Sponsors?

Will Digges · Post by **Will Digges** » 28 Nov 2005 06:21

Hey I was wondering if anyone has sucessfully gotten a good sponsor for footbagging. I really want to try and do this, and I was wondering what the best way to go about it is, and some companies I can attempt to ask? Any ideas or input on this subject would be great.

ShredOnLawn · Post by **ShredOnLawn** » 28 Nov 2005 07:02

GREAT TOPIC

I'd also like to be sponsored. I think a 30 second video of yourself drawing a crowd at the mall or something would be good to show off on a lap top.

Say "I can wear your clothing at all the tournaments I go to if you share my traveling expenses. You'll get free advertising at large sports events and I'll be able to go to more events with your help. What do you think?"

I believe the Fins got sponsored majorly by there school. They have the National Footbag Team and were flown over to the World Championships in 2001 and 2002. Sweet.

Good luck.

Will Digges · Post by **Will Digges** » 28 Nov 2005 07:20

Thats awesome! Thanks for replying, I sent an email to adidas, I doubt they will reply but whatever.

mentor · Post by **mentor** » 28 Nov 2005 07:29

Adidas!?!

I think it is a good idea to consider other companies as well. Perhaps you should think small and local instead of large and global.

Will Digges · Post by **Will Digges** » 28 Nov 2005 07:32

Thats true, Maybe I'll check out my local skate shops or something like that. Maybe snowboarding shops.

shredzilla · Post by **shredzilla** » 28 Nov 2005 07:56

Probably a great thing to do if you go to the shops is bring a really cool shred vid. The manager/owner may not be there, so if you drop off your vid, they can play it when they want. I say dvd instead of telling them a weblink, because it's something tangible and most shops have dvd players these days. If you give them a weblink, then they may write it down and never bother to look it up.

C-Fan · Post by **C-Fan** » 28 Nov 2005 08:54

Sponsor money is out there. It's important to never sell yourself short, to always remember that you are actually bringing a lot to the table. Footbag, at the level we practice it, is a new, hip young sport which is eyecatching. Every marketer loves that sort of thing. Also remember that you have put years of practice in to get to your level. Yeah, ripwalk may not be that hard for you anymore, but you had to spend X amount of months playing before you could hit it. Don't sell your skill set short.

I've been really lucky, in that I've gotten two pretty big sponsorships in the last couple years. Pepsi Japan sponsored me in 2003 as part of their Pepsi Twist campaign, which gave me enough money to go to 2003 Worlds for free. Just last month, Nestle Australia sponsored me, and I got a free, expenses paid trip to Australia plus some cash in pocket. At their core, both of these sponsorships boiled down to major companies realising the appeal of footbag to a younger demographic, and paying me to do events and wear their shirt, to tie their product to the hip young image of footbag.

In my experience, obtaining sponsorships has been largely due to being in the right place at the right time, but also being prepared for sponsorship to come knocking. The Pepsi campaign got kicked off because we got local shoe/sports stores to stock and show footbag videos during store hours. A Pepsi marketing VP saw one, looked up footbag on the internet, and found the Japanese website. From there, he contacted us, and the rest was history. Yeah, we were lucky that a marketing VP found us, but he wouldn't have had we not taken the first step and gotten videos into stores. If we didn't have a website, it might have gone nowhere either. The Nestle Australia campaign had a similarly lucky start. Nestle decided to do a footbag campaign, and when it looked up footbag and australia on a search engine, it found the Ausfootbag.org people and contacted them from there.

Another key to sponsorship seems obvious, but shouldn't be underestimated. Make yourself visible, and be aware of the image you project. If you play in very public areas, and look like you are having fun, you will have a better chance of finding sponsors than if you play in a garage, or if you play in public and throw hissy fits whenever you screw up. When I was in Australia, we had a shred down by the Opera House in Sydney. The only reason we played there, was they wanted to show me a touristy spot. But because it was such an upscale spot, the marketting director for Sydney's soccer team saw us, gave us his card, and from there we (Jeremy O and myself) ended up being the halftime entertainment for a soccer game with 13,000+ people.

In closing, I just wanted to reiterate that sponsorship money and opportunities are definitely out there. I'm not the best footbagger in the world, but I've still managed to get a couple major sponsorships. Just remember to be persistent, don't undersell yourself, and to put yourself out there. Sponsors may be actively looking for you, but if you aren't visible (on the web, on the street, on videos in stores, etc), then don't be surprised when they can't find you.

One last thought: its a good idea to tailor your game to sponsors. Long runs with lots of BOPs can be better than 5 tripless. Double ATW is your friend. Creative body stalls make the sport look more diverse than just lots of shuffle. Unless your sponsor is a hardcore footbag connoisseur, tailor your game to be more accessible to the untrained eye.

Hope this helped some.

footbinc · Post by **footbinc** » 28 Nov 2005 09:01

The Dragon, People love it. Same with the pendulum for who knows why.

The other thing I found with sponsorship, its 30% footbag, 70% represent. Always saying the name of Product X, or whatever. When we did the footbag tour in Ireland it was non-stop snickers this and that, and the footbag wasnt as important as the sale. But well worth it. Id gladly whore myself out again to any corporation.

-Ben

sniikeri · Post by **sniikeri** » 28 Nov 2005 10:09

footbinc wrote:The Dragon, People love it. Same with the pendulum for who knows why.

Yeah, the people wants Jonathan Schneider.

What do you think what level should one be to try to get a sponsor? (please some real opinions)
For example me, playing tiltless-guiltless. If I went to ask for a sponsorship somewhere, they'd probably still be nuts about my "skills". But I'd feel a bit bad because they wouldn't know that there are a lot better ones out there too.

...or should I just be evil?

footbinc · Post by **footbinc** » 28 Nov 2005 11:53

I dont know if Guiltless/Tripless, whateverless is so much the question, its consistency. To someone who has no idea, Blurry Whatever is no different than Eggbeater and so on. They wanna see no dropping. It gets to a point with the untrained eye that its simply tooo fast if you dont know what to look for. Too many move names and so forth.

Id say be consistent, you dont need the biggest tricks.

Ben

shredzilla · Post by **shredzilla** » 28 Nov 2005 12:12

I completely agree. Consistency is key. And 'showy' moves are cool. Ones that may not be that difficult but look cool. Also, creating a demo shred vid of yourself would be a good idea. And maybe accentuate some of the harder and cooler moves with a slow motion repeat, maybe even with the move name there. Barfly is always a neat one. Ken was sayin in the other thread that a lot of double dex moves slowed down look really cool. Of course, really cool music in the background.

But in general, having a great demo vid of yourself is pretty crucial.

Will Digges · Post by **Will Digges** » 28 Nov 2005 13:36

Hey, I got a response already from adidas, heres what they replied with.

Hello William,

Thanks for taking the time to contact us. We appreciate your interest in our
company.

adidas receives many sponsorship requests from deserving teams and athletes, and
we regret we are unable to respond affirmatively to every need. adidas is
dedicated to creating opportunities for participation and competition in all
sports for athletes on every level. Our affiliates are chosen because they
embody the best in athletic endeavor - teamwork, honesty, pride, personal
accountability and discipline.

All requests for sponsorship must be submitted in writing and directed to the
attention of Sports Marketing for the appropriate category, i.e., tennis,
soccer, etc. If your proposal does not apply to a specific sports category, it
should be sent to the attention of the Sponsorship Committee. An adidas
representative will contact you concerning your proposal. Here's the address:

adidas America
5055 N. Greeley Ave.
Portland, OR 97217
Attention: Sports Marketing
Sponsorship Committee

Thank you again for your interest in adidas. Our mission is to be the best
sports brand in the world.

Anyone got any suggestions about what I should include in my writing to them?

Outsider · Post by **Outsider** » 28 Nov 2005 17:09

Yeah,

First of all, I recommend sending three identical (or similar) copies of your proposal to the attention of = "Sports Marketing: Footbag", "Sports Marketing: Hacky Sack", and to the attention of the "Sponsorship Committee." Maybe also one each to the attention of "Sports Marketing: Alternative Sports", "Sports Marketing: Extreme Sports" and "Sports Marketing: Tennis" (hey, it's their tennis shoes that we're using, after all). That way, if you're lucky, you'll at least succeed in getting more people to look at your proposal. Otherwise, your letter may get read by just one person (who might happen to have a closed mind).

In the body of your message I would be sure to mention that while playing and watching the sport of footbag, attention is primarily focused on the feet and the footwear, as opposed to, say, tennis, for example; who's really watching the tennis player's feet while they play, anyway? Same goes for basketball and so many other sports that draw big sponsorships. At least with footbag, everybody will have their eyes squarely on the Adidas shoes on our feet rather than the Head raquets in the hands of the tennis players or the Wilson or Dunlop balls twenty feet away from the players.

Good luck.

Jeremy · Post by **Jeremy** » 28 Nov 2005 18:27

I've been involved with a number of various campaigns for different things and these are my thoughts:

first write a really solid and proffessional letter. Include a video with footage of yourself. Never send emails - always post it. When possible call people and talk directly to them as well. When a deal comes across work as well as possible with them - think about the future rather than the present. If you have very little performing experience and the people sponsoring you have very little knowledge of what you're doing then treat this first sponsorship as really an attempt to get some real sponsorship later. Nestle is a good example. The person who approved the budgets for the campaign we did (two budgets - one for the first campaign and a second for the last demo we did) has never seen any footage of footbag or scene any of us perform. He has spoken to me on the phone a few times very early on in the campaign when I had no idea how important he was (he's head of the biggest brand for Nestle in Australia or something similar). However because he got such good reports from the people we worked with, there's now a really good chance that Nestle will use us again in the future at a much higher level. You really can't expect lots to begin with - you need a performing and advertising resume before you'll get big deals.

Things that are good for putting on resumes are advertising promotions you've done and demos where you've been paid. Competition results are ok but only put the ones with big sounding names. Something like "Seatle Juggling and Footbag Festival" might be one of the biggest events in the world but "Australian Championships" sounds a lot better to people reading it who have no idea what the events are.

Start small. There is no way that Nestle would have done anything remotely the size of what the promotion was originally if it weren't for the fact that I've done a lot of low paid small demos at schools and festivals in the past. The experience I could put on my resume was the only reason they approved more than the original proposal of playing at supermarkets.

Because of the nature of footbag you can use it to advertise anything. I'm getting paid $1000 at the beginning of January to advertise a construction company... (for 3 hours "work").

Contacts. Knowing people is the most important thing in getting sponsorship and doing promotions. This summer is such a good example for me. I'm doing some performances (unpaid) at the Falls Festival - which is one of the biggest music festivals in Australia - only 20,000 people I think but tickets sold out in 2 days for Tasmania. I'm doing this because the organiser of the event is friends with my boss at work and my boss at work knows too well that I do a lot of footbag promotions (because I'm always taking time off work for footbag

). This is also a good example of building something - rather than just trying to get money fast. This woman has never seen me play footbag - she has no idea as to the appeal of it. She also has a tiny budget (all I get is 2 free tickets - which admitadly are worth at least $1000 on ebay). However she has said to me that this is a test run and if it goes well - which it will - next year they'll have a much bigger budget and she's talked about holding a big and serious competition next year - which would be awesome for the sport and involve a lot of money.

Then I have my demos for the construction company - which happened because I train with a profession street performer - which lead last year to me doing 5 demos or so for a very big festival in Tasmania (The Taste of Tasmania - which attracts about 100,000 people) - for which I got paid about $200 however learnt an enourmas amount of stuff and had awesome fun (I spent a week talking to professional street performers - lots of knowledge about this kind of thing). The organiser of those demos - has now hired me to do the construction demo and also the same performances as last year.

Through the street performer I train with I've also got a demo coming up in April - although I don't know much about it yet.

So don't be impatient - you should always be working towards a bigger goal - lots of money right now is good but you don't want to scare people away or have it as a one off thing. Keep the goose that lays the goldern eggs happy.

From here - haveing built up such a strong resume and contacts - is now to start looking for some more serious sponsorship and corporate demos. But I'm still happy to build up things in other areas - so if I think a demo has the potential to lead to bigger things - I'll definitely do it for less than I should.

SandWraith · Post by **SandWraith** » 28 Nov 2005 20:33

WOW. Ken and Jeremy's posts were incredibly informative and interesting. Thanks for all the great insight, guys! You make even me want to try this demo stuff.

Will Digges · Post by **Will Digges** » 30 Nov 2005 08:45

Does anyone have any ideas for some companies that I could try to get sponsored by. I realized Adidas is a long shot and probably won't work out, so I'm going to try more sponsors.

Xain · Post by **Xain** » 30 Nov 2005 12:12

Will Digges · Post by **Will Digges** » 30 Nov 2005 12:43

cool thanks

ShredOnLawn · Post by **ShredOnLawn** » 30 Nov 2005 13:02

Props for Sponsors KEn, and Jeremy.

I'd like to see everyone help each other out on the big sponsors like pepsi.

We should have a worldwide team.

Frappr.com has a map of footbaggers. Please Join.

We can use this map to tell sponsors where we have other performers on our team in the world in case they want to do a demo elsewhere.

If someone gets sponsored they should share how right away here and if possible a copy of the letter would be nice so others like myself can see what a good proposal looks like in letter format.

I've never had real sponsors but I'm starting to feel ready for them.

Attracting the public eye requires.

BRIGHT BAGS, HIGH SETS, EYE CONTACT IN BETWEEN TRICKS,PRETENDING YOUR AWESOME(Cause even Toe Stall is Great)

Will Digges · Post by **Will Digges** » 30 Nov 2005 14:05

420 posts lonn!! w000t