J_C_Seay

iTrader: (1)

Is it reasonable to think that being a title sponsor of the 2007 ONROAD/OFFROAD ROAR NATIONALS will directly increase a companies bottom line? I don't know if that is a valid thought or not. I would think that a portion of racers go to that level of a race with some kind of support already. What is the real data for the add age what wins on Sunday sells on Monday?

To me NATIONAL races are more of a showcase of how your product stacks up against others in your respective category at the top level of the hobby, and for that name exposure would be a HUGH benefit.

I attended my first major race (for me) the Cactus Classic this year and it was a fantastic experience. Did I make any purchases from companies that sponsor that one race? No, however I bought over $800 dollars worth of items from my local hobby store and SRS for the event and the racing season. I specifically asked for items from companies that sponsor events and races I attend on a weekly/monthly basis.

Here are some questions that I have not seen asked yet:

What are the standards set forth for sponsorship of an event/race/class(ROAR or not)? Are those standards in-line with the expectations Tekin has when considering sponsoring a event or series?

How are Tekin's expectations communicated to the event/series organizers/host facility/ROAR? Verbal/Written/Unwritten rule of the handshake? Can't fix something that I don't know is broken.

What ROI does Tekin expect from sponsoring a single event? 5%,10%,15% increased sales? Name exposure only? How about a race series?

Are you gathering empirical data to show if your advertising/sponsorship dollars are effective or not?

I would think that in addition to being a title sponsor for a ROAR event, that sponsoring a series such as the SWTour and/or R/C Pro Series would be an ideal avenue for a small company to get see an ROI for it's sponsorship dollars. As these are events are not a one and your done kind of event. The advertising dollars could be stretched over a larger portion of time and variety of people and places with more exposure by the people who would use/see your product every race day.

Times are always lean and making sure you get the most bang for your buck is the same though that I have when I choose to purchase your product or a competing product. Your presence at the big races tells me your products work under extreme stress, seeing you at my local track tells me that the average Joe racer like me can use your product and that you care about my individual hobby experience. That means more to me than any amount of winning a national event (although they are fun to watch).

Anemic_SluG

iTrader: (23)

Quote:

Originally Posted by skypilot

as a SIR racer, and one that runs the brushless class i will take credit for having the first 13.5 on the track and starting the class. let me say while i ran the 13.5 novak motor it was powered by a lrp speed control, the reason, i run a yokomo bd. yokomo is kind enough to give me a 50% sponsership, and have a close reationship with associated/lrp. the reason for the novak motor vs. a lrp motor is lrp didn't make "stock" brushless motor. i didn't run the enduro but am aware of the stuff handed out by novak. but lets be honest. if 6 or 7 of the teams are getting free stuff to run, and one of them ends up winning they get to say, we won the 24 hour enduro. i know tekin had a proto type brushless that was also flawless, as well as hacker. but the tekin isn't released yet, and sir only stocks the novak so thats what sells and thats why everyone has one. it has nothing to do with who sponsered what. i now have the novak speedo, but thats because i'm waiting for lrp tc edition or the tekin to be released. and as a brushless driver that has never been beat well maybe once or twice in the last 6-8 months, i would be honored to run tekin equipment. i'll even pay full price for it, just get off your arses and release it what others are missing is you had a prototype not a box full to give away and talk about. btw, none of us SIR racers speak for SIR. but we do like to run our mouths. even with NO big races under our belts.

**None of these statements below are any way a slam on any company just my frustration and my experience with my purchases.**

Well I thought I was done.... without saying it so much in my previous post I have ran LRP equipment in my cars for a long time. I am a believer in brushless technology and really enjoy their product... that is until I had to invest more money to keep racing by buying more ESC's because I have at least 1 in the mail at all times due to failure. I purchased LRP because I have ALWAYS had great customer service from associated/lrp. But how frustrating is it to waiting on your product due to availbility, warrenty repair, etc. So I guess my moral is your magazine articles and brand reconition have sparked my interest for a long time, and when my LRP went poof I was looking to buy a TEKIN, could I? I think the answer is no. So in the meantime I am stuck because I want to race, and I need a ESC so I purchased one, two esc's and now my budget for ESC's is gone because no matter how many times I saw or read how great your product is I can't purchase it anywhere. By no means am I a hater of TEKIN product I want it! You will get ROI if the product and support is good, but it as of now is unavailable and when my current product fails I have to keep racing so I purchase what is available.
So the added observation is I looked into your product as an alternative to my current brand because of brand recognition from races, magazines, and the web. Without any of that I would have never even looked into it as an option. So please come out with your product so I can use it, support it, and tell people it works. Why do I talk about my product to other racers, because I want them to keep racing and if they get a product that doesn't work they might not be able to keeep racing. So if your product is as good as the HYPE please release it. So I guess my last statment is Your sponsorship sparked my interest in your product which in turn if it performs as advertised others will by it based off of me talking positivly about it, so that is how you get the long term effects of your sponsorships.

-J

Tekin Prez

Excellent comments that will take a little time to respond to. Reserving my space before we get to far down the page.. I gotta go to bed so we can get these darn things out the door.

Not even going to address that one here. Too painful and people are tired of excuses. They are coming, we started advertising to early, hindsight is always 20/20, the engineering is only part of the challenge.

In short for later refinement. There are no standards, some things are hard to measure in the short term, we definitely see the races as a proving ground and a chance for customer support, but do not need to be a sponsor to accomplish that. Sometimes we sponsor for our teams benefit rather than advertising like this case. We pride ouselves on 2 day turn around for service.. lady boss demands it.

Prez

BullFrog

iTrader: (4)

Sometimes the drivers that get sponsored are good drivers with lousy attitudes.This does not help the company.I've been to alot of races and either the team driver or the owner of the company made me not want to ever purchase that product.
So when you go to sponsor someone driving ability should also go with there personality around the track and what they post and say on the internet.Now since your mainly talking about something that happened somewhere else- I'd make sure next time you go to spend your hard earned cash to sponsor a race of any kind - find out what they plan to do.Again I've always said , send the sponsors a written statement of what was going to be done before and after I recieved the funds.

tc3team

Imho, as there are always many solutions to a situation, you gotta go with a varied outcome.


Meening, dip your fingers in a few pies, not just one.

Some major races may benefit from just a good write up and who's using what equipment.

Other major races may benefit from ROAR sponsorship though?

Being in the UK its a bit hard to understand though, so disregard my idea if it doesnt apply well

ammdrew

iTrader: (25)

lots of interesting points here.

Biggest issue we see on Race Sponsorship.

Most tracks are over valueing sponsorship.
The Manufacturers/Distributors are not seeing a acceptable return on investment in some of the race sponsorship programs. Let me stress the some. A good number of race programs have sponsor programs that are acceptable.
One thing we see very little of is tracks selling the sponsor program.

A national event is the premier place to sponsor. I would expect the track to have a nice package of what you get for your sponsor dollar. Bannor on drivers stand, name on trophy, premier pit space, recognition during the event on the PA.

JayBee

iTrader: (31)

Very, very accurate points Ritchie

tc3team

Also, getting a good idea (if you can) of which major racers will be participating a given race gives you a good idea of what kind of people the race will attract, this then enables you to judge your own company level of commitment

Eg, It may be a 70/30 split of newcomers to major players, or the reverse.

if the race is full of major players they are not likely looking at other manufacturers equipment, but if there are up and coming intermediates looking for a drive and hungry for a win they will want to get noticed.

Maybe im looking into this at the wrong side of things, I dont know

tallyrc

iTrader: (12)

i think the intent of what is being said here is perfectly valid, and needs to be understood.. if we all need sponsors to have races, sponsors should have a level of expectations on what they can expect in return.. as i said before, without this, it's a DONATION. i don't think TEAM TEKIN (or any sponsor) expects to make their money back in that weekend or day, but to be atleast be put in a position to get their products displayed, talked about, create some buzz, or just general exposure that will allow good products to eventually flourish on their own merrit.. lets not kid ourselves, sponsorships are advertising.. producing products, no matter how great they may be is not enough..

Scrubb

I think it would be a little nice for manufacturers to give contingency money and free product to the winners of the different classes at regionals and nationals or other similar size races that are using, in this instance, Tekin products. This includes non-sponsored drivers using Tekin Products. Racers would want to use your products and attend races, and they wouldn't have to worry about being sponsored. Tekin could then focus on customer support at the races. I would also like to see manufacturers sending some representation to various tracks for local club racing for hands on support and demostration of products. That would give your company a better image than sponsoring a race you have no quality control over,

I really don't see any viable reason for a manufacturer to sponsor a race that has no contract with regard to how much magazine/internet exposure that they will receive. Besides generally being nice and supporting the hobby, which is good too (and good pit spaces).

Mark Westerfield

Big B

iTrader: (4)

This really isn't the place to say something, but that brand new ESC I have, took a dump on me at the RFG, personaly I would like to get more than a week out of a ESC.

J_C_Seay

iTrader: (1)

Tally,

I think that your point is valid that companies expect to have their product showcased. I believe that there is also some level of ROI expected after hosting any event. Even if that ROI is only realized in that area's local market.

It seems to me that the question being asked is not should company XXX sponsor a ROAR race, but more to the point of if company XXX decides to sponsor a ROAR race or any race/series what should they expect for the sponsorship dollars and how do they get the most ROI for their buck?

If that is truly the question then as a company you have to look at what type of marketing plan is in place for the event, how is that being communicated from the event organizers, promoters etc.., to the sponsoring organizations?

I like what Upgrade R/C did at the Cactus Classic. They made customized pit mats for the TQ's of each class for that event. They in effect achieved two goals at one time; first they have free advertisement for their product every time that racer goes to the track; second the track that hosted the race (SRS) gets free advertisement all year long every time that racer is at an event with that pit mat. That is a win-win situation for both the race facility and the sponsorship dollar.

Are sponsors leaving it up to the race promoter/host tracks to determine what "exposure" their products get, or are engaged and identifying quantifiable milestones for exposure. Finally are they meeting those milestones?

SWTour

iTrader: (9)

Really? Why? NATIONAL EVENTS for years have used a ONE MFG. for STOCK motors for this exact reason.

That would be good, but since they are not currently available to PROVE THAT...they can not be made to be legal...CAN THEY?

Nothing fair or unfair about it from my opinion, however - I feel it's important to create a little bit of standardization for several reasons...one of the biggest is that IF a set of rules is established...and the participants KNOW the rules....there should be NO reason for a misinformed racer to EVER show up with a questionable product.

For the rules we are working on for batteries - only ONE lipo will be allowed. This is because it IS from KOKAM which is a very well established company...and sold by PEAK/ORION in a Hard Shell case....which makes teching this battery very easy.

As far as any companies desire to or not to sponsor any form of racing event, that is their right. Just as it's a race promoters right to set forth a set of rules based on a Sponsoring Supporter. (ie: The BRL)

It is no difference to a NASCAR limiting the use of fuel to only SONOCO, or the ONLY TIRE - GOODYEAR - and/or their TITLE Sponsor NEXTEL not allowing their competitor to have equal advertising.

If some guy from Florida wanted to create his OWN National Event, and wanted to 'exclusively' use a TRINITY based motor for the lower tier classes...HE has that right, and IF that event became THE BIGGEST race in the world...YOU BET your butt OTHER MOTOR Companies will try to get involved in sponsoring that event....even IF their motor can't be used?

WHY? because it would be "THE" biggest event in the WORLD and everybody would want to be associated with it in some fashion.

btw - Jim this is in no way meant to be a SHOT at TEKIN Products or ANY other mfg. This is a great discussion, and a lot of positive ideas get shared here...and makes for a great place to share those ideas, frustrations, etc. on everybodys part, and I want to personally thank YOU for taking the time to just be here and represent your company. That shows YOU are hands on and very interested in what PEOPLE have to say, and your want to be able to express yourself as well.

Joe Myers
SWTour Series

tallyrc

iTrader: (12)

i think he merely doesn't want to be banned BEFORE he can get his product to market...

HarshGuy

iTrader: (6)

Not sure about other Nationals, but for ours ...it came down to price and return policy as to why we selected the Trinity Monster stock as the handout motor. We did get price quotes from other (legal) stock motor manuf as well and no one could touch Trinity's cost to us, as well as allowing to return any unmarked unused motors after the event.