Ok guys, this has probably been brought up a few times but what the hell. I know what it takes to market a car and driver. But when you pull in a potential sponsor how do you say this is what I need and here is what I will give you.

Like take the Accord for example. With 4 doors and long wheelbase the car has a lot of potential promotional space. How do ascertain the value of certain body panels (hood, doors, quarterpanels)?

Also, what was successful for you in marketing your car and yourself as prime promotional tool for the potential sponsor?

 

Try this:

http://www.nhrasportcompact.co....html

Ryan

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by urbanlegend21 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">the car has a lot of potential promotional space.</TD></TR></TABLE>

I knew you'd find good use of the grocery getter soon enough

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Also, what was successful for you in marketing your car and yourself as prime promotional tool for the potential sponsor?</TD></TR></TABLE>

Doesnt this say it all?

 

great link

 

no one else?

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by vtecvoodoo &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Try this:

http://www.nhrasportcompact.co....html

Ryan</TD></TR></TABLE>


ryan an absolutly GREAT LINK!!! favorites here it comes!

 

If you want some input from the other side of the table, I see a large number of sponsorship requests on a regular basis. As I have mentioned, we don't really have a sponsorship budget but that doesn't seem to have any bearing on the incoming requests. I open them all but some are so bad I don't give them 30 seconds but really good ones I pass on to other people in or out of our company. I am surprised at the rapidly growing number of show car sponsorship requests in recent years. Last week I got my first "We are a new street club and you need to sponsor all of the cars in our club. We'll be picking our sponsors soon so don't miss out". That one hit the trash quick.

Even though this is Spring and the start of a season, there is a big economic pinch happening in the racing and automotive aftermarket for the last several months and everyone's purses are going to be held tighter than in recent years . You need to sell them on your product and convince them that it is the best for their investment.

Here are a few points that come to mind although they are by far not all:

1) A sponsorship is a marketing transaction so make it a make it professional and business-like. Here is what I can do for you and this is what I want for it, even if it is just some consideration with some reduced price. "Lots of people will see your sticker" is too common and doesn't really say much on the otherhand don't spend too much time teaching people what sponsorship is and that F1/NASCAR/CART/IRL are good marketing decsions as you are probably not on their level.
2) Keep it short and to the point and tell them why they need the side of your car is a "media" that would be good for them. One cover page of three or four paragraphs should be enough to say who you are, what you do and why they should buy your marketing product. More than that is just rambling that they likely won't read. Use your spell checker and have someone proof read the grammar critically, you wouldn't beleive the stuff we get that looks like it is written by a 6th grader. Typed and not handwritten.
3) If you have a specifically appropriate resume page, attach that as a second page. "I really like cars" however is not sufficient. Racing or show history showing your success is what is needed.
4) A pic or two of the car is good but not too many.
5) Make it very clear how they can contact you. Email and phone.
6) Call the company and find out who to send it to rather than send a email form letter to info@ xxxxx.com. If they are going to give you the time to read, give them the time to find out who should get it.

There are some basics. Remember that your letter is one of many so like a job resume it should be memorable (in a good way). My typical point is that it will cost me between $750 to $5000 to place a sizeable 4 color ad in a national car magazine so will the the dollar value of the product or check that I could send have the potential sales impact that that ad investment will? The problem is that after a period ofwatching races and seeing tomns of stickers and sponsorships, they get lost or taken for granted in a sea of same such messages sotheir impact is greatly lessened. The value of my logo along the rocker panel of your car with 5 other same sized logos is just about nothing so show why your car will get more attention.

 

this is a great post! thanks for the info Lee!
-Scary

 

If you are interested in grassroots self promotions, I have to give the big to Donna Sydor of CDS Motorsports. http://www.racerchicks.com/racers/sydor.html

Although I don't have sponsorship dollars to pass out, I help her with any little bit of assistance that I can because of her approach, professionalism, self promotion, etc. She and her husband are weekend grassroots Mustang drag racers who have stepped up to a near "semi-pro" level because of their approach and they have companies who want to work with them because they get attention and they are good folks to deal with. Although I don't know squat about Mustang drag racing (although I know more know becasue of her) and it really isn't my deaprtment, I make sure we provide any help we can and in return she keeps me updated on what is going on, sends clips of the two or three times she gets media exposure, etc. She does lots of displays and sends me pics just showing that it happened, etc. They network and get people to notice them by being fast and professional without egos. When I first heard the "Fearless" Donna nickname, I laughed a bit but it has stuck and it makes you remember her above others. They get into the trade sghows and pop up periodically as a reminder so I know that if my budgetary situation were to change, she'd be around. There is a pic of her on the KONI web site photo gallery and she can use that to show other companies that she gets attention even if there is really little that we can do for her other than technical help, networking, etc.

 

Wow, thanks Lee. Let me ask you a question, at our level is it easiser for us to ask the potential sponsor what they would be willing to do or tell them, when asked, what you want them to do? Also how much is space worth on a grassroot racers car?


Thank you again for spending the time to respond to this thread.

 

I don't really know what you are doing (show, race, street, etc) or what your history is but getting free product or cash from a sponsor is going top be pretty hard, especially if it is someone in the performacne auto industry or someone that you don't know. If you can find a company that isn't used to being beseiged for sponsorship, your chances are better.

Generally I'd say your best bet it so polish up your networking skills and establish communications with as many as you can to start. If you can establish a relationship with someone will be hugely easier to get support than when cold calling. Unless you are already pretty well established, your best chance might be to look for some price consideration (reduction) on some parts that you had planned to buy anyway. If you are looking for product, it will be much easier to get a wholesale price or maybe even product at or near manufacturing cost than it wil for free. For free means it costs the company actual money from a budget whereas a greatly reduced price means that it really doesn't cost him money, just little or no profit from that sale. If you were going to buy an item anyway at say $300 and you can get it for $150 in exchange for a sticker, I'd think it is worth your while.

On my own racecar, I will not put on a sticker if I pay full tilt for the item (we used to call those guys "sticker ******") but I will run a sticker if they are helping me either with product discounts, free product or even valuable technical assistance that I might otherwise have to pay for. I realize that in the grand scheme the true benefit value for the side of my car is pretty low so anything that helps my racing cause I will do my best to reflect well for them. I had a Honda dealer for years that sold me Honda parts at 5% over their cost so their's was the biggest name on my quarter panel. Yes I still had cash outlay but a race engine load of parts might cost me $350 instead of $850. Was my quarter panel worth that $500 me? Damn right and the transaction actually cost his parts department no budget money and maybe someone will see my car and maybe support his business. Everyone wins then.

There are too many people and too little real business exposure opportunities in grassroots racing to expect to really get a lot of free sponsorship but as far as I am concerned if it decreases the costs of my racing that I was going to do anyway then it becomes viable.

Put together a nice and profesional looking package, get to know people, do some networking and start with small expectations and work whatever deals you can. If you do well now, bigger deals might be in the future but don't expect everyone to jump if you hold your hand out. Take what you can get, it is better than nothing. If you can get your car seen on web sites, trade shows or influential public shows, then you have recognition and the potential for your car becoming a media that a company could see as having value. Keep a record of where your car might be seen as a resume and use that to show potential sponsors what you have done for the current folks. Start low and move your way up as opportunities present themselves.

 

Lee =