How do you get sponsorship?

[ss_collins]

Tihs season , I'm getting decent media coverage in various magazines and the like including two regular columns about what I get up to, radio bits, and a fair bit TV coverage coming too - I even work for a large motorsport publication. I've done a decent propsal form sent it out etc, and - nothing, not a jot. I doubt many competitors in the the UK (including every one up to (but not including) the F1/top Le Mans boys) have this amount of coverage and yet I've not had a single equiry.

Is there a trick to this lark that I've missed? advice ideas etc...

My cars don't have a single logo on them apart from the championship stickers and 7oaks club stickers and that not right.

[DSM]

I challenge anyone to show me somone with 'Sponsorship' in National racing that isn't coming from a Family member, family friend or supplier company to the family business etc.
That is someone who's sponsoring on a truly commercial basis.

[AndyF]

I can only suggest the usual.

> Try anything in the local area. You are more likely to get sponsorship from a local business.
> Keep trying. Send out thousands of letters, and you never know, something may eventually come up!

[Chris Y]

Don't just send letters. They're too easy to chuck in the bin. What you need is to introduce yourself in person, or phone a company, immediately after they receive your proposal pack. You really need to be cheeky and up-front to get ahead in the sponsorship game.

Don't be expecting replies from most of the letters you send out - as I say, most will end up in the bin. I've sent out over 250 individually tailored proposals in the last year and a half, some to big businesses, some to smaller ones, but I've only got 2-3 letters back off the companies I've mailed.

[Edgar Jessop]

Well DSM, a few years ago this was my world and there were plenty of quite substantial companies who we brought in to sponsor National level motor racing.

I'm afraid there's no secret. It's VERY hard work and it's a bit like riding the Grand National; just 'cos you've cleared the first 25 jumps doesn't mean you'll clear the last one.

Now let me offer a tip. If the Guy Edwards book is still in print it's well worth reading as a good guidebook to sponsor-chasing. However much it's selling for. But even Edwards couldn't get blood from stones! About nine years ago I took a young driver to hear him speak and Guy looked very tired and frankly a bit emotional and that was at the time when his best efforts couldn't keep the Lotus brand in Formula One.

Let me also offer a bit of very necessary devil's advocacy.

Why on earth should anybody be interested in paying for you to go motor racing? Why, SSC, should they enquire about your proposal? What's in it for them? You simply have to approach the problem from the other side. Why [and you put your head above the parapet, mate, but don't take this personally as I bet everyone else here is as blinkered and selfish - or focussed if I'm being polite] should any company want to pay to see it's name in a motoring magazine?

Think broader, broader, broader. Think what the company might want from a sponsorship. Think what you need and think how you can broker and arbitrage bits together.

Here's my tip that not even Guy Edwards ever mentioned [possibly never even thought of it himself]

The car [the driver, the race] is just an excuse for talking to people.

[ss_collins]

Ok, this is good, does anybody from a company want add their POV? I used to work in marketing for a large firm and part of my job was to go through the sponsorship requests but I have to say none caught my attention. So I put mine together to cover all the holes and mistakes I saw (though I'm sure I made some of my own). One thing I have mentioned is corporate entertainment, track days etc, let the sponsor do a few laps in the car themselves or their client etc. - non starter?

[Edgar Jessop]

Aha! Johnny ain't so simple then!

At a time when I was racing I used to be appalled by the low grade of sponsorship request I received. Year in year out I'd be told essentially; I'm going motor racing and if you pay for it you can put your name on the side of the car! Sometimes this came from very well-known teams.

To which my reply tended along the lines of; good idea! I'll even put my bum in the car and do the driving for you myself for free!

You're heading on the right lines ssc but think even broader! If you get hold of the Edwards book you'll see that he put deals together that had nothing to do with motor racing and his sponsorship budget fell out of the middle. [No, I haven't got a copy and even if I did you should have to work a bit harder than that! ].

But selling the 'behind the scenes' opportunity of sharing the experience is obviously something that you can offer that they can't nip out and buy in the high-street. Then you might want to think who they might want to share the experience with??

[ss_collins]

interseting, I'll track down a copy of this book. H'mm got me plotting now. However at this point of my season things have gone crazy.

[DSM]

Edgar, if you mean by 'putting deals together that had nothing to do with motor racing and his budget fell out of the middle' that he made money and used it for racing, that's not really sponsorship at all is it? That's what most of us do anyway!
I see no-one has been able to come up with a genuinely sponsored name yet? (see my earlier post)

[Bob Pearson]

DSM There will always be an exception somewhere, but largely speaking you are dead right. It's all a big myth and the sooner the factions who are trying to milk us realise we are not heavily funded the better for us all.

[ss_collins]

I think I may have picked up a sponsor for a race in a few weeks though its just a one off.

[ss_collins]

DSM, Elf - east surrey college student team.

[racingdick]

wda have sponsored our locost racing team in swansea institute for a nice healthy amount

[Edgar Jessop]

Originally posted by DSM
Edgar........ I see no-one has been able to come up with a genuinely sponsored name yet? (see my earlier post)

And I'm not going to come up with my particular genuinely sponsored name at all! It wouldn't be fair!

You see after my outfit left the TOCA package and after we didn't want to maintain a relationship with that particular sponsor, they came back in, painted on someone else's car and getting a lot of the same return we'd demonstrated that they could learn to expect for.....well for much less than they'd paid us.

I'm not going to reveal who undervalued the deal nor glory in the naivety which which they were taken for chumps by their sponsors.

if you mean by 'putting deals together that had nothing to do with motor racing and his budget fell out of the middle' that he made money and used it for racing, that's not really sponsorship at all is it? That's what most of us do anyway!

In that instance I was thinking particularly of the story of the Penthouse-Rizla deal where Guy Edwards got hold of some unused magazine advertising space and sold it to a willing advertiser. The money from that deal enabled him to paint their two names on a Formula One car and even to keep some money in his own pocket after he'd driven the car for a couple of seasons!

Sounds like a pretty good sponsorship deal to me if you're keen to go motor racing!

In that case, as Guy Edwards says, the sponsors effectively had that car for free as an adjunct to the other deal he brokered between them because of his networking contacts.

On the other hand, DSM, I suspect that by "real sponsorship" you might mean patronage.

If you re-read what I've said above I agree wholeheartedly that no-one is paid for their driving skills. Why on earth should any sponsor pay for your play? Why should any stranger pay directly for you to drive your Formula Ford or whatever at Mallory every other Sunday?

Patronage isn't sponsorship. And it's worth seeking because it's not there to be found. That's straight back to my previous line "I'll willingly pay and more than that I'll enjoy driving the car myself!" Hence I suggested that if you're looking for money to support your motor racing you should always think broader, like that simple Guy Edwards example!

Here's another obvious and simple example. What do you do if you've just made a presentation to a company who says, "That's all very good. It was brilliant and we liked you but we're not interested in motor racing. We like Golf". I know what I did immediately afterwards. That didn't take much breadth of vision!

[ss_collins]

I'm tiger woods, oh hang on...

[Edgar Jessop]

You'd be alright till they asked to see you drive! And you just putted around

[ss_collins]

Good one!

[DSM]

Edgar, by sponsorship, I mean a commercial relationship between a business and a driver where the business builds a marketing programme around it's sponsorship and both parties benefit.
I have to say that, on reflection, such things do exist in National motorsport e.g. in TOCA as you say. Some significant Companies do run programmes based around the car/driver. (Halfords, AA,and so on).
However, these operations begin with the need for a marketing programme, don't they? They almost all use well established professional drivers and teams.
This thread, correct me if I'm wrong, began with an amateur driver following the dream, as lots of us have, hopng to find someone to invest in his dream.
Let me rephrase my question:
Give me the name of an amatuer, would be professional driver with a truly commercial sponsorship arrangement.
And I'm sorry guys, but I don't believe oil company drops to College teams count. We can all get free oil, a respray, one set of tyres but that doesn't amount to a serious sponsor.
Sponsor: 'Advertiser who pays for broadcast or sporting eventetc., to advertise his wares'

[ss_collins]

how about sponsor pays for build of car and most of the season. Which is what the college got I believe. Theres a few in the auto italia series, glyn thomas used to be backed by harton in the MG Metro cup in 94. I got a little bit from my employer last season but as I don't work for them anymore I don't get any backing. I also have had a fair few freebies though nothing that would fit your criteria dsm.
However this season I've not even got free oil, a respray or a set of tyres. I'm really struggling, and I'm set to have a really big year.

[THR]

btw... if any of you wanna sponsor us... give us a bell!!

tis damn hard tho..
only way we found it is by people we know. and living in devon, that limits us LOADS. even tho the races are nearly all in the midlands or there abouts.

oh for the love of fag ads... lol