How do teams get corporate sponsorship?

I'm working on a documentary film about Entropy Racing which is headed up by Charlie Greenhaus out of Scranton, PA. A lot of you guys probably know Charlie, he's been around a long time, especially in the NE USA.

Here's a short teaser for the film: http://charlieselectriccar.com/

If you're not familiar with what he's been up to, he and his team developed a competitive electric car platform, something no one else has managed. More info about them from PRI here: https://www.performanceracing.com/magazine/featured/10-01-2022/business-profile-entropy-racing

They've taken the cars all over the place, raced with NASA, SCCA, hillclimbs, you name it. Lots of big name car nuts have driven it: Jay Leno, Travis Pastrana, Any Lally, etc..

So, short story long, they have a platform that would make for, as far as I can see, a perfect spec series to run any time but especially during quiet hours. The cars make noise, but nothing your NIMBYs would ever notice. The whole thing is ready to go. All it needs is someone with the cash and/or impetus to bolt it on to an existing series or welcome it to an existing track, or what have you.

As part of the film I want to try to chase down those avenues as much as I can. So I'm wondering how the pros and/or semi pros do this. Should I just make a list of corps I think might be interested and hit them up? If so, do y'all have any ideas? Valvoline might not be down since there's no engine oil but folks like Hoosier or Hawk maybe?

I'd love to see this series go for one big reason: I want to drive in it. And you want me to drive in it too because I'm safe but not that fast. You'll beat me easy.

Thanks in advance for any and all suggestions. If you got Musk money definitely let me know.

When I got a small sponsorship long ago, I had a good story and developed a win win scenario, then approached the business. We developed it together and the final package worked for both of us. It's corporate sales.

Think from the "investors" perspective. What are their goals? Who are they trying to reach? What are they trying to tell those people? How will your product help them achieve their goals? What other options do they have to meet the same goals (and of course, why is your option best)? 

I see it uses a lot of EV West parts so calling them up should be an obvious choice.

Tire manufacturers are also a decent choice, if Hoosier turns you down try manufacturers interested in EV/green tech: Goodyear, Michelin and Hankook are all doing a lot of work on eco-friendly tire construction and EV-specific tires. Hankook is making the tires for Formula E right now, Michelin did previously.

You know who else likes green cred and needs it desperately? Your friendly neighborhood fossil fuel company.

You need a great sales pitch. What can this series offer to a business that they don't already have? What can it offer that will benefit them? Do you have hard data points that can back up your pitch? Does it have guaranteed TV time? Is the series running advertising on social media? Youtube? Print? What's the demographic and audience look like? 

Once you've built your strategy out, collected your data, made it presentable, start reaching out to the marketing managers for companies that could benefit from sponsoring a series like this. 

I would start with tire companies, battery companies, things related to the series, expand your reach to companies that might have some connections to EVs, suppliers, be persistent, oh and have a con. 

Do they know a driver who's last name is Stroll or Mazepin?  That seems like the easy card to corporate sponsorship for drivers :-) 

wake74 said:

Do they know a driver who's last name is Stroll or Mazepin?  That seems like the easy card to corporate sponsorship for drivers :-) 

Hmmm that reminds me to reach out to Rich Energy.

In everything but the biggest series, usually the sponsorship decals all over the car represent a brand of a company that one of the drivers owns, or his father owns it.  Even in events like the 24hr, a team may have 3 drivers, but it may only be one of them carrying most the money load.

From experience, if you go to a tire company, you must spec that tire for the series, and have a good idea how many tires your series will use in a year.  Then the Series gets a piece of the action for those sales.

You should contact Bob Wright.  He has been running the FRP Series for 16 years now (F2000, F1600, FA). Seven to eight weekends per year.  He would be a valuable source for how to book track time, be support races for big events, find sponsors, etc. etc.

Think outside of automotive.

Solar companies, green energy deliver services, anything relating to renewables. Heck a reusable drinking straw company is a potential target as a marketing partner would be a fit. The reason to go outside of automotive is, think how many sponsorship proposals Hoosier and Hawk receive a year, now how many motorsport sponsorship proposals do you think REI receives a year?

If you never ask they can never say yes. I have a friend with a beer league softball team. On a whim he wrote to Fireball asking for money. Now every year for the past decade the team has received t-shirts, promotional items and even some actual Fireball. They are just a bunch of guys drinking beer and having fun, only now they get stuff just because someone wrote a letter.

out of curiosity is part of your documentary around the safety challenges with racing electric cars and the fact that several tracks are preventing electric vehicles out on track?  Also, what about the infrastructure requirements and the reality of most race tracks existing in less industrialized parts of the country that may/may not have the infrastructure to support massive charging of a small fleet of electric cars?  

Thanks

How to get sponsorship:

Poorly - Tell people/companies/etc. "You should give me money.  I might put your stickers on my car."

Average - Tell people/companies/etc. "You should give me money BECAUSE (reason).  I will definitely put your stickers on my car, and might design liveries around it."

Pro - Tell people/companies/etc. "Here's what I've already done (data/examples/numbers), I would love to work with you, I think it would be mutually beneficial because (reasons).   Tell me what you're looking for and could potentially offer, I'll do the same, and let's see what we can come up with together."

Flynlow (FS) said:

How to get sponsorship:

Poorly - Tell people/companies/etc. "You should give me money.  I might put your stickers on my car."

Average - Tell people/companies/etc. "You should give me money BECAUSE (reason).  I will definitely put your stickers on my car, and might design liveries around it."

Pro - Tell people/companies/etc. "Here's what I've already done (data/examples/numbers), I would love to work with you, I think it would be mutually beneficial because (reasons).   Tell me what you're looking for and could potentially offer, I'll do the same, and let's see what we can come up with together."

pro also realizes that its a numbers game, lots of companies and remember that it takes xx number of calls to get a meeting,  y number of meetings to get a yes, and z number of yes answers to get the job done...  

I majored in Motorsports Business Management. Many people may not realize this, but one of the biggest ways that NASCAR teams attract sponsors is as a B2B opportunity. Lets say that I have Target as a sponsor. I could pitch that as a business opportunity for a company who wants to get their product on Target's shelves. Something like, "We know you've been expanding your dog treats business, and we have a lot of contacts at Target. By sponsoring our motorsports team for this race, we could arrange an introduction to Target's head of sales at the next race," or something along those lines. There is also the scenario of, "We know you are a small tech startup trying to gain investment dollars / clients. Sponsor our motorsports team for this race or series and invite a bunch of your potential investors to the race. They can tour the track and our racing trailers, meet the our drivers, and watch the race from our pit box. You can pitch your software to them while eating lunch with our crew chief, and hopefully they have such a great time they take you up on the deal." This second scenario is very useful for pulling smaller companies, and it is probably the most common type of sponsorship. By offering access to your racing team as a venue, you open the doors for all sorts of corporate events: employee appreciation days, management retreats, company lunches, using your racing shop as a holiday party location, etc.

Without the pull that NASCAR teams have, this type of sponsorship is probably a little less common, but for professional motorsports this stuff happens ALL THE TIME. I would venture to say that for NASCAR, which is the only area I have personal experience, the majority of sponsorship deals aren't for the marketing value (the name on the car being seen by the cameras), but for the business networking and dealmaking opportunities. The amount of corporate cash out there is huge if you can find creative ways to harness it.

AMiataCalledSteve said:

I majored in Motorsports Business Management. Many people may not realize this, but one of the biggest ways that NASCAR teams attract sponsors is as a B2B opportunity. Lets say that I have Target as a sponsor. I could pitch that as a business opportunity for a company who wants to get their product on Target's shelves. Something like, "We know you've been expanding your dog treats business, and we have a lot of contacts at Target. By sponsoring our motorsports team for this race, we could arrange an introduction to Target's head of sales at the next race," or something along those lines. There is also the scenario of, "We know you are a small tech startup trying to gain investment dollars / clients. Sponsor our motorsports team for this race or series and invite a bunch of your potential investors to the race. They can tour the track and our racing trailers, meet the our drivers, and watch the race from our pit box. You can pitch your software to them while eating lunch with our crew chief, and hopefully they have such a great time they take you up on the deal." This second scenario is very useful for pulling smaller companies, and it is probably the most common type of sponsorship. By offering access to your racing team as a venue, you open the doors for all sorts of corporate events: employee appreciation days, management retreats, company lunches, using your racing shop as a holiday party location, etc.

Without the pull that NASCAR teams have, this type of sponsorship is probably a little less common, but for professional motorsports this stuff happens ALL THE TIME. I would venture to say that for NASCAR, which is the only area I have personal experience, the majority of sponsorship deals aren't for the marketing value (the name on the car being seen by the cameras), but for the business networking and dealmaking opportunities. The amount of corporate cash out there is huge if you can find creative ways to harness it.

so do places like home depot and target do this for exposure to those smaller manufacturers?  

Possibly, if they're looking for exposure to other manufacturers who are already in the sport, but usually those large brands have enough pull that they wouldn't necessarily need to jump through such hoops. But my understanding is that the larger companies usually tie their NASCAR sponsorships into a large branded offensive on multiple fronts - motorsports is just part of the picture. They might advertise with a racing series to build cred with that audience (think Monster Energy sponsoring the Cup Series for a few years), or to build name recognition in a region they don't currently have a strong foothold in, or they'll sponsor a popular racecar driver to build positive brand image through association (think of Lowes sponsoring Jimmie Johnson for a small eternity). This mostly applies to the large series, where the large companies usually advertise. For smaller series, I expect large companies mostly advertise with the racing series itself and not individual teams, most likely to try to make inroads into a niche market. Large companies only make up a portion of motorsports sponsor spending though.

Building on my last point, a large company is more likely to support a series when it aligns with a marketing objective that they are trying to achieve. If a series reinforces their company values, it will be  a better fit. This is why you saw so many brands jump into Formula E a few years ago - being part of the electric revolution is good for branding, and open wheel racing is sexy, so you combine the two and you have a strong potential for good marketing ROI. Since the series you're talking about is electric, that puts you in a good spot to capitalize with any brand that bills themselves as forward thinking and socially conscious, whether it's a public facing company or not. Think of brands like Electrify America, E-Bike companies, any number of sustainable clothing brands, or even a larger company trying to shore up their EV credentials, like Volkswagen. Someone mentioned oil - ahem, energy- companies earlier, and that is another great avenue for exploration. I would also look at any company that has been grassroots friendly in the past, since your electric series would offer the same benefits of grassroots racing that they already support, as well as the additional bonus of being futuristic and socially and environmentally conscious.

Linky

This is an article MotoIQ quite awhile ago. It is a really good read and it helped me when I was receiving proposals for Bands to play at the bar I was at and how to come to a better end result for both the bar and band. 

Great thoughts everyone. Thanks for checking in.