What happened ???
 

what happened to the days when a "sponsorship" actually meant something???



nowadays anybody and everybody are saying they are sponsored by this company or that company but in reality what is it ?


is it because somebody said they would give them a little price break so they are now sponsored ?


i am just curious to read what you " the rctech community" understand "being sponsored" is .


happy motorin',
monty

autie bender from phoenix ,AZ is a sponsored driver, free engines to race with and all is asked of him is his input and to aquire knowledge , yes he earned it , yes he needed it and he impressed me when i was at the pit . oh and represent

sponsored by houstonsengineservice.com:)

well since i know u arr referring to team terribles, it is not a little price break, it is pretty big.

Being sponsored is something that should be EARNED with proven race results, not just given away to any jo shmo that asked for it . But it seems those days are long gone.

:confused:

just asking a simple question beginner

i agree a sponsorship should be earned and all sponsored parties should have a working relationship with there sponsor/s .

viva le france, :lol:
monty

Fast drivers with impressive resumes will get sponsored by companies who want to be associated with the fast guys..I have seen drivers with 25%, 50% and of course full sponsorships, based solely on their resumes and attitude..

Then there are sponsors who offer partial or full sponsorships to people in the hopes that they will be well represented by a good person, who will spread the word about their products and services, and represent them in a good way and help them make sales and grow their company.

Mike at Answer RC gave me a sponsorship because I was so enthusiastic about his products I told everyone how great i thought they were. He thanked me for promoting his products by giving me my stuff at discount prices..Since that time I have gotten about 20 new customers for him by giving out his stuff at my expense and his, and his company is growing because of me..I would think that the main reason companies sponsor drivers is to get more business..After all its just another form of advertising..they give you something in hopes that you will help them make more money.

In respect to Team Terribles getting 3 sponsors in less than a week, all 3 of the companies realized the potential of having thousands of Team members across the world and hope that every single member will buy and promote their products, and that is how we are able to make the world go round. One hand washes the other, and both hands come out clean..Let me know if you have any other questions;)

Funny thing about sponsorships(50 or 25%), is you can usually still get better pricing if you know where to look. And, you have a choice of what brand you want.

most excellent james


keep your thoughts coming


i do run a business ya know ;)
i like to make sure the products i use are very worthy and would have no doubt about using them in a race before i personally suport them :nod:
products that last , and provide the best of what it is designed to do are the kind of products that are deserving .

Sponsorships in RC are about advertising, not about how great you are. If i ran XX fuel for example and said it was amazing and it ran really clean to a bunch of local guys looking for a new brand of fuel. It wouldnt matter if i won or not, as long as it was clear the fuel dosent suck they would probaly give it a shot regardless! I know you may think that it is something that should be earned by being the best, but in all honesty...a good word for a product regardless of a persons skill goes a long way. I know people who get sponsorships from random companies just to say "hey next time you need this, try out so and so".

On another note, full factory sponserships ships are still extremely hard to get if you ask me. 50/50 deals are not that hard to get anymore, but the catch is that you are paying 50% off retail which is sky high anyway. I personally think that anyone who is an active racer and is knowlegable about the hobby etc, can present a sponsorship just as well as anyone else. As long as the product isnt failing, advertising is advertising and word of mouth travels like the plague.

Please dont get me wrong though, i do somewhat agree with you that they should be earned(espcially full factory deals).

When sponsorships are thrown around like they are now it makes the honor, well, not much of an honor anymore. A person should earn it with a great personality, knowledge of the sport, exceptional skill, and must be able to get the word out to others about the product or products they support. They must also be able to travel to different parts of the country to achieve this goal. A person that never leaves their home track is pretty useless when it comes to marketing.

xlnt points

so you are saying sponsorship is actually being a representative of the company ?

:nod:

If you are obligated to run that companies products, i would think its safe to say that you represent that company. The way you acted etc all reflect how that company looks.:sneaky:

As a business man (putting your diehard RC enthusiasm behind you) If someone came to you and said I have 1000 guys who will all run/buy/promote your engines if you give us all 25% off your regular prices. I am sure Houstons Engine Service would now be a proud sponsor of that Team.

As far as using/promoting products you believe in..I agree 100%..and I love the fact of having an entire team giving input of the product

You should sponsor Nick
 

The new RC Generation. He is a very good driver with lots of raw talent. He has already and will continue to prove that you too can win with an engine from Houston's Engine Service,


Sounded pretty good.....eh?

maybe we should call it "rep" instead of sponsored ?

i just always believed that being sponsored was about getting recognized for doing the things that make you a great rep for the community you are in whether it be mx , bmx , rc , skiing , snowboarding or whatever . you should have enough skill that people see you and want to run/use the products you do because you are good at using them and show how well the product/s work .


internet sponsorships to me just seem like a marketing ploy but , times are changing . half the guys on rctech might not have even seen an rc track let alone drive on one .


i have never asked a sponsor for anything , everything i have been given has been offered to me :tire:

It seems to me that the sponsorships in Canada, or at least Ontario, are still what you would consider traditional sponsorships.


The nobodies who are perpetual C-Main drivers are not sponsored, do not represent anyone.


The fast guys are sponsored by the chassis manufacturers.


I think there is ONE person who MAY have a full ride in Ontario. And our scene is growing day by day. The best track in Ontario sees club race entries as high as 94. (www.hardcoreracersrc.ca)

25% ???? i wish there was that much mark up :weird:

thanks kurt ;)

you guys are definitely on the sticker team at the moment ;)

I also seem to think that there alot more sponsored racers than ever before. When I first started racing, there were A and B sponsored racers. With A sponsored racers getting full rides and factory support and travel expenses. B Sponsored racers got to get parts at 50% or somewhere around there, but no travel expenses. Those were pretty much the way the sponsorships went. Now, there are alot more companies trying to promote their companies as well as shops. You can't argue with how they spend their own money, but it does take away from the term "Sponsored" driver. But, in reality it depends on so many factors to determine who gets the sponsorships and support. Some people drive petter than others, some promote better. In a perfect world, you could find a pro level driver who wins who also has a great rapore with other drivers in supporting their sponsors. But those are far and few between so it's up to the companies to decide who they support.

To me, I'd rather support a racer who has decent results but good attitude than a jerk driver who wins a few races. You get respect more by how you handle yourself, than your results.

well said speed :nod:

Well said!:nod:

+1 .very well said!

That's an idealistic view of sponsorship. I guarantee you companies aren't thinking that way. They want to get their name out as fast and as cheap as possible. If they sponsor one homer from each track in the country, then will get their name out much more effectively then if they were to sponsor the best racer in the country who happened to visit each track once each year.

This is especially true if they only have to give each homer 10% off their stuff versus having to pay the whole ride for the best racer in the country.

It is a happy medium - no need to get disillusioned about it.

I couldn't have said it much better.

I used to shoot a lot of archery and compete in indoor and outdoor tournaments. I was sponsored by my local archery dealer and one on the largest archery manufactures. It was earned by talent and by respect for what I gave back to other people in the sport. When I wore my shooting shirt it was representative of those who backed me and I behaved accordingly in actions and by words. If we went out to eat and I still wore my shirt I would not even have a drink so as not to be disrespectful to their name.

If it is not offered to you by respect and without asking then you did not earn it in the first place. There is a major difference between putting a product name out there for anyone to use or one that's been earned to use.

The people who see it know the difference if they pay the slightest bit of attention at all.

Interesting Thread

Just to add my 1p worth (UK) :D I run top 5% at my club and win a fair few races there, we arent pro level by any stretch of the imagination, however I do enjoy deals I have for "discounted" parts, for this interaction i dont feel its a bad thing to add their name in avatars and such on forums or on my own RC cars as sponsors, at the end of the day what is a sponsor other than someone who helps out (normally financially) in our sport and if this is by reduced parts cost then its still sponsorship whether its a full ride or 5% off parts, perhaps we are getting employed and sponsored mixed up here as some of the top guys are employed where as the rest are sponsored ? :)

That is a mass strategy, if everyone is promoting a product then probability is that more people will listen and buy that product. By sponsoring more people than before companies are just trying to cut down on advertising cost.

Since being sponsored is "theee thing" its easy to get people into buying their products at a discounted price and yet spread the company name. Odds are that out of 100 people they sponsor if 10 are really good drivers and another 20 are decent, then thats a pretty good results. How ever if all those people are below average drivers then people would not listen to them as much no matter how nice their attitude is. Just like any other business advertising is a big expense and giving a few people discount is far cheaper than putting ads in magazines and paying adwords to place your ad above everyone elses.

You can pretty much have the best engine in the market but with poor skills and setup you can finish dead last. People have a tendency that if lets say homer keeps on winning all races they want to use the products that he uses, copy his setups and mods on his ride. Racer's attitude does not matter AS much as the results unless if he is completely flat out rude even then people would try to see what engine and what brand buggy he is running.

My 2 cents here but when you are 'sponsored' you become a sales rep. The big names are sponsored because they have earned it no..... not in the sense of sales but in accomplishment on the track. If the guys a real douche but he wins then people will still buy the product(NASCAR). RC is a little different because of the smaller scale (pun intended) so your big names need to be humble also because they are accessible and are the product.

But RC being so small viral marketing is a very viable advertising medium and sponsorship is therefore also about people who will help the newb and make recommendations. So if you believe in what you make offer a discount RC does not equal Internet access. It is a outdoor sport for the mechanically inclined. Not necessarily the internet geek with pasty pale skin.

I bought AKAs based on this forum and I am very happy with them. 4 pair sight unseen. Answer shoes looked good to me too, but again forum sold them after hearing reinforcing banter.

Word of mouth will sell a lot more merch than a internet forum. Think of all the people Jaz must pester while hopping pipe at the track.:D I would at very least make sure he had a preferred customer status knowing he is going to tell and retell his experience.

I guess to end this endless rant you have to look at how you think your customer will buy because Drake does it or because Jaz and a few others swear by it.

Sponsorship is really just a promotional agreement; this idea of sponsorship having to be "earned" just makes me chuckle. There are no free lunches, and if a given company is willing to part with either product or money or both, you can bet that they aren't doing it out of the goodness of their corporate hearts, but to gain something from the transaction.

That having been said, different companies have different business plans/business models/advertising strategies, but the end goal is usually the same: to have their product or service seen in the most favourable light possible, so as to generate sales and thus, revenue.

When I think about it, offering a pro or club driver free or discounted equipment is probably a very efficient way of promoting one's product.

Let's take engines for example. Let's say that BRAND X has a mill that retails for $300, and they want to get the word out to get as many people as possible to buy the BRAND X mill. The engine itself probably costs $70 to fabricate, parts & labor included, so even if they flat-out give a dozen of them away, those dozen BRAND X-sponsored runners will probably be seen by 800-1000 people each (conservatively), over the course of 6 months, so roughly 12000 people reached in total.

Of those total 12000 avid RC-ers, maybe one in ten will actually buy that mill, so 1200 mills sold... With less than $850 out-of-pocket. Granted, I've grossly over-simplified the matter to make my point, but you get the jist of it: if a company "gives" someone something, they're getting something back in return ;)

:nod:

I think having talent and winning races is very important when it comes to RC sponsorships. I mean if it weren't for Maifield winning all over the place with his Reedy Powered RC8T, i wouldn't own a Reedy Powered RC8T. I'd have soemthing else that was winning. When i decide if i want a product, i ask, "Is it good enough for a pro driver?" if pro drivers run it, must be good enough to win with.. Now whether i am a good enough driver to win with it is another story, but good drivers dont win with junk...

i feel that a sponsored driver should be someone that represents the company. to me. i would have rather have a x company come up to me and say. hey, would it be cool if you represent my company and give me no discount. rather than have some douch bag come up to me and bribe me to buy or take his shit. i would love to represent a company even if it meant t-shirts and stickers for a while. and no discounts on motors, fuel, etc...

Sounds like free swag to me......:rolleyes:

What happened is in the past 2-3 years many new companies have been started and what better way to get your stuff out there than to sponsor a bunch of guys at 50%. Its the same or more than you would be selling your product to a store or distributor so its a win win for them.

Sponsorship should not have to be always about results. I see plenty of full chassis sponsored guys throw temper tantrums at the track. I have also seen them bad mouth thier products or run a competitors product because they thought it was better. Why do companies tolerate this behavior?
Me personally, I'm not out winning big races. However, I am out racing every weekend promoting my sponsors product. I help other people with set-ups, tuning and even parts if they need it.
Doing this is what got me a chassis, tire, and motor sponsors. Portraying a positive image will have companies approaching you, not the other way around.

NICE:nod:

keep up the good work sickboy :cool:


that is great representation :cool:

Well giving a bunch of random people a discount is not sponsorship but really a discount program.

This is where people are getting the two confused.

my point exactly ;)

semantics not confusion

Its all about exposure and how you choose to do it.