Racer Parents: Funding Your Kids Racing - Searching, Landing and Keeping Sponsorships - Realistically

After working many years as a motorsports marketing consultant, I have seen trends change in the sport on both the racer side and the sponsorship side. The growing trend of course on the racer side is parents starting their kids in racing at an early age, with hundreds upon thousands of kids under the age of 16 racing at various levels in the sport. The growing trend in sponsorship now is that companies looking to get involved in motorsports want and expect much more than a decal on the car; they want the complete package - a sales and spokesperson that can also win in a race car, get them measureable exposure and a return on their investment. So the average young racer and their parents need to work twice as hard at landing and managing sponsors than ever before.

I hear repeatedly from parents of young racers; “Well we have got Johnny as far as we can afford out of our own pockets and we really have to have sponsorship to continue racing.” Or “Can you help us find some sponsorship, we will take anything we can get – or we are going to have to park the race car.” I usually answer these questions with; “What have to been doing to find sponsors, and why did you wait until you were practically broke to start looking?” And “Have you been taking any of your racing budget to put towards marketing your program and Johnny?”

The answer from the parent is usually, “What marketing budget? – Every ounce of money we have goes into the race car.” Or this: “We emailed a couple of companies asking for sponsorship, but we never get any response, and we just don’t have the time to keep calling and emailing.” If I had a dollar for every time I hear that - I would have enough to sponsor a Cup team!

Bottom line is racing is expensive – at any level. If your child has talent, he or she is going to require top equipment and they will potentially want or need to move up the ranks; which costs more and more as your child advances in the sport. Finding sponsorship is inevitable. As a parent you want to give your child what they need to keep their racing dream alive, up to the point of selling the farm. (Yes, I have actually known parents who sold a family farm so their son could race, and three years later they are living in a small tract house and their son decided he would rather hang out with his skateboard buddies on the weekends than go racing.)

So what do you do? How can you find a sponsor willing to fund your child’s racing program? First there are things you need to have in place before you even pick up the phone or write that first email.

1.) A professional looking website for your program, with quality images, showing that you have a way to promote your sponsors. This is also an immediate way to show a sponsor you are talking to or emailing what you have to offer them.

2.) A professional looking marketing package/presentation (Showing first what your program can do for the sponsor, not what the sponsor can do for your program) make this no larger than 10-15 pages and digital for easy emailing.

3.) Documented media coverage, links to articles, scanned clippings etc. posted on your website and in your marketing package to show that you get exposure and can get more.

Public appearances and taking the time to interact with the fans is crucial.

4.) Making free appearances at high-profile, family-friendly events with your race car and your young racer signing autographs; and make sure you have hero cards with your website on them for take-aways. Your young racer should be dressed in a team logo polo or his/her driving suit, and take plenty of pictures with other kids. You never know whose kid that could be (potential sponsor?)

5.) Have your young racer support a charity. Sponsors support charities, and you may get some support through showing YOUR support.

6.) Utilize your contacts, community and business relationships – sometimes it is all about ‘who you know’.

7.) Take a small deal, like free product and work hard to build it into a bigger program. Nine times out of ten, if you show that you can help a company sell product, they will spend actual dollars with you next year.

8.) Network, Network, Network! There are many ways to network where you will find potential sponsors. Through local business associations, attending trade shows, as well as online. There are safe and professional ways to market your program and your young racer through websites such as SponsorEdge.com; which was created by racing professionals to assist companies to find the right program and racer for their marketing needs, and for racers and teams to connect with a database of companies and potential sponsors.

9.) Research, Research, Research! There is a bevy of information on the web, and learn what types of companies are looking to spend marketing and advertising dollars in the youth and teen market.

Getting your young racer public speaking experience is a must!

10.) Educate, Educate, Educate! Seek out other parents who have landed sponsors for their kid’s racing and ask them for advice. Talk to your series promoters and find out why a certain company is sponsoring that particular series and event. Look for articles and blogs on the web about finding and managing sponsors. Take a marketing class or webinar. Learn the language that companies use in advertising and marketing - terms like ROI and 'activation' and know what they mean.  Before you pitch a company, learn everything you can about a company, understand how they market themselves and find out what they expect to gain out of their advertising and promotions. You can usually find press releases on their websites that say just that.

11.) Even if you are turned down by a company, ask if you can add them to your racing email list, and keep them updated. They may be so impressed, by next season they might say YES.

12.) Teach your young racer how to properly represent his or her sponsor. Get them education and experience with public speaking. How to address the media, interact with race fans, and the community.

13.) Take good care of existing sponsors- spring for race tickets; bring your racer and the car to their company picnic, and document all that you do for them on your website.

14.) Make the sponsor an integral and important part of your program and find the common ground, IE; “A new business looking to grow – grow with our team/driver.”

15.) Last but not least – Don’t sell the farm! Do what you can afford! Sponsors are there to assist your budget, do not expect them to pay for everything – that rarely happens! If you need to scale back your racing, use that time to do some PR, networking and marketing. It will pay off!

Please post your questions and comments about this subject here on the sponsoredge.com blog- let us know your frustrations as a parent of a racer and what you have been through finding sponsorship - share info and ideas and find support from other racing parents.


Written By: Annamarie Malfitana-Strawhand, Director or Web Development For SponsorEdge.com