works? Now this restaurant would SURELY pay you $5000 to do this…And he’ll REALLY be hooked when you take him and his wife, girlfriend, or both for the ride of their life in the boat!
There is a LOT more to this, and maybe if you guys are interested in making this a sticky, I can kinda make a series out of this and hopefully it will point you all in the right direction and help you chase this dream with some success!
Let me know if I can help….
Last edited by Moving2Miami; 05-20-2009 at 03:18 AM.
Racer
Response...
Charter Member
