Hypothetical Sponsorship: What Can You Bring?

The realistic answer is "I cannot".  I think a shop would have to bring on Crowie and Rinny to hit 15% across the board simply from sponsorships.... and they'd kinda kill that 15% margin in a hurry

The salesman answer, trying to sell myself to get a sponsorship, would say that I bring personality, likability, social media & networking awareness, as well as race day performance to the table. I can speak to the level of service your shop has shown me, and the quality of work you do and I speak from how firmly I believe in the products you offer.

In reality, a sponsored athlete is a living, breathing billboard and not much else.  He/she is a magazine advertisement that breathes, speaks, and performs.  You can ask it questions and it will answer. They will promote the company(ies) they represent whenever appropriate/possible.  Like any symbiotic relationship, the two parts need to fit each other.   The job of the sponsee is to find the athlete(s) that embody the image the sponsee's target demographic will identify with.  Is that the local hero AG'er, or the top-tier pro?  Just as no single billboard can impact sales that heavily, neither can any single athlete.... super-megastar enigmas like Tiger Woods aside for the moment as that is an entirely different stratosphere that could have only existed in this sport with Lance - before the, um, embarrassments.

To me, your post makes two very strong points:

1. Your first one, the numbers never work, is spot on. Most retailers don't understand that no sponsored athlete, including a Crowie or a Chrissie, can make the financials of sponsorship work favorably for them because there isn't enough profit in retail for them to be able to afford it.

2. Your second insight on the Lance Armstrong story is a valid one. People, any people, are risky. They can bring associations to your brand different than you wanted or intended. That can distract people from buying your products at full price to some other agenda, possibly even a negative association.

In general brands and manufacturers have the room on their balance sheets to afford sponsorships. Retailers don't.

Winner!

/Thread  

1. Correct.  But that is why sponsorships should be viewed as PART OF a marketing campaign/approach, and not one in and of itself.  It is increased exposure.  You buy one less magazine spread, and instead get an athlete that is a billboard, but hopefully also give you the ability to say that "Product 'X' - 5x IM Podium Finisher in 2012".   It has depth and value, and the ability to increase its own value - but it is by no means a magic bullet.  People reading your remaining magazine ads can see what Athlete A did with your product, and if they keep doing it, those people will want to be like Athlete A, and your product will get more looks. You magazine ads will carry more weight, catch more eyes.

In military terms - it is a force multiplier.

2.  ANYTHING where your image relies upon the image of somebody else is a risk. EVERYBODY has a skeleton in their closet.  Roll the dice.  You can get burned just as badly by not properly vetting a supplier and ending up with a recall and tons of unhappy customers that just spent potentially thousands of dollars for your hyper-marketed gizmo....  everything has a risk.

If I asked that question I would answer:

"With all due respect, but with working in finance, project management and my German heritage, I have this habit of being specific. Are you currently measuring price realization? How are you going to make your sales normalized year over year? The easiest way of tracking the additional sales you gain through my sponsorship is to set up a referral code that customers use when purchasing here. You might want to referral code for every purchase, one for the sales person, one for the sponsored athlete. Nevertheless you might run promos during the year and if a from me inspired athlete decides on a purchase of a discount/promo item this can not be held against me, therefore I would like to take exceptions to this. 

Further I would like to understand how yous set your 15% target?

A sponsored athlete is not a sales person nor consultant. With your last year sales volume I would estimate your gross revenue at ~$535k (Average prices as follows: Bike 3,000, Shorts 100, TriBike-Shoes 150, Aero Helmet 150, Wetsuit 450). Giving your sales profile I see potential for sales growth by enhancing your offering, though this is a little bit beyond the normal athlete sponsorship duties. But I would be happy to consult you on your product offering, which again would lead to increase in sales.

After all a $80k increase in a nice sport in the current economy seems unrealistic too me.

Dave, now after my monologue you see I don;t sugar code things. You can pick someone telling you they get 15% growth and then disappointing you or work with me and we make somethign realistic happening."

cgregg, you Sir, are a wise lad.

Here you go, a flying squirrel.

timf79, this is a truly excellent answer, and you are spot on in my opinion.

It points to the unrealistic expectations of retailers for their "sponsorship programs".

Dave needs a Triathlete as a business partner, as he obviously is none.

Otherwise he would offer products that guarantee frequent return business:

- Nutrition

- Bike fittings

- Bike repairs

- Workshops (Spin classes)

- Tri-tops (to the tri-pants)

etc...

Because its related to triathlon. And anything related to triathlon can be on this board.

Anyways. The only way I've heard of retailers sponsoring athletes is through discounts for the athlete. For example there's a LBS that sponsors my cycling team by offering a 15% discount on anything in the store. Another competing LBS does something similar. In return their logo is on our jersey and the events we host, and the better job we do means local profit for them (because at 15% discount, the shop still gets somewhat of a profit on anything we purchase from them. Plus our team will always go to said LBS)

Because he's been banned from ST?

Pfft... I'd do it naked and cut a hole in one of the O's if it got me on a Felt DA.

- of course felt would have to post bail also...

no briderdt, you ding-dong, I haven't been banned from ST.

I post where I'm sent. This is where I'm sent.

The original poster who wondered why I posted this has a valid inquiry though that deserves a valid answer. I'll profer two:

1. A part of my job is to contribute to and gather information from assigned forums. In meetings I report what I learned about the contributing cosumership back to the people I work for. It provides valuable feedback and perspective.

2. It helps the forum. When new topics add unique views to a forum they build traffic and help drive advertising sales to a (very) small degree.

Another reason is gets people thinking in ways they may not have already thought. Given, this is "beginner triathlete" so it is the nature of the forum that we see a lot of similar and repetitive posts. Those are valuable and important, and I contribute to those also; saddle comfort, saddle choice, bike fit, etc. Most contritutors on this forum hae answered those questions a few times and they are this forum's "bread and butter". It doesn't mean we can't challenge ourselves with some sideways thinking.

I would like to add that currently sponsorship opportunities for the 2013 season are open in many places.

Those that apply should put thought into it.

By Tom asking this question he is helping those considering applying, to think of why they should be chosen and thereby allowing the prospective sponsoree to submit a stronger application.

Tom - have the store owner co-sponsor races (swim caps, or something, with a coupon in the shwag bag)

That gets a few things for him - to name a few:

1. A few race entries - he passes that on to a couple age groupers that are regulars at his shop.  Voila - age grouper sponsorship that didn't cost him anything extra, but nets him representation at "his" races and at races that those age groupers do outside of what the shop co-sponsors.

2. Exposure

3. Triathletes wanting to use their coupons

4.  Add your ideas here

I definitely admit - when I look at the guys who show up at the training rides and who bust my rear week after week, consistently, but aren't so fast that they're out of sight in seconds, I really start noticing what gear they use - it tends to rise toward the top of my shortlist after awhile, like it or not. 

Some good questions about sponsorship.

But these questions overlook a few things. Sure, the benefits of sponsorship are very difficult (or simply impossible) to track with highly reliable metrics.

But why hold triathlete sponsorship to some kind of holy standard? Because the reality is that for most (but not all) multi-million dollar advertising campaigns for various consumer goods and services there are also no evidence-based reliable metrics. Nada. Zilch.

Most (but not all) huge expensive advertising campaigns are decided and evaluated by 'seat-of-the pants' feel. Or by evaluated some non-reproducible really bad science (focus groups, etc.). Yup, kinda hard to believe. But it's reality.

I buy stuff from sales people I like. My husband and I travel 2 hours to a bike shop because we like the sales people. Our local shop has an A-hole for a sales person. The owner lost about 5000 dollars worth of business because of his attitude and crappy personnel. Of course he's never gonna know this... 

A sponsored athlete won't bring in any revenue to a local shop... decent well mannered shop assistants will...