Help me please- sponsorship

[wheadon]

Hi everyone,

Just want some advice. Can everyone tell me how they go about getting sponsorship. My self and a couple of mates want to do the uniroyal fun cup and are trying to get some funding. My team mates dave, and craig did the schollarship but obviously never won and i've done national karting. We're all 23 years old and have came up with a list of packages, presentions and prices, including all hospitality (inc entry fee, food and drink and free gift bags per person). This has all been worked into prices.

Can anyone give me a hand please!

ta dave

[mountainstar]

Might want to use the search function and look up sponsorship because there have been a number of very good threads on this subject before with some good advice.

[wheadon]

i've tried that but it's just coming up with pages of posts with nothing to do about sponsorship. am i doing something wrong?

[Austinspace75]

Try a bit harder. Its all there.

Sorry, don't want to be negative.... but any advice you find will immediately inform you that the first thing you must have is alot of persistance and determination.

Also, if you find that you don't get much response to your plea for help above, then it won't be because people don't want to help. It'll be because most don't like responding to someone who demands them to "TELL ME HOW TO HAVE SUCCESS IN THIS MASSIVE AND HUGELY COMPLICATED SUBJECT".

There are no simple answers to huge questions like that. Try to be a bit more specific and discussive - and you'll get a much more useful response as people will find it an interesting and potentially rewarding discussion.

Best of luck.

[Adam43]

Tell you what, give me some money and I'll put a sticker on my car saying you are looking for some sponsorship. I'll forward the details of anyone who enquires...

[R59]

Better still, pay me even more than that, I'll have it on my car, my website, and put it on any press releases. I may even mention it in any interviews - whether they be at circuit, or to the media.

To be honest, there is only ONE answer to your quest. A very simple phrase that puts nearly ALL motorsport sponsorship deals into perspective.

It's not WHAT you know, it's WHO you know.

I contacted a major petroleum company about sponsorship and got a nice reply thanking me for my interest, etc.... but the answer was NO.

Our series PR agent contacted (via one of his contacts) the same company regarding a championship deal to supply every car, etc.. and they were about to send the tankers in at a moments notice.

I contacted the same company again, being a little more "forceful" and got exactly the same reply, word for word. Known as an email auto-reply service, which makes people feel happy that the xyz-fuel company is really looking at the prospectus, and just can't commit to it.... bo**ocks, they don't have any intention, unless you play polo with the MD, or regularly sit next to him at the local Lodge meetings!

So. You have a couple of choices. Take up playing Polo, and join the "right" club, which will probably cost you ten times your Uniroyal Fun Cup budget, or become a Freemason in the right lodge - and be popular!

Rob.

[graham bahr]

at the end of the day sponsorship generally comes because either your lucky in having family in a business thats happy to "loose" some money for tax purposes or they are just good enough to help you out,

or

you have something that will repay any sponsorship with a profit,

to put it another way, if a company sponsors you to the tune of £100, then they will expect to see over £100 worth of additional sales/revenue generated directly off the back of it or its not worthwhile, almost no one actaully sponsors motorsport for the sake of it, its just another form of advertising

[big andy]

i got sponsership last year from a large petroleum company quite a sum of money for a club racer<and 50 gallons of top quailty oil> the deal came through a friend of a friend who new the uk marketing manager who loves motoracing the sponserships been offered again this year its not what you no its who you no definately

[Al Weyman]

at the end of the day sponsorship generally comes because either your lucky in having family in a business thats happy to "loose" some money for tax purposes or they are just good enough to help you out,

The taxman may not like that not if a family connection. Another thing they 'plugged'. Best bet is all your mates put pleanty of overtime in, save the money you would have spent on printing your prospectus and fund yourselfs. Hate to be negative but have you seen how many people go to a club race these days, not exactly a good audience for a sponsor.

[wheadon]

Thanks guys, I've ben out on a hard sell today at local places. Got a few meeting with quite big companies and also with some smaller local ones. Hopefully it's looking quite promising. thanks for your advice.

[Alan Cherry]

I've often thought about chasing some sponsorship, but have always been too lazy so far. However, I've come to the conclusion that at club level, nobody is going to sponsor you for publicity/economic reasons. Unless you are really lucky and get someone mad keen on motorsport, you are going to struggle. The best ideas that I've come up with so far are :- besides running in a uk based series, I did a round of the RCN series in Germany last year, and hope to do 2 this year ( 1at Spa, 1 at the Ring )

Idea 1: In the RCN, 'Navigators' are allowed usually fat old germans who would like to drive, but for various reasons can't , so get the enjoyment of motor racing through the passengers seat - Could advertise for a paying 'Navigator' but I'm not sure what licence they need , and it could be a serious handicap if you got a salad dodger!

Idea no2: Find a successful businessman, and offer them a weekend away from the pressure of their business, with a weekend at the races. This could either be them swanning in with their family to follow whats going on, or just to get away from it all, pitch in with the team , and travel over in the van as part of the team. - I wouldn't even mind if they spent the whole weekend in some german brothel, just using me as an excuse, as long as they came up with the money !

p.s. I already share the drive, so that halves the cost.

p.p.s Anyone out there who fancies buying a 48+ hours away excuse + any stickers you want on the car, in exchange for entry,ferry and hotel fees,(we stay in very cheap hotels) please PM me. p.s. You'll have to find your own brothel

[Al Weyman]

Alan thats really interesting, I put a similiar post on here about the attraction of allowing a 'Navigator' or maybe more correctly we should call them a 'spotter' and it was sort of laughed out of court. I think its a great idea and although I may not be able to get any mates to put their hands in their pockets at least I may get some help at the track. I am glad there are some like thinking people even if not overhere.

[Alan Cherry]

Originally Posted by Al Weyman

Alan thats really interesting, I put a similiar post on here about the attraction of allowing a 'Navigator' or maybe more correctly we should call them a 'spotter' and it was sort of laughed out of court. I think its a great idea and although I may not be able to get any mates to put their hands in their pockets at least I may get some help at the track. I am glad there are some like thinking people even if not overhere.

Al,
I'm sure one of your Camaros would drop straight in the series. Most classes are for pre '95 machinery, each round on the nordeschleife is over 200 miles, (but you can change drivers -or not, at the halfway point) - You only need a uk National A licence, entry for the 2007 round was about £280 - split between 2 drivers - to make your car legal, you'll need to have the following :-
In date fire extinguisher 4+ kilos (not litres_ no problem)
Door net
In Date FIA seat
Safety film on side and rear windows if glass (£30 from Mothercare)
an NEAFP letter from the MSA - they supply this for free- they slipped up there !
Race log Book - £28 from MSA Scrutineer - same as rally/sprint log books, but marked up'race'
Standard fuel tank ( you can have an in date FIA bag tank if you've won the lottery, but not a little ally job)
They even supplier the transponder.
Thats about it - oh plus some FIA underwear
The only other thing that you'll need ( if you go over for the round at the 24 hour race, and stay for the 24 hour event, ) is a large capacity for German Beer !

[The STIG]

What we've done is made it easy for people to sponsor us. The roof of our 205 is divided into squares and we just sell off as many squares as people want. It's ben partially successful, but we'll have to do some more promo stuff to get noticed.

Take a look here : http://www.freewebs.com/410motorsport/sponsors.htm

Oh yeah, and also have a website. you may find that online sponsorship is worth more than on car sponsorship!

[Al Weyman]

Tanks a problem, maybe able to fit a standard one on my older car but seems an odd request, the one on it is a standard one cut down to reduce capacity filled with foam and covered in galss fibre matting, safer than the standard one I would have thought and sorry original poster for the high jack.

[AU N EGL]

Originally Posted by AdamAshmore

Tell you what, give me some money and I'll put a sticker on my car saying you are looking for some sponsorship. I'll forward the details of anyone who enquires...

SponsorAdamAshmore.co.uk

[Alan Cherry]

Originally Posted by Al Weyman

Tanks a problem, maybe able to fit a standard one on my older car but seems an odd request, the one on it is a standard one cut down to reduce capacity filled with foam and covered in galss fibre matting, safer than the standard one I would have thought and sorry original poster for the high jack.

If it looks like a standard tank, you'd probably get away with it. I've been right into this one ( even got my German teacher at nightschool to write a leter to the cheif technical scrutineer for me - scrutineer doesn't speak english - nightschool teacher works with my wife ). The Rover is ok, running a standard tank, but the Astra had an out of date FIA bag tank - I replaced it with a custom made ally tank from Brises, incorporating a collector box,flapper valves, baffles, foam filled, with an anti leak breather and quick fill valves, all encased in fire retardent foam in a metal box - shell is Opel ex-works, but it's a no no. It would be too much hassle to convert the shell back to standard at the rear, and about £1400 for a custom made FIA bag tank, so the Astra stays in te UK, and it's the Rover for Germany. Besides the Astra has dropped a valve at present, and no time to take a look/fix.
p.s Your stickers looked a treat in Germany

[mountainstar]

To find all the previous sponsorship threads, search 'sponsorship' and limit the search to the 'Racers Forum'. Chock a block in there.

[Al Weyman]

Nice one Alan, I forgot I did those for you! i am getting the car ready for CTCRC Pre-93 Championship at the moment, just bought a couple of sets of 18" rims and am rebuilding the engine after it went pop big time in '05, really looking forward to getting it on the track again (sorry again for HiJack)

[R59]

Still want that crank?