Sponsorship proposals class 8/21/2010 in FW

[aaronlosey]

I've been asked several times how to write and present sponsorship proposals, and I think I'm going to have a little seminar on them up here in Fort Worth.  It will be another Saturday class, most likely in August.  I haven't begun preparing for this yet, but the basic outline will be:

1.  We will discuss what companies want, how to give it to them.
2.  We will cover the process of all this, who to contact, how to find them.
3.  You will be given some drivers decks and my personal sponsorship packet in an editable format that you can play with.
4.  I will break down the cost to benefit ratio of what to go after, and how to decide if it is worth it, which it often is not!
5.  We will talk about how to make yourself marketable, and give examples, etc.
6.  There will be a bunch of other stuff.
7.  Your responsibilities as a driver, and why 90% of drifters fuck their sponsors, and run them off.  

Basically we are gearing up for a huge year next year, and we are trying to make drifting way bigger in Texas.  Out of just a hand full of Texas drivers, over the course of the last 24 months, I would say 5 people have pulled in over $100K in sponsorship dollars.  This is real money, and we need to get together and discuss this a bit.  I want to do what I can to keep Texas on the best path I can, and I need my drivers to have all the help they can get to do it.  







You need to sign up for this in advance this time, there will be a ten dollar charge per person since I put so much time and effort into these things, and share so much info.  You get an entire day of my time, plus a setup day, and in return you feed me a combo meal someplace : )  in the form of ten dollars!  



I will update this later.

[mikespeed95]

I just wanted to emphasize also, unless you are running a FULL SEASON OF A TOP TIER SERIES, or are getting print magazine coverage you have no business bothering anyone about sponsorship. 

The #1 reason sponsorships are down is people saying they will do something, then not doing it.

[aaronlosey]

Mike, there are lots of local companies that want to work with local people, and keep asking me to send them people.  I want to prepare some people to work with these companies in the coming season and to do something neat.  People don't need to work with a top tier series to give a good return on investment to their sponsors, they just need to clearly define what they are doing, and do it.  That is something just about every Texan has completely failed to do at the national level, and they go broke trying, and give a terrible ROV to their sponsors at that point.  This is also not aimed at hitting companies up for 20K at a time, but starting to work with smaller companies at lower amounts to help them out, and to do something neat and useful.  Anyways my wife is making me go to bed, so I wrote this in about 2 minutes.

Oh, and the whole point of this is the concept that knowledge is power, and even if you don't use it, it is useful.  For the cheap price of ten dollars, people can have the concept of why a set of free cheap coilovers isn't worth dumping 20K into Formula Drift.  They could have easily saved that money, bought better coilovers, and gone to events where they would have more fun!

[imran.rashid]

I will be attending this.

[SHREDDER]

Count Me In As Well!

[Brock]

As usual, I'll be there.

I don't have any big time sponsors, but I have several partial sponsorships and now I'm working a deal with a really rad local body shop.  We're currently working together and designing an aero kit for the 180sx (which is why my car will be sans aero this sunday).  Back to my point, even a few small partial and local sponsorships will provide you with good references for when it's time to step up to something bigger, as long as you do what you say you're going to do and have a good, helpful attitude. 

Side note: something I hate is when people treat sponsorship as an end goal and lose focus on what's really going on.  Say, for instance, that Camshaft Company X wants to sponsor you a set of cams, but you already have cams that you like made by say, i don't know, HKS or something.  Is it really worth the labor and cost of retuning your car all for the sake of fixing something that wasn't broken, and then being required to advertise the company and commit to events you may not have the budget for?  Not that Camshaft Company X is a bad company or anything, but ask yourself if it makes sense.

I'm done blabbing, I'll shut up and let Aaron teach his class.

[mikespeed95]

ledge is power, and even if you don't use it, it is useful.  For the cheap price of ten dollars, people can have the concept of why a set of free cheap coilovers isn't worth dumping 20K into Formula Drift.  They could have easily saved that money, bought better coilovers, and gone to events where they would have more fun!

This is the similar point I was trying to make, but from a flipped perspective.

Sponsors are and can be awesome, but sometimes the requirements of being sponsored can be a chore.  Make sure its something you'll be ready to jump into.

[Ryan]

For only .10 a day you can sponsor a poor drifter
please send paypal donations to ryan@smoke-em.com

thank you

[Brock]

For only .10 a day you can sponsor a poor drifter
please send paypal donations to ryan@smoke-em.com

thank you

Holy crap, somebody get a pic of all of us together tomorrow.  Dirty clothes, no shoes, sad faces, black and white.  Maybe make it a slide show with really depressing music.

[fivehunsky]

Im in..

[driftmode]

i want in!

[Clements86]

Sounds like a good idea. I'm planning o  coming to TX for the 8/22 event, so I'll try to make this as well.

[ktdub44]

For only .10 a day you can sponsor a poor drifter
please send paypal donations to ryan@smoke-em.com

thank you

Holy crap, somebody get a pic of all of us together tomorrow.  Dirty clothes, no shoes, sad faces, black and white.  Maybe make it a slide show with really depressing music.

then as their free gift for sponsoring you. in return give them a chewed up tire. lol :

[aaronlosey]

Just wanted to remind everyone to put this on their calendars if you want to sit through this : )

[Clements86]

Marked! Anymore details on signing up?