Post by myothercarsa2cv on Sept 4, 2018 13:24:48 GMT
Some of you will know I help out with a Time Attack team. If you don’t, you do now. Part of the fun is paying for it all, and sponsorship goes a long way to getting us to the track. We have a couple of small sponsors, and they help out with parts and labour, but we are yet to hit the jackpot. So, I thought I’d tell you all a little bit about my recent experience with a well known manufacturer!
When the ‘manufacturer’ announced they were looking for new cars/builds/teams to sponsor, I got excited. I like their products - I have an intercooler on the Stagea - and there are plenty of things they do for our cars (although less so for the Disastra). I was realistic that we weren’t going to get paid, but any help is super helpful so what the hell.
The online application form was simple enough but we also included an extra attachment with more photos and more about the team. We do this for all our potential sponsors.
We heard back a couple of weeks later that we were successful! We were going to be accepted as an entry level sponsee. That meant a small discount off products, and in return we simply had to put two stickers on the car, and tag them in social media posts. Easy enough.
We started a little conversation with the sponsorship guy and asked him how to work towards growing the relationship. We shared our goals, but they couldn’t tell us much, apparently they don’t share that information. What sponsees have to do to please them will apparently always be a mystery, but ho hum. We also made some suggestions on how we could help grow their business - handing out freebies for example - but we weren’t allowed to do that either! Apparently they only do that when they have a presence on site, which offended me slightly as being sponsored surely means we pretty much work for you now. No?
Next disappointment was that to get the sponsorship pack we had to place an order first. Now that’s not my idea of sponsorship, but I needed a couple of bits from them anyway so duly placed the order. Whatever, I’ll look past it, I thought, these guys sponsor some big names so it’ll be worth it in the long run.
My order’s automatic responses caused a little heartache when it said I could get the same level of discount on my next order! It being a generic auto reply to all, I really felt a bit shortchanged. But, this is about the longer term goals, John, suck it up...
A few days later a parcel arrived in the post and I hurried home from work to open it. Disappointingly it contained only two of the three items ordered, and no sponsorship pack. I got in touch, apparently they were out of stock. Ok... not sure why they’d not have sponsor packs ready when looking for sponsees but again, whatever, it’ll be with us soon.
With Tuner Fest fast approaching we wanted to be able to rep them and so stickers were requested. Sod the pack. Let’s just get going! Silence. Beginning to get frustrated now...
Tuner Fest came and went and we had no stickers on the car. With nothing to show for our sponsorship so far, we didn’t tag any of our posts, but we did produce a nice little roundup of the race, our media coverage and other bits and bobs. Once again we asked on the whereabouts of the sponsorship pack, so as to be repping them at the next round, and once again we got no response. I feel so valued.
We focused on the next round and sent another update afterwards. I basically said that if they couldn’t be rear canoed to engage with the people they sponsor or at least deliver on their end of the bargain, then they can terminate the sponsorship. Imagine my surprise to see an almost instant response... However it simply said they were out of stock! Lol.
So I think we’ll call it a day with them. It’s been such a disappointing experience. I did a google afterwards and others have had similar, but others are really happy. Who knows what’s going on...
I’d thoroughly recommend avoiding this particular company for sponsorship. Great products, shocking programme. And you can get the discounts if you wait a little while to get the best offers.
When the ‘manufacturer’ announced they were looking for new cars/builds/teams to sponsor, I got excited. I like their products - I have an intercooler on the Stagea - and there are plenty of things they do for our cars (although less so for the Disastra). I was realistic that we weren’t going to get paid, but any help is super helpful so what the hell.
The online application form was simple enough but we also included an extra attachment with more photos and more about the team. We do this for all our potential sponsors.
We heard back a couple of weeks later that we were successful! We were going to be accepted as an entry level sponsee. That meant a small discount off products, and in return we simply had to put two stickers on the car, and tag them in social media posts. Easy enough.
We started a little conversation with the sponsorship guy and asked him how to work towards growing the relationship. We shared our goals, but they couldn’t tell us much, apparently they don’t share that information. What sponsees have to do to please them will apparently always be a mystery, but ho hum. We also made some suggestions on how we could help grow their business - handing out freebies for example - but we weren’t allowed to do that either! Apparently they only do that when they have a presence on site, which offended me slightly as being sponsored surely means we pretty much work for you now. No?
Next disappointment was that to get the sponsorship pack we had to place an order first. Now that’s not my idea of sponsorship, but I needed a couple of bits from them anyway so duly placed the order. Whatever, I’ll look past it, I thought, these guys sponsor some big names so it’ll be worth it in the long run.
My order’s automatic responses caused a little heartache when it said I could get the same level of discount on my next order! It being a generic auto reply to all, I really felt a bit shortchanged. But, this is about the longer term goals, John, suck it up...
A few days later a parcel arrived in the post and I hurried home from work to open it. Disappointingly it contained only two of the three items ordered, and no sponsorship pack. I got in touch, apparently they were out of stock. Ok... not sure why they’d not have sponsor packs ready when looking for sponsees but again, whatever, it’ll be with us soon.
With Tuner Fest fast approaching we wanted to be able to rep them and so stickers were requested. Sod the pack. Let’s just get going! Silence. Beginning to get frustrated now...
Tuner Fest came and went and we had no stickers on the car. With nothing to show for our sponsorship so far, we didn’t tag any of our posts, but we did produce a nice little roundup of the race, our media coverage and other bits and bobs. Once again we asked on the whereabouts of the sponsorship pack, so as to be repping them at the next round, and once again we got no response. I feel so valued.
We focused on the next round and sent another update afterwards. I basically said that if they couldn’t be rear canoed to engage with the people they sponsor or at least deliver on their end of the bargain, then they can terminate the sponsorship. Imagine my surprise to see an almost instant response... However it simply said they were out of stock! Lol.
So I think we’ll call it a day with them. It’s been such a disappointing experience. I did a google afterwards and others have had similar, but others are really happy. Who knows what’s going on...
I’d thoroughly recommend avoiding this particular company for sponsorship. Great products, shocking programme. And you can get the discounts if you wait a little while to get the best offers.
le sigh