Sponsorship and Merchandise
So, my company has decided to sponsor a British Touring Car again this year. Included in the sponsorship package is the following: Company Logo splattered on various parts of the car, VIP tickets to every race with hospitality, a chance to use the actual car for our own promotional activities and coverage on the telly.
So what do we do to make the most of this oportunity? Bear in mind that at each BTCC race there is between 20,000 and 50,000 people we can get our message accross to but what’s the best way to do that and how much will it cost?
Well, there are 10 race venues per season with 3 races at each venue. 2 have already gone leaving 8 remaining. So, by my reckoning that’s approx 25k X 8 = 200,000 people.
Ok, so we can’t get to ALL of those people so we need to consider our options. Do we give something away for free? If so what and how much will it cost us? Do we have company logo branded staff handing out leaflets? Do we hire a stand and sell comapny merchandise? Do we give out cool freebies like caps, mugs, keyrings, bags etc and if so - which?
Well, the answer is not so straight forward. There are pros and cons of each to consider.
Hiring a stand to sell merchandise is a good idea if we got all the sponsors to chip in get some decent race shirts/clothing made and then go for it - it would promote to the company, the team and BTCC in general which are all good things but then our message would get diluted in with all the other sponsors. So, bearing in mind we have a limited budget - that’s out for now but one for the future maybe.
Logo’d up staff seems an obvious one really - anyone who goes should wear the company colours that also have a clear association to the team we’re sponsoring. For not much money we can get the staff in quality clothing and they are then walking adverts. We can also use them for…
Handing out freebies. So we have an endless choice of products varying in price, I’ve gone with the following:
Logo’d Caps = £1.25ish each - Would be cool and goes with the racing theme but just too much for our budget I think. Perhaps we’ll just get a few?
Bottle open key ring = £0.45each - These are great - there’s a panel inside where you can put the logo and just enough room to put details of a competition in it too. Plus - people are likely to keep these for a long time as they’re so useful which in the long run gives us even more value for money. Also, we can put a code on them so that we know that a hit on the web site came from that key ring competition.
Printed Quality Plastic Bags = £0.10each - The obvious choice for me - we can print on both sides of the bag and get tens of thousands done for little outlay. With the budget we’ve got, we could actually give one out to every single person there provided we don’t put anything to expensive inside the bag. We can also use it to put the other sponsors stuff in which is great as it helps them and makes us look like the lead sponsor of the team.
Leaflets = TBC but prob £0.05each - Again, this is a must for me as it’s so cheap to do thousands and thousands of them. We can print them in batches with different codes on so we know which race that web site hit came from so that next year we know which races worked the best and which didn’t. We’ve got to this definitely.
Printed T-shirts = £1.85each - Just too much at the moment. Although you can print a lot of info on a T-shirt which is great but will people actually wear them either on the day or at a later date? Probably not so it’s really not worth it. Again though - a few would be ok.
Printed Pens = £0.12each. Now this is a nice cheap option that we can use that people are likely to keep which is great. We could give them out with the bags and the leaflets maybe or on their own.
Obviously, there is loads of options and literally endless products you can brand up but i think these are the best options.
So, (depending on budget) I think we should go with the following:
50,000 bags to start with the option of more should we run out = £5,000
50,000 leaflets to go with the bags in batches with codes for marketing = £2,500
11,100 Keyrings - Approx 1400 per race to be handed out seperate of other stuff = £5,000
Another £2,500 for other options - a few hats, t-shirts etc etc for staff and team.
In conclusion
I think for around £15,000 we could successfully market to around 60,000 people initially, then more as time goes on. Referals from friends, keyring power and general branding. That works out at paying £0.25 per person which I don’t think is bad at all.
Added to all this, we get the data capture from doing this which will allow us to do it even better next year as we will know what worked and what didn’t and that information is priceless and will help us to run a better company.
So, there we go, sponsorship and merchandise……comments please!
Iaintwoeyes said,
April 27, 2007 @ 8:45 pm
I think that you should have “staff” at each of the venues. Dare I say even a couple of tanned dolly birds!!! Bex should be up for that one…hehe.
The staff could be you or anyone associated to the website including the mods. Get them in HW branded gear…..jackets, hats, t-shirts etc. I wore my HW t-shirt in Egypt a couple of times and it was noticed by loads of people.
So the staff dressed in HW gear spend time around Martyn and the car or the hospitality suite and / or walk around the venue giving away various freebies.
I dont think carrier bags will work that well. Most will be disposed of by the time folk have left the circuit. However thinking around the keyring gadget…..I received a £1 coin holder keyring about three years ago and I’ve still got it attached to my keys. Best little freebie I’ve ever received. My locker at the gym is £1, the supermarket trolly is £1 and best of all I’ve always got an extra £1 for emergencies. The one I have holds 2 x £1 and had the company logo and website on the back.
So get the staff dressed in HW gear walking the crowds giving away freebies such as a £1 holder keyring, a pen (you always keep them!) along with the promotional leaflet.
So what to put on the leaflet……how about a free prize draw via the websit (unsure of the rules surrounding draws) for holiday vouchers…say to the value of £500. One £500 prize per circuit or perhaps a BIG ONE. One prize of £1000 of vouchers per season? You must give people a reason to keep the leaflet and then visit the site otherwise the rubbish bins will be full of HW leaflets at the end of the day!
So get the HW staff, dressed in HW gear giving away lots of HW freebies whilst also giving away ££££ holiday vouchers.
One last thing…..if this is a major promotional exercise then you MUST MUST get the right staff doing the promotion. You will be promoting a holiday site……holidays =happiness = HW happy promotional staff
The HW staff must have the confidence to approach people. You must think about your target audience. I would suggest that it is mostly females that research and book holidays but what age group do they come from? I would suggest the majority come from the slightly mature group. So the HW staff must approach lots of this group as well as many other groups as possible.
Hope this helps and gives you something to think about.
If I can be of any further help….just ask!
HW Jon said,
May 1, 2007 @ 3:30 pm
Hi Iain,
Cheers for your comments, I totally agree with having the right staff at the races, it’s the right place for it and I think it would go down well. I also have a pound holder key ring for my supermarket trolleys and I agree, it’s one of the best freebies I’ve had!
I should have explained myself a little better in the blog post perhaps too! - I agree that you need to give people a reason to hang on to a leaflet or bag or the more “rubbish” end of the freebie spectrum. The competition we had in mind to put on the bag, the leaflet and keyring or whatever product we decide on is a VIP day out for four people. They will get = transport to and from BTCC race, a night in a four star hotel, Pit access and a chance to meet Martyn and his team, hospitality for day (free beer) and a load of HW goodies too.
We planned to run this competition on the telly with a text in competition, on the carrier bags (more on them in a mo), and any other merchandise we run. Each can have a seperate code you put into the HW site so we know where the hits came from.
I think this is enough of a pull for people to have a look at HW and enter the comp. Plus - the comp details would be printed on the back of every bag given away too. I agree that they will chuck it when they get home, but maybe after they’ve entered the competition which is fine. For the money, we would accesss thousands and thousands more people.
I don’t think it’s the best option or that we should just hand out bags but for me, it’s the best way of guaranteeing that we have enough stuff to hand out for the rest of the season without spending thousands and thousands.
If we could hand out keepable stuff that we can fit the competition onto as well, that would definitely be my preferred option but it would cost us around 45p per person/lead which is just too much this year - hopefully in the future we’ll be able to do it all.
For me the queston is: How do you best weigh up your options? If we hand out keyrings, we can get to say 15,000 people plus those that see the keyring at a later date - mates in pubs etc. Say that you would probably get 90% of people to actually visit the site = 13,500 New visitors - plus mates later.
If we hand out bags, for the same money, we could get to 75,000 people but say that only half of those will bother to visit the site say 35,000 to be sure. Plus people on the day who see the logo on the bag and visit.
To me, they both have various pros and cons and ideally, we’d do both I reckon. But when you nail it down to getting as many new visitors as possible - the bag wins.
The other issue to consider of course is that of quality and company image. There is no contest there for me, the keyrings win everytime although the bags would be full colour logo good quality bags. Well - we’ve done our bit Iain, I’ll let the bosses decide - it’s their money……. lol!!
Iaintwoeyes said,
May 1, 2007 @ 6:23 pm
I thought you were the boss!!
HW Jon said,
May 1, 2007 @ 8:14 pm
lol - I wish!
Iaintwoeyes said,
May 27, 2007 @ 2:18 pm
Anything happening then……Croft next weekend!