Once Bitten, Twice Shy; Why Businesses Turn Away From Sports Sponsorship

We hear it time and time again:
”Sorry, we aren’t interested in sponsoring sports teams anymore, we had a bad experience a few years ago and don’t want to make the same mistake”.

At first, we thought it was business’ polite way of saying no, but the more we heard it, the more we realised it was a true representation of peoples’ experiences partnering with sports teams. They dump money in and never see any return. Sure, their logo is on the team shirt or their sticker is on the team car, but that’s where it stops.

So today, I want to take the time to explain how (and why) at Cody McKay Motorsport we are doing things differently. Our team isn’t content slapping a sticker on a car and calling it a day. Instead, I want to discuss why we pride ourselves on doing things differently, how we work with our sponsors to build custom packages that suit their business, and how we activate your sponsorship far beyond simply putting a sticker on the car (though of course, we’ll do that to!)

Doing Things Differently

As a small business owner myself, I know that for every dollar I spend I need to know its going towards something that will grow my business. When I first started my business, Radical Mechanical (previously After Hours Mechanical) I was approached left right and centre by sports teams who wanted my business as their sponsor. And while most businesses, including myself, are happy to hand out a couple hundred here or there for the local sports club as a show of goodwill, once we start talking bigger numbers, the expected return gets bigger too.

We go into every sponsorship partnership with the expectation that no matter the amount a sponsor puts forward, we will be giving them a solid return on their investment.

We work with our sponsors, rather than leaving them in the dark, keeping communication open between team and sponsor.

Sure, the signage looks good, but that is only a small part of advertising.

Tailored Sponsorship Packages

Your business in unique and needs to stand out, so copying what everyone else is doing is a sure fire way of getting hidden in the crowd. Knowing this, having set out and strict packages to follow isn’t going to cut it. What we like to do is first understand your business and your target audience and then work within your budget to meet your needs. Advertising your swim wear in rural Victoria wont work as well as advertising them in Surfers Paradise.

A Holden Ute, Akubra and even a Blue Heeler, how fitting! A partnership with Allan Grice and Brad Jones that is still talked about to this day!

Activating Your Sponsorship

Activate, Activate, Activate. Ill even say it again, ACTIVATE. When partnering with a team this is one of the most important factors to make sure your product or business is getting noticed. How do we “activate” your sponsorship? We come to the table with a team of designers, videographers, photographers, event planners and a whole brains-trust of ideas to activate the brand.

One recent example of sponsorship activation was when we worked closely with Zenviron, A civil Company specialising in Wind Turbine and Solar panels works. Looking at ways to promote a more environmentally friendly way of going racing, we were able to calculate our emissions over the weekend, and carbon offset the whole team, making news as the only Environmental carbon neutral team on the grid, and that was over all categories! We’re still looking if any other team has done that before!

The first and only carbon neutral team in Australia?

Activating your sponsorship means we take the time to get to know your business or product and find the way to present it in the best light possible. We want you to see a return on what you invest into our team, so that means we’ll work hard to get you noticed - whether its in print media or a well targeted Facebook campaign - we’re not content slapping a sticker on our car and calling it a day, we want to see your sponsorship of our team make just as much of a difference for you as it does for us.

Interested in getting your brand noticed?

Contact the team today!

manager@codymckaymotorsports.com