OK – so I have pretty much determined that my day job is getting far too much in the way of my tri training. Thus I am looking to cut back on work but of course do not wish to alter my life style. Thus I am seeking any and all sponsorship to help fund my exploits.
Here is the deal, in return for cash and/or product sponsorship, I the sponsoree with will unabashedly hock you product to the masses. I will pretty much say or do anything to help you out. I am a fairly creative guy so together I am sure we can come up with some unique and attention catching promotion plans.
I have a more detailed business plan available to serious inquires only. Please contact me directly and we can discuss establishing a mutually beneficial relationship.
Foolish Tri guy, you are being Foolish. You’ll get zero sponsors by announcing anything on this forum.
You have to contact the companies directly and talk to their VP’s of Marketing who control the overall marketing budget, of which sponsorship is a small subset. Then you must show how their sponsorship of you will increase brand awareness and the resultant direct impact on their sales which the VP can then trade off versus other marketing instruments at his/her disposal. If you can make the VP look good (i.e. improve the metrics by which his/her performance is measured), you may have some hope. Show them how you are an extended member of their team and an alternative channel for their marketing message. Barring this, you stand no hope !
great advice. I am going to direct every cat 4 cyclist, top ten age group triathlete and NORBA sport rider who tells me how much “exposure” they will get for me, to you.
He might consider doing this for you…for a fee. Since I am his agent you’ll have to go through me of course. Minimum fee for this service is going to be new Tillium Carbons every six months as well as on demand tech support.
Paul, typically, my answer would be zero. If I were to spend marketing budget on sport, I’d rather spend a marketing budget on sponsoring an event than a person or team. Much better bang for my dollar. The heirarchy is:
Buy the VeloPress book “The Athlete’s Guide to Sponsorship” and make that your bible. It is an excellent book.
Also, remember the 7 to 1 rule: For every one dollar a company spends on sports marketing they need to spend seven talking about it.
And finally, hype yourself in the media big time. Write press releases, send them to papers, generate human interest, raise your profile and establish an image. Become highly recognizable. Get on local TV. Then you have something to take to prospective sponsors. You can tell them, “I have an extremely high media profile in my region- everybody knows me and pays attetnion to what I do, I’m highly visible- would you like to buy some of that visibility?”
That is key. Also, you need a personal website at a minimum. Mine is actiontom.com
The one on this forum where the young woman needs a user name that Slowman posted is one of the finest examples I have seen. She is doing an excellent job marketing herself- very professional. Mimic that.
Foolish - YES I am foolish - this is toung in cheek. You guys are way too serious some times.
How many of us on this forum would really get serious sponsorship $$/products? Maybe I am way off base, but my guess is very few. If I am wrong, plese let me know. I’m missing a gold mine. But all I hear is how tough it is to make a living as a pro triathlete.
Bud…just giving you a hard time. Wish you all the best. With several friend who are pros, some bestowed with genetics for speed, some with genetics for looks and speed, it is certainly tough if you are the former, perhaps a bit easier if you are the latter.
Tom, as for Shari’s approach, it is great, but the same approach would likely not work that well if she was a man. Nothing against her approach, it is great and is creating a buzz on this forum, but a good looking ripped guy with equivalent results and qualifications would not get the same bang with this strategy. You have to tailor your pitch to what you can offer the buyer (sponsor). Clearly, my looks would not have the same selling appeal as Shari’s. Don’t know about Foolish Tri Guy though
I love it - possibly will change my screen name, attentionwhore has such a nice ring to it. But then again it pretty much sums up a large potion of folks who are into tris.
But then again… I like any thing that has to do with doing/being a whore ;}
BTW - I have been graced with neither speed nor generics. Basically ugly and slow, but at least not as fat as I used to be. What I do have is this foolish good humor, however that wears thin pretty quick I have been told.
“But all I hear is how tough it is to make a living as a pro triathlete.”
I think the really interesting thing is what these guys do when their career is over. It is assumed that when Michael Jordan retires, he never has to work another day in his life, the same is true of most pros in the major sports. Unless they have some ridiculous MC Hammer style posse to support. In triathlon/cycling and other small time sports the top guys may make a decent living but once they are done they are faced with real world expenses and limited earning potential. Assuming they gave up their college and early working years to focus on racing, they are now forced to go out in the workplace with little or no experience and possibly no education(college). Obviously a few guys get into coaching, broadcasting etc. but the vast majority of pros have to make it in the real world. What is it like Knowing that at age 35 or thereabouts that you have to go from World traveling pro athlete to 9 to 5 schlepper like everyone else? possibly working alongside some 22 year old in an entry level position? How do you go from being in charge of everything in your life to answering to some screeming boss yelling at you about TPS reports? Living in San Diego I always wonder if the guy bagging my groceries or the Dominoes delivery guy was some pro triathlete or X games star earlier in life.
I didnt mean it to be a downer, but seriously most of us have never lived the life of a pro athlete so we have no basis for comparison. When we head off to work it is something we have always done and when we get free time we train and race and talk about equipment. What if you did that all day every day for 8-10 years and then had to start going to work? What is that transition like? I have some friends from Australia. Young guys, great athletes trying to make it as pros. They have lived at my house the past couple summers. It is hard not to be envious of their lives. They sleep in till they feel like getting up, go for a long ride, come back watch MTV, go for a run, take a nap, go for a swim, call sponsors to get the latest gear, hang out at Starbucks and cruise for hot girls down in pacific beach(not hard to do with an aussie accent and a fit tan body). At some point they know this will all end but I cant imagine the shock they are in for.
Well, jeez, if you’re going to stay all serious about it. . .
The ones who are strong mentally and emotionally will adapt quite well. They’ll take the experience, skills, discipline, work ethic, competitiveness, etc they developed during their athletic career and channel it successfully into some new endeavor.
Others may find the transition more difficult. They’ll miss the freedom, or the camaraderie, or the honest competition, etc and fall into a sense of loss for their old life. Which would be understandable, I suppose.
Paul has got it correct. I hear a lot of people bitch and moan’in about how great it would to be a pro. They got the life, yada yada yada…
Truth is, based on demographic data seems the 35 to 45 year old MOPer/BOPer really has the life. Anyone who can afford in both $$s and time to do what we do is hugely lucky. I am very much including my self in this rant.
So you pick, 25 year old pro facing very tough post tri-career earnings issues and social adjustment challenges, or 35+ year old amature who has a much more secure economic base and can devote large sums (dollars, time, energy, ect.) to pursuing a great, healthy dream-life style. So glad to be in the later group.
But… back to my original issue. I wanna get some free stuff and am not ashamed to ask for it ;}
I have a friend, who just spent the last 8 years training and racing for Sydney and hopefully for Athens if she can make our CDN team for a second time. Fortunately, for her, my buddy who is her husband is a major in the military and has supported the past 8 years of being a pro (granted she does make OK cash), but when she does retire, she will have a big career transition. Fortunately, she did get a university degree, spent 5 years in the Army before turning pro and then got her securities trading certification while chasing ITU points all around the world. With the support of her husband, and having properly prepared for the “next life” she’ll be ready. Not all are that forward looking.
A few months ago we had a chat about our lives over the past 8 years since we both left the military. She was feeling the pressure of making the Olympic squad a bit and the sacrifice of the past 4 years if it were to not happen…my only reply was, “better to have tried and not succeeded than spending 4 years in a cube wondering”.
Foolish Tri guy, if you have the genetic potential, work ethic and will power, go for it.
Your priority list is interesting. I conducted Marketing Research for adidas during Women’s World Cup '99. Quite honestly, sponsor awareness and sponsor recall were very low for the event despite millions spent on signage, advertising, etc.
In post-event interviews surveys showed that brand loyalty (often determined at a very young age…around 15-18 years old), was most influenced by direct company experiences at the grassroots level. For example, >90% of interviewees could name Snickers as a sponsor of youth soccer (despite not having played soccer in 5-10 years) because “Snickers gave away chocolate bars at our games when we were kids…”
In short, it’s not just that Events should be the #1 priority…It’s that loyalty is actually driven most solidly when it’s local/grassroots events…
