Sponsorship 101: Its not about you | Local Heroes Network
Sponsorship 101: What it is and what it is not
1 week, 1 day ago
1 Posted in:
ATV,
ATV Racing,
Dirtbikes,
Freestyle,
Media,
motocross,
racing,
Sponsorship
Despite what many people think, sponsorship is not a reward system. Countless people today working their way up through the ranks of amateur racing have in their mind that the better they do, the more they get. I’m not entirely sure where that idea came from but my personal opinion is that it has to do with the overall sense of entitlement of today’s young people.
If you receive ANY level of sponsorship from a company it falls in one of two categories; either they believe you have the skill and influence to attract others and ultimately sell product or they just want to help you out and promote their sport.
When all is said and done sponsorship is about selling product. Companies offer a discount to athletes because they believe that person will represent their brand well and ultimately help them sell product. Even for those fortunate enough to receive product for free, that company believes that associating their name with that person will ultimately persuade consumers to use their product. Nike does it, energy drink companies do it and probably every company in your sport does it.
Red Bull pays Travis Pastrana millions to be able to associate their brand with his name. Any time his warm and friendly smile is on TV or in a magazine, people will be seeing that little silver and blue logo somewhere in frame. For top athletes it’s about brand recognition and the only way they will maintain those lucrative sponsorship deals is if they find a way to brand themselves in such a way that they remain a fan favorite long after their glory days are over.
Unfortunately the ranks of amateur sponsorship is where most of us fall and it also seems to be where there is the greatest level of misunderstanding. Yes, companies will sponsor even amateurs. It’s their way of promoting their sports and building lasting relationships with consumers
It is true that as time goes on and one receives more exposure or better results, a sponsor may in fact increase their level of support for that rider. This is where the misunderstanding takes place. It is not BECAUSE that rider has merely done better, but because the company believes that there is a greater marketing opportunity with that individual because of the number of eyes that may be on him or her as they move up in their particular field…that’s it. A Pro racer that finishes in the back of the pack has more eyes on him than an amateur finishing at the top of his class. The amateur may hoist a number 1 over their head at the end of the day but it’s the pro class guy that is more likely to get valuable media attention and put a company’s brand in front of the masses.
Yes, from time to time a company will extend a discount or offer product to a rider just to help them out. That’s the luxury of being in business and in no way should it create the mindset that they deserver free product or large discounts all the time. Most companies want to support the sport they’re involved in and find that they can still make a profit while helping out amateur riders by offering discounts.
That shouldn’t deter the athlete from doing everything in their power to market and promote that company, if anything they should do it all the more because the company is more so doing them a favor. When a company has the top industry professionals using their product already, they don’t
need the novice beginner or even intermediate level athlete’s exposure. What they do want to do is help those athletes along in their career and build relationships so that one day if they do make it to the top, they can both benefit from a long standing relationship where everybody wins.
My best advice for seeking sponsorship is to take on the “its not about me” mentality. If you don’t like someone’s offer and you don’t believe in their product enough to stick with it even at a lower discount, don’t fight it or complain about it. Move on to someone else and see if you can get a better discount elsewhere. Chances are there will be someone else that will come along that will be more than happy to accept their offer. Companies like working with people who are appreciative of anything they can get. It’s often times those people that build lasting relationships that benefit both the rider and the company over the long haul.
No related posts.
This entry was posted on Sunday, December 11th, 2011 at 5:11 pm
You can follow any responses to this entry through the
RSS 2.0 feed.
One Response
- Mary says:
December 18, 2011 at 3:57 pm
Well said! It is unfortunate now days that sometimes the competition off the track for sponsorship is put before preforming well & sportsmanship. Sponsorship is a reward for being a good representation for the sport overall.
Leave a Reply Cancel reply
Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *
Name *
Email *
Website
Comment
You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <strike> <strong>
Copyright © 2011. All Rights Reserved
