Planning Your Personal Sponsorship

Planning Your Personal Sponsorship

by Emma Carney (AUS) -
Number of replies: 0

Dear Athletes,

Todays email is regarding planning your personal sponsorship. This email builds from from last weeks email regarding developing your Personal Brand (check the forum if you missed it).  Some of the tips below give you a guide on strengthening your value to sponsors - which it the key to a strong sponsorship deal.

The life of a professional triathlete is tough, years of perfecting the skills of racing, many hours of training, and long days of travel to and from events. As a triathlete moves through the various age categories of youth, junior, U23 and into elite things don’t become ‘easier’ they just become faster as you master the skills of triathlon.

Earning an income as a professional triathlete is twofold – this is done through prizemoney and sponsorship. Both should be sought as ways of earning income, and here’s why –

Prize money is a privilege and reward for racing well. The danger of an athlete relying on prize money alone for income is the simple fact that if you start to chase large sums of prize money through more racing, top-quality performances become more difficult. For example, if you selected 8 races a season, you can plan your training and prepare specifically for each event. As a result, you are much more likely to race and perform well. Racing well, with better results will result in larger prize money amounts won as you finish at the top end of the field. On the other hand, if you raced as many races as you could to chase prize money, your performances are likely to drop due to poor race scheduling and increased fatigue from over racing. The result will ultimately leave you with lower prize money payments from lower-ranked results.

Generally speaking, you can rely on prize money as a steady source of income best when you plan your season and race specific targeted races.

Prizemoney reliance also has its downfalls on a steady income during the off-season. If you have no alternatives for income, you will have periods where your income stops or slows significantly without regular racing.

Sponsorship on the other hand, when done well, can provide a steady income and allow you to prepare for key races with better results leading to greater value in return to sponsors.

Sponsorship is support – monetary and/or in-kind - received from an organisation in return for recognition. Also known as endorsements, sponsorship is not free and always requires a measurable return. Last week we discussed the importance of planning your brand. The value of your personal brand is paramount to your value to sponsors. You will attract sponsorship when you not only race well, but also your value is identified by sponsors – through your unique, clear personal brand. The stronger your brand, the more sponsorship opportunities will be available and for greater value.

The result is, sponsorship, combined with prize money will provide a more consistent income for professional athletes.

In seeking sponsors, there are some considerations you must make, to ensure you are remaining within the sponsorship boundaries of your National Federation and World Triathlon uniform sponsorship rules

World Triathlon Sponsorship Rules

World Triathlon has some very specific guidelines and rules on the size, number and location of any logos on your race suit (when racing World Triathlon events, you will be required to adhere to these rules by signing the World Triathlon athlete’s agreement). The uniform guidelines can be found here.

These rules have been created to provide the sport of triathlon with ‘a clean and professional image of our sport to local and global spectators and media’. The view is that if you limit sponsors to a defined few, the value of each is greater.

Given the guidelines are specific about the number of logos and the size of logos you are permitted to have on your race suits, these are very valuable to you and your personal brand. It is in your best interests financially to ensure you allocate those specific sponsor locations to the highest bidder. Where sponsorship is the product only or ‘in-kind’ you should avoid offering any of these logo places, instead offer regular social media posts. Your uniform logo space is best kept for financial gain because it provides your sponsors with real race exposure, potential television coverage and as a triathlete a very strong exposure to your sporting brand.

National Federation Support

National Federations often provide support through travel, national program involvement and pathway opportunities. Once you become involved as an athlete, you will most likely be required to sign an ‘athletes’ agreement’ on behalf of your National Federation and this will require you to provide at least one logo area to fund the program you are involved in and benefit from. This is an important requirement of an elite athlete, particularly when representing your country.

With the considerations of World Triathlon uniform rules and National Federation athlete agreements, some simple steps you can take to maximise your sponsorship value are –

Adding Value to your personal Brand

  1. Cover all equipment logos you are not sponsored by – when you start in triathlon, you generally have to purchase equipment. To protect your value to potential sponsors you will have a higher value if you have limited your exposure to being associated with products that are providing nothing to you personally. For example, you may sign with a leading bike company but have spent your junior years riding a rival bike company. If while a junior you always covered the logo of the rival bike company, you will have a higher value to your new bike sponsor, because there are no early media photos of you riding another bike brand.
  2. Be different to everyone else – You may notice that most athletes are wearing a particular brand of shoe. Find another top brand and contact your country head office, present your personal brand and develop a relationship with them. By being different you will add value to sponsors because you have a point of difference and are unique.
  3. Become an influencer – Through a strong personal brand and by becoming very savvy with social media platforms, less experienced athletes can greatly benefit from endorsement opportunities. While winning races is the ultimate goal, it is very possible to develop very strong sponsorship relationships.
  4. Don’t chase the big dollars too early – When entering discussions with a potential sponsor, you will usually be better off in the long run if you work on developing the relationship and provide a return to your sponsor before you start demanding large sums of money. Start negotiations with reasonable base payments, with result-based bonuses. With this conservative approach, sponsors will be more comfortable signing you on to a smaller base and it is up to you to then allow both your results and your personal brand to then strengthen the sponsorship value for both sides.
  5. Endorsement opportunities are possible outside of racing – Sponsorship is not all about race suits and logo spaces. As an athlete, you represent a healthy lifestyle many organisations are seeking. Working with organisations and becoming involved in their promotional advertising – be it print, social media, television – you can work on developing your brand beyond the sport of triathlon. Think big and you can start endorsing all sorts of products. This is when your brand starts to grow – when you work with sponsors outside your sport and become increasingly mainstream and recognisable outside of triathlon in your country.

When considering sponsorship, it is important to remember regardless of where you are in your career, securing sponsorship should always be a priority and is a possibility for every athlete.

You will always need to protect your opportunities for sponsorship and protect the value of your logo places on your race kit.

With your own strong personal brand and understanding of the organisations you want to work with, you are very capable of starting to secure sponsors and giving them return for their support for you.

Some sponsors you may need to consider if the brand fits your values in society, and reflects directly what you want in the world.  There is no point associating yourself with an organisation that does not align with your views.  An example here is a fast food chain as a sponsor.

Think big and be creative to maximise your sponsorship opportunities.

Next week we will look at how to approach potential sponsors and how to retain them.

Take care

 

Emma