Images are everywhere, you can stick them on the Fridge, put them in a frame and give them a gift or you can even turn them into coffee mats.
However as a race team, they can do even more. Heck they’ll even pay for you to go racing if you work em hard enough.
Walking around the pits and reading comments on Facebook, Twitter and the such like people seem very interested in gaining sponsors, however they seem unaware of the leg work that needs to go into producing a product that is attractive to a sponsor.
You cannot just turn up at a sponsor’s doorstep and ask for money (well you can but it might not get you very far). You need to put the leg work in and prove to them that you can offer the exposure that you say you can. It’s all well and good being the fastest or the most successful but unless you can get exposure within the sponsor’s demographic market then it’s of no interest to them.
What do I mean?
If your sponsor is a local garden centre they are not going to be interested in coverage in Max Power magazine, however they are going to be interested in coverage from local / regional newspapers, magazines and websites.
Ok so its an extreme example but you have to ensure that you are able to offer the coverage that the sponsor will want.
At this point the question is normally, so how do I get the coverage that they want?
I’m going to concentrate on the more local sponsors that are available. If you do wanna go for the big boys your best bet is to go and talk to the guys like 3t creative that eat sleep and breath sponsorship (just look what they do for Andy Carter )
Before you can do anything the first thing you need to do is get the media on your side. Which is far easier than you would first think.
For the sake of this article I’m going to concentrate on local newspapers, however the same practice can be easily transferred onto any form of local media.
Once the football season starts to come to a close, local newspapers are normally crying out for content, pick up the phone and arrange to have a meeting with the sports editor, sit down with him, explain about the sport, (This is critical as a lot of the lack of publicity comes from a lack of understanding, for someone to write about it they need to understand) and also explain about why you are wanting the exposure .
Finally leave them with a list (inc dates) of the rounds that you intend to be racing at and find what they want from you, it’ll normally be a brief run down of what happened and the ability to get in touch with you and the all important pictures, which brings me nicely on to my next point .
With newspapers (infact any visiual media) its all about the pictures, regardless as to how good the words are if the story doesn’t have a strong picture to go with the piece it can be pushed from a main page lead to a box or a nib (they’re the little snippets that fill the space around adverts), the best sorts of photos are ones that are full of ‘energy’ and really jump out the page, not the dull dull team stood round a car shot, and thats the secret to having a great relationship with the media
Case Study
Andy Carter FHRA NITRO NATIONALS Finland.
Two very different pictures which one do you think made the national press?
Andy Carter and the Lucas oil team stand around the car, bit of a dull photo innt!
Andy Carter in the Lucas Oil Top Fuel Dragster burn outs at the FHRA Nitro Nationals during the semi finals. Much better photo dont you think !
See what I mean the second image really makes the news piece.
Still not convinced?
Try this little test go to eurodragster , just scroll down and stop when something “catches your eye”, I’m willing to bet that the story or the headline didn’t grab your attention but the picture.
The brilliant news is that the high impact attention grabbing pictures that are best are not the exclusively for the big teams with the big money.
Through the archive(http://archive.modernpics.co.uk) not only do can you order prints but you can also download images. As a special offer for Non professional race teams, you can download images to be used in press releases (non direct commercial gain is to be made). Its simples, as that quirky looking meercat would say!
Even better if you know you have a item in the press the following week and you need a picture, drop me a email (dom@modernpics.co.uk) and get in touch letting me know who and what you want, and I’ll sort you out with some media worthy images.
Before I close do you guys have any tips tricks or advice that you’ve used in the past? It would be great if you’d post them in the comments bellow and we can turn this into a really comprehensive set of tips on up’ing your teams visibility. Love to hear any success stories you have to boot.
At the very core of Modernpics is the award winning photographer Dom Romney. To find out more about Dom Please check out his editorial photography. To find out more about what modern pics has to offer follow the link bellow!
Copyright 2010 Dom Romney
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