How do I get sponsors for my new cycling team?

September 6, 2006 8:21 AM

How do I get sponsors for my new cycling team?

I am an amateur bike racer in the Southeastern U.S., and currently belong to a club that has a number of fairly competitive racers on it. Several members of that club and I have decided to form a small, separate race team that is a little more ambitious (in terms of quantity and quality of races) than the club, and for that we will need some sponsorship money. (Our goal is to offset about half the cost of the race season. Bike racing is spendy, in case you didn't know.)

I was a marketing major in undergrad, but have never gone through the process of actually asking people for sponsorship money. Where do I begin?
Here are some important facts that may help guide your answer:

- We are fairly well-organized already and have a team of 11 committed riders, all with significant race results on the resume' in the past year. Several of us are working with professional coaches.
- We have calculated a proposed budget for the 2007 season of $12-15,000. We would like a title sponsor in the $5,000 plus range, and then several supporting sponsors. We already have non-monetary support from 2 bike shops, and have a few small pledges in the $1k to $2k range. Obviously, we are prepared to be flexible here, and will take as much or as little money as people are willing to give.
- We have identified some potential target sponsors who would benefit from marketing to the endurance athlete demographic. I think we should be able to convince at least some of them that cyclists and people who watch bike races are people who would spend money at their stores. Plus, we are out on the roads in the local community (in about a 100-mile radius) a LOT -- we all train 4-6 days a week.
- We have located a few contacts within those target sponsors' organizations, but have not made contact yet.
- The people doing the sales-pitching here are professionals, for whatever that's worth (engineer, pharmaceutical sales rep and lawyer, primarily).

What we lack are metrics -- the number of "exposures" we'll get by having our sponsors' names on our jerseys and race results. Is there any way to estimate this data, or should we just roll without it?

Any and all thoughts are appreciated....

posted by fearless_yakov to sports, hobbies, & recreation (7 comments total)

make a video. do it yourself, if you like. pop a camera onto a tripod and have a couple shots of your team racing by excited crowds. show any and all television coverage, brief but memorable with television station logos, mention news clippings. make a two minute video for potential sponsors so they can see what it's like. your message is that you are exciting, full of potential and they get to be not just in the front row but in the saddle with you.

how desperate are you? the pharma companies have money galore. you might end up with something uncomfortable (could you handle "viagra" on your shirt?)

or do the obvious thing - call weight watchers or balleys or some corporate giant who wants people to think "come to us and look like this"
posted by krautland at 8:27 AM on September 6, 2006

Get you pitch down to like, 20 seconds. Its an elevator pitch.
posted by Ironmouth at 8:30 AM on September 6, 2006

Cliche follows: Think outside the box. Bike shops, yeah, sure. Car dealers, ditto. Brewpub, etc. They've all been done.

In Philly we've got Amoroso. They bake hoagie rolls and sponsor a well respected amateur team. TIAA-CREF? Retirement fund for teachers? Rite-Aid drug stores?

I think you are on the right track. The demo for cyclists is great and very desirable. College educated, right household income, white-collar, etc. But think of something other than 'sells powders to endurance athletes.'
posted by fixedgear at 9:02 AM on September 6, 2006

20 seconds? nah, they're clients.
posted by krautland at 9:56 AM on September 6, 2006

I'm on the board of a cycling team here in New England. When we were starting up we worked local connections hard. I had more conversations with members that went like, "Hey, Bob, I heard you work for XYZ Inc. Do you think they'd be interested in sponsoring us?" We also went after businesses with ties to the local cycling community, maybe nobody on the team had a connection, but we knew the owner of some business was a cyclist and would be friendly to the cause.

In all cases, we simply explained what we had to offer. We didn't pitch any metrics or anything, we just explained who we were, that we were running group rides in the area, that we had people getting podiums in races, and so forth. Don't make crazy promises that you can't guarantee, just explain how many riders you'll have, where they're going to be riding and races, and promise to work together to for the best, most positive, exposure for their organization.

That 20-second pitch stuff is -- in my opinion, anyway -- bad advice though. You're going to have to be prepared to talk to these folks a lot, keep them happy, keep them up to date on what's going on with the team. krautland's right: they're clients, they're very valuable to you, so treat them like that.

I do a fair amount of this PR/Sponsorship stuff for the team, and I'm happy to share some of the specifics if you want. My email's in my profile.
posted by dseaton at 11:21 AM on September 6, 2006

Piggy backing on fixedgear's advice, think about what companies are currently sponsoring bike teams and then consider other companies in those realms. At the very least you have the point of leverage that their competitors see it as good marketing exposure.

Also, if a potential sponsor doesn't think their business is well suited for this, keep in mind a list of some of the seemingly oddball companies that sponsor bike teams: Phonak/hearing aids, Iles Balleres/tourism board, Berry Floor/wood flooring company that was 2nd (IIRC) sponsor for Lance's TdF victories, Jelly Belly, Jittery Joes etc.

on second thought, don't mention Phonak...
posted by turbodog at 11:39 AM on September 6, 2006

Hey now, Ironmouth has a point. 20 seconds may be all you get to make your case. These people aren't your sponsors until they say yes, and they ain't going to say yes if you can't get to the point and quick! I've been on both sides of this particular equation. Be ready with a quick pitch just in case you bump into someone at the right place and time.

The other thing is, look at businesses that are in a competitive marketplace, like car dealerships. There's lots of competition, and they have a fair amount of cash for promotions like this.

Now on metrics - you can estimate this. Talk to race organizers and directors to get a ballpark on participants, and spectators. A typical "race" of course is usually several races in several categories, so the "exposures" to other racers are not negligible. I think that if you estimate 2 spectators for each racer in local events, that's pretty reasonable. For bigger regional things, like state champs and such like, maybe 10:1. But do talk to the race folks about it, they are probably estimating this stuff already. The other thing is, you can probably ballpark "exposures" from training rides too.

Finally, try to get some rates on other media just to show prospective sponsors that they are getting more bang for the buck compared with print, radio, or TV. This is a little tricky if you're not in advertising/media buying, but you can get some numbers by calling the papers and stations. Not the preferred numbers but you get the idea.
posted by Mister_A at 2:08 PM on September 6, 2006