A life in sponsorship- Brian Sims

June 27, 2012

I know how doctors must feel when they’re at a social event and total strangers discover that there’s a GP in their midst. However hard they try to keep the topic of conversation away from minor ailments and illnesses, they’re dragged mercilessly back to the colds, back-aches and piles of their fellow guests.
A similar situation all too often develops when I meet people at asocial or business function. Someone mentions that I work in the sponsorship acquisition business and before I can blurt out that they’re wrong and I’m actually an undertaker, I’m cornered! Earnest parents take great joy in informing me that not only is Jemima, their 16 year old daughter, a show jumper par excellence, but that if she could just get a company to sponsor the purchase of a new horsebox, she’d be in the British Olympic Team within a year.
Then comes the inevitable question….”Can you help us get some sponsorship, or tell us how to go about it?”
So easy! A few minutes to explain how they should go about finding and then persuading a company to part with tens of thousands of pounds to help a junior show jumper fulfil her (and her parent’s) dreams.
Just like the doctor being asked for a speedy cure for piles!
That is why I decided to write my first book on sponsorship acquisition, some 8 years ago. It meant that when cornered at subsequent events, I could avoid a long interrogation by suggesting that they invest £15 in the book, which would help them improve their chances of securing sponsorship.
I can understand people from outside the world of professional sport not having a clue as to how to go about securing sponsorship, or not being aware of what sponsorship can offer a business. After all, it’s not something that they are likely to have been involved with before, however talented they might be within their own sphere of business.
What I do find surprising is the total lack of knowledge displayed by so many sponsorship seekers within sport, about the way in which the business sector uses sponsorship. With it being the lifeblood of nearly all sports, you’d think that they would spend more time trying to learn the skills necessary to get their share. It never ceases to amaze me how many people seem to think that senior business executives have nothing better to do than just wait for sponsorship proposals to land on their desk.
They believe that sponsorship is capable of delivering just three marketing aspects: brand awareness, hospitality and PR.  Imagine going into a restaurant for a meal and finding that there are only three items on the menu. If you didn’t fancy any of the three, what would you do? Most likely go somewhere else. Yet I see far too many sponsorship proposals offering just that….three items.
To be fair, however, a high number of these sponsorship seekers do have one major talent in common: Mind reading!  They send out sponsorship proposals telling a business executive what will benefit his company, without even having to ask!
I hear an increasing number of business people telling me that too many proposals display no understanding of what matters to a business. Many provide incredible examples, often from the supposed top echelons of sport. The reality is that they are nothing more than begging letters, however expensively packaged. This is quite depressing when you think that sponsorship has been a key factor in sport for nearly four decades now.
In motorsport, which is where I’ve spent much of my sports marketing career, the need for sponsorship is arguably even greater than in many other sports. Even for absolute beginners, it’s impossible to compete without a significant financial involvement. You need some wheels beneath you, at whatever level you are competing.
It you think that because of this, the standard of sponsorship acquisition within motorsport would be considerably higher than in many other sports, you’d be wrong.
Too often, competitors believe that because they win a motorsport event, or can lap a circuit at record pace, businesses will hand out a substantial amount of money to help them progress their motorsport activities. They also believe that the only return required is a vague level of something called “exposure”.
Why does this worry me?  After all, I still manage to secure my fair share of sponsorship , as I have done over my thirty-eight year career. Surely it makes my job easier if some of the competition get it wrong?
Unfortunately, it doesn’t work like that. The more professional, relevant and carefully researched the approaches to the business sector become, the higher the respect with which business executives regard sponsorship as a measurable, sustainable, business development tool.
Although I now spend more and more time training people in sponsorship acquisition skills and consulting on strategic sponsorship planning, I still love the adrenalin that comes from putting a long term sponsorship deal together!
In the months to come, I’d like to share some of my thoughts, experiences and ideas about the fascinating world of sponsorship acquisition.

I know how doctors must feel when they’re at a social event and total strangers discover that there’s a GP in their midst. However hard they try to keep the topic of conversation away from minor ailments and illnesses, they’re dragged mercilessly back to the colds, back-aches and piles of their fellow guests.

A similar situation all too often develops when I meet people at a social or business function. Someone mentions that I work in the sponsorship acquisition business and before I can blurt out that they’re wrong and I’m actually an undertaker, I’m cornered! Earnest parents take great joy in informing me that not only is Jemima, their 16 year old daughter, a show jumper par excellence, but that if she could just get a company to sponsor the purchase of a new horsebox, she’d be in the British Olympic Team within a year.

Then comes the inevitable question….”Can you help us get some sponsorship, or tell us how to go about it?”  

So easy! A few minutes to explain how they should go about finding and then persuading a company to part with tens of thousands of pounds to help a junior show jumper fulfil her (and her parent’s) dreams. 

Just like the doctor being asked for a speedy cure for piles!

That is why I decided to write my first book on sponsorship acquisition, some 8 years ago. It meant that when cornered at subsequent events, I could avoid a long interrogation by suggesting that they invest £15 in the book, which would help them improve their chances of securing sponsorship.

I can understand people from outside the world of professional sport not having a clue as to how to go about securing sponsorship, or not being aware of what sponsorship can offer a business. After all, it’s not something that they are likely to have been involved with before, however talented they might be within their own sphere of business.

What I do find surprising is the total lack of knowledge displayed by so many sponsorship seekers within sport, about the way in which the business sector uses sponsorship. With it being the lifeblood of nearly all sports, you’d think that they would spend more time trying to learn the skills necessary to get their share. It never ceases to amaze me how many people seem to think that senior business executives have nothing better to do than just wait for sponsorship proposals to land on their desk. 

They believe that sponsorship is capable of delivering just three marketing aspects: brand awareness, hospitality and PR.  Imagine going into a restaurant for a meal and finding that there are only three items on the menu. If you didn’t fancy any of the three, what would you do? Most likely go somewhere else. Yet I see far too many sponsorship proposals offering just that….three items.

To be fair, however, a high number of these sponsorship seekers do have one major talent in common: Mind reading!  They send out sponsorship proposals telling a business executive what will benefit his company, without even having to ask!

I hear an increasing number of business people telling me that too many proposals display no understanding of what matters to a business. Many provide incredible examples, often from the supposed top echelons of sport. The reality is that they are nothing more than begging letters, however expensively packaged. This is quite depressing when you think that sponsorship has been a key factor in sport for nearly four decades now.

In motorsport, which is where I’ve spent much of my sports marketing career, the need for sponsorship is arguably even greater than in many other sports. Even for absolute beginners, it’s impossible to compete without a significant financial involvement. You need some wheels beneath you, at whatever level you are competing.

It you think that because of this, the standard of sponsorship acquisition within motorsport would be considerably higher than in many other sports, you’d be wrong.

Too often, competitors believe that because they win a motorsport event, or can lap a circuit at record pace, businesses will hand out a substantial amount of money to help them progress their motorsport activities. They also believe that the only return required is a vague level of something called “exposure”.

Why does this worry me?  After all, I still manage to secure my fair share of sponsorship , as I have done over my thirty-eight year career. Surely it makes my job easier if some of the competition get it wrong?

Unfortunately, it doesn’t work like that. The more professional, relevant and carefully researched the approaches to the business sector become, the higher the respect with which business executives regard sponsorship as a measurable, sustainable, business development tool.

Although I now spend more and more time training people in sponsorship acquisition skills and consulting on strategic sponsorship planning, I still love the adrenalin that comes from putting a long term sponsorship deal together!

In the months to come, I’d like to share some of my thoughts, experiences and ideas about the fascinating world of sponsorship acquisition.

About Brian Sims:

Brian Sims is one of international motorsport’s most experienced and successful sales exponents, securing over £60 million of sponsorship deals at all levels of the sport.

He is the author of a highly acclaimed book on the subject of securing sports sponsorship, the second edition of which was published in October 2011.

His career in sport included 11 years as a championship-winning professional racing driver, in the UK and in South Africa.  He also spent some years as the Marketing Director of the Kyalami F1 Grand Prix Circuit in South Africa.

On returning to England, he established the Motorsport Industry Association (MIA), securing sponsorship from Andersen Consulting, Hewlett Packard and Ford Motor Company.  This was the first trade association established to represent the British motorsport industry. 

After three years as CEO of the MIA, Brian became Head of Motorsport for the international API Agency who represented the Benetton F1 Team. Brian secured over $14,000,000 of sponsorship for the Team subsequently becoming the Benetton F1 Team Commercial Director.

Brian then spent four years in South Africa, establishing the South African Motorsport Industry Association. In August 2010 he stood down as its CEO, to allow a South African to take over.

His latest major sponsorship acquisition deal is a three-year agreement with specialist insurance group, HISCOX, on behalf of the Official Aston Martin Racing Team, Jota. 

Brian Sims’ isportconnect-profile-widget

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