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| Bob's
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After debating the content we settled on something I have had some success with – sponsorship. Keep in mind that success in the sponsorship hunting business is like someone having the worst batting average ever in professional baseball. In this case, 1 for 50 is pretty good. Before I start, I want to say these will be my opinions and my opinions only. They do not come with approval from Bobby or anyone else. The comments are mine and mine only. You can agree with some…argue about others…think I am out of my mind…it doesn’t matter. These are my thoughts and guidelines which have worked for me. They may work for you and then again, they might not. The first installment will be on initiating your search. a
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PROPOSALS
Many racers that I know have paid a small fortune for someone to produce them and send out on their behalf. In my opinion, it would have been better to give the money to charity. Most of them I have seen while meeting with some of these companies are actually very bad and make drag racers as a whole look bad. It always amazes me that people who are looking for potentially millions of dollars send out stuff that looks like a third grader produced it. Remember, you are not the only people looking for sponsorship and definitely not the only sport. Some proposals that I have seen from other venues look like works of art, very well put together and normally at a cost drag racers can’t justify. Most end up in a file, and I mean a circular file that sits on the floor.
COLD CALLS
Cold calls…forget them, they don’t work either. The chances of you getting to speak with someone that is in a position to help you is very small and most of them are so well insulated you aren’t going to reach them. If they answered every phone call they get from people wanting something they would never get anything done, and trust me on this, while you might think you have the greatest thing going and it is your #1 priority it would probably not crack his or her top 1000.
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ALL IN THE ANGLE
Instead of wasting your time with the above, I would suggest you spend the time thinking of angles. By that I mean advantages that you might have, in business, friendships and whatever you might be able to leverage to get yourself an audience. Today’s sponsorship and marketing world is dramatically different than it was ten years ago and offers different challenges than even five years ago. Advertising and marketing departments are being challenged every day to go in different directions than they have in the past. Traditional advertising plans are on the way out. In today’s world people do not watch commercials. TIVO has had a dramatic effect on advertising. I am sure most of you don’t know that Thursday night in prime time are the highest commercial rates going. One factor is that movie studios use this night to promote their Friday movie releases and another is that Thursday night has always been a beacon for the some of the most highly rated shows. These two factors contribute to the high rates. While I watch two or three shows on Thursday, I have not seen a commercial in years, once again due to TIVO. Keep in mind this is to your advantage. Additionally people do not read billboards anymore when driving, it appears to me that most of them are on the phone or notice most signage when attending events in person. A friend of mine who is a high ranking executive in the sports marketing world challenged me one day while driving to an event, when we arrived he asked me to name one billboard I saw on the way. I couldn’t do it. People are so used to seeing them being on the side of the road they don’t even look any more. Secondly during the event he asked me to close my eyes and name some signage. We had been in attendance for over an hour, I could barely come up with a couple and there were hundreds. Pretty amazing isn’t it? Think of all the money companies spent on these forms of advertising and I am sure they are missed by most people. This is why companies are challenging their marketing departments to look at non-traditional ways to reach potential customers. I THINK THAT THIS IS A HUGE OPPORTUNITY FOR ALL OF US IN DRAG RACING.
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Click to visit our sponsor's website IMPRESSIONS
This is a key word used by venues that have high attendance or viewer ship. In my opinion, very few marketing programs should be centered around impressions. Impressions is a word people use when they are trying to impress upon someone how many people are going to see whatever they are selling. In my mind impressions can be very important to certain companies or specific products but as a whole should represent about 25 percent of the equation. I feel that 75 percent of all marketing dollars should have some type of a return attached to them, and by a return I mean a qualified return. That means dollars that can be tracked, not assumed or vaguely attributed to a program. Our audience, while smaller than a lot of others that we compete against, is a very loyal and supportive group. They will support your potential sponsor and the bottom line today is return on their investment. In the end would you rather have a million people exposed to your product and have only a few thousand buy, or have it exposed to a hundred thousand and tens of thousands buy? I FEEL THAT THIS IS ANOTHER HUGE ADVANTAGE FOR ALL OF US IN DRAG RACING.
In the next installment we will look at some of the things corporate
America finds appealing, as well as preparing for that first meeting once
you have been lucky enough to get it.
What’s your take? Drop us a line at comppluseditor@aol.com.
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Hmmmm…you
know those proposals, information packets or whatever you might want to
call them. They are what everyone just sends out to every company they
can think of. Stop it. Trust me when I say it doesn’t work. If you
can think of a company to send this to, thousands of others have already
done the same and theirs looks just like yours or maybe better. 
When
planning your strategy think about how our sport is different than others.
Do not plan to knock the other forms of Motorsports because this could
be a potential death move. Some companies spend tens of millions of dollars
there and your disdain can and will be interpreted as an insult to their
decision making. Remember you have no idea why they are involved in the
first place. Instead, think of what we can offer that other forms of motorsports
can’t. These are numerous with access to the consumer being among
the greatest things we can offer that others can’t. Another is the
ability to create programs that do not infringe on others. Drag racing
currently offers much more flexibility for a sponsor than our greatest
competitor. This is an asset so use it. If a company wants and needs to
have direct access to a potential customer you can provide that. Let you’re
thinking begin. Plan your strategy and think about what you can provide
that someone else can’t. 
© Competitionplus 2005
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