Originally Posted by thebus79h
You just opened up a much larger issue. I do put some of this on the driver, some on the team, and some on the racetrack you're racing at. Do we want driver interviews to sound like NASCAR, no, absolutely not, but would it really hurt to have interviews at the track during downtimes, and a driver say "thank you to Billy Bob's Welding service for putting this car back together last week". Are you going to get a return investment, no, not right off the bat. Just because you put a decal on the side of the car doesn't mean anything for exposure. It's all about what you do with it. Look at Josh Spencer, when he ran 600's (and I'm sure he does it still), they would actually GO to the sponsors place of business, and have a fan day, or a day where the employees can come out and get some pictures taken, or maybe even sit in a car.
I don't buy it for a minute that a driver can't stay around after the races for a little while and sign some autographs. Why do you really think that the WoO does this so well? All those little autograph cards the drivers have that they hand out with sponsor logos all over them, so the fans can see them in their suits with sponsor logos all over them, looking at the cars with sponsor logos all over them, buying all those damned t-shirts with logos all over them. You have to make a complete package in order to get a big time sponsor like that, just having a decal on the car isn't enough. You have to become a salesman for that company. A long time ago in a SC&M magazine, they interviewed Travis Rilat, and he talked about Haulmark sponsoring him, he became a "salesman" for them, and would literally bring people to Haulmark dealers and show them the quality of their trailers.
Nobody is going to give you money if you give them nothing back in return. The very few amounts of sponsors I've had through go-karts and micros have all enjoyed being associated with me becasue we would go to their place of business, and have an open house, and you know what, that stuff works. It's not all about getting to the track, or staying on the track, it's more of what you're going to do for them OFF the track.
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