Kris Mathis

Social Media as Sponsorship Street Cred

by Kris Mathis|February 3rd, 2010

Fact: blue chip brands receive thousands of sponsorship proposals every year. Estimate: there are some 300,000 properties seeking sponsorship (depending on the way you define it).

How do you break through the relentless clutter to get the ear and sincere consideration of a sponsorship decision maker? A well researched and tailored proposal may increase your chances, but these days there are a lot of other properties spending a lot of time doing the exact same thing on the sponsor you’re targeting.

Fact is, when you’re submitting a proposal to a blue chip brand that gets flooded by proposals (especially when you’re submitting through a proposal management system), it’s a stretch to think that every proposal will get an in depth review on the merit of its own ideas. Actually some systems rate your proposal against a scorecard for the sponsor so that they don’t even have to read the proposal or see your “vision,” only the nuts and bolts. This may be deflating considering many properties spend 1-2+ hours on each tailored proposal. Keep reading to find out how you may be able to make it out of the pile.

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About Kris Mathis

Kris Mathis is the Founder/CEO of SponsorPitch.com, a New York City-based sponsorship networking start-up. Kris started his career in sponsorship representing Fortune 500 clients at Edelman PR's sponsorship consulting division prior to jumping to a brand management position at Paris-based mobile gaming startup, Gameloft. In between, Kris attended graduate school in Nashville (Music City!), Tennessee. In his spare time, Kris enjoys eating, running, the beach, UFC and Bryant Park. Follow Kris on Twitter @Sponsorpitch!

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Will Social Media Become Ambush Marketing’s Favorite New Ammo?

by Kris Mathis|December 29th, 2009

As we turn the page and look ahead to 2010, let us address a topic most marketers have a strong opinion on: ambush. Whether you believe ambush marketing of official events is creative and cost-efficient or an unethical and illegal mortal marketing sin, the fact is 2010 will see more of it than many marketers care to envision. Global events such as the Olympics and World Cup will fuel the fire, as they have in the past, but this time the battleground may be waged on a relatively new frontier: social media.

Sure, some will attempt to solve ambush with legal claims such as trademark infringement and unfair competition. Last week Major League Soccer filed a lawsuit against Black and Decker for their Dewalt promotion around exhibition matches (competitor, Makita, is the official sponsor of MLS). However, ambush marketers – and their legal teams – will likely find new ways to skirt IP issues with the Olympics, especially in an environment without precedent like social media. When you’re spending 100 million for an official deal, both property and sponsor should probably be proactively identifying ways to mitigate ambush rather than (or at least as well as) relying on reactive legal remedies. Consider this, Coke spent an estimated $70 million to be one of the top 12 Olympic sponsors — and $5 million to $15 million more on the torch relay, but according to at least one study, up to 60% of consumers believed Pepsi was the official sponsor in Beijing. Scary stuff for CMO’s and properties.

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7 Social Media Tips for Sponsorship Sales

by Kris Mathis|December 3rd, 2009

Marketers, and especially sports marketers, in my opinion are vastly more educated in social media than the majority of other professions. 99% of the talk about social media, however, is on how it can be used to market to consumers. Are there social media tips and tricks sponsorship pros can use to better support their sponsorship case to potential corporate buyers? You bet… and they’re constantly evolving. Let’s rundown a few and feel free to add your own at the bottom.

1. Don’t assume your audience is the same. You likely provide consensus demographics for on-site and broadcast. Okay, that’s great, but are you also considering the variance between your audience on-site and your audience online? Whether it’s Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn or a number of other sites, presumably you’ll be finding ways for your sponsors to interact with consumers on these platforms too. The audience profile may vary dramatically from on-site (for better or for worse). As technologies mature, your on-site audience will likely more closely mirror your social media audience, but until then it’s wise to keep in mind the variance across your consumer touch points.

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How is Your Sponsorship Program?

by Kris Mathis|August 25th, 2009

Text Perception is reality I am told and recently sports sponsorship has taken it on the chin. Do we need to rehabilitate our image and if so, how? Some have suggested we should change the terms we use to describe our practice. Is this managing perception or folding in the face of uninformed critics? Jason Peck had a spirited discussion on the topic a while back on his blog. With that in mind, I thought it would be a decent enough time to take a look at a few of the terms we use day in and day out while networking in the biz. [click to continue…]

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7 Sponsorship Sales Lessons from Billy Mays: The Ultimate Pitchman

by Kris Mathis|August 2nd, 2009

Billy Mays

“Hi, Billy Mays Here!”

was his famous tagline and for years he made late night television his home, moving millions upon millions of cleaning products like the Awesome Auger, OxiClean and Orange Glo – two minutes at a time. Mays died recently at his home in Florida, but not before leaving us with many an infomercial gem.

While he had his critics and his style certainly was not for everyone, few would argue with the fact that he was one of the most successful pitchmen in television history. Mays could captivate talking compost with his high octane pitch, which often included witty one liners like “it takes the hardwork out of yardwork.” So how did he do it and what can sponsorship sales execs learn from him? [click to continue…]

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Need A Sports Sponsor? Find Success With SponsorPitch.com

by Lewis Howes|December 16th, 2008

Are you looking for a sponsor but are finding it harder to get funding because sponsors are cutting budgets and “spending smarter”? If so, SponsorPitch.com is your answer. Properties are fighting harder for sponsorships and looking for every edge they can get in reaching decision-makers. Luckily for us SponsorPitch is a company that provides a solution for both of these interests and takes on even greater importance, given the uncertain economic environment.

This article talks about how NASCAR is taking a huge hit right now because many major sponsors are backing out on funding. As fans continue to go crazy at the races, NASCAR executives are having a hard time finding something to cheer about.

It is nice to know this world is filled with guys like Kris Mathis, Founder of SponsorPitch, who was able to come up with a great solution for this problem.

Check out this video interview I recently did with Kris as he explains more about why he started SponsorPitch, how you can benefit from joining, and what you need to do to get started:

Additional Comments:

Chris founded SponsorPitch based on his experience within an agency searching for new sponsorship opportunities for their clients, but looking for a more efficient resource for finding, filtering and evaluating them. SponsorPitch’s virtual pitch platform allows marketers to evaluate opportunities in a smarter, efficient, and more comprehensive way.

•    It’s free to join. Start browsing pitches or creating a pitch in a matter of seconds.

•    No subscriptions. No commissions.

•    Open to opportunities of every size, genre and location. Bringing together the “longtail” of sponsorship opportunities and making it easy for brands, businesses and agencies to find them.

•    Currently beta testing: they have set aside a limited number of invites for SportsNetworker members so send me and e-mail if you would like to sign up.

•    If you’ve got a complimentary site, service or business, SponsorPitch would like to partner. Contact: [email protected] for more info.

Keep an eye out for more! SportsNetworker and SponsorPitch hope to work together in the future to create more business opportunities within the sports industry.

What are your thoughts about this new sports social networking platform? How could it be better? Feel free to share your thoughts on your own sponsorship experiences… how difficult was it, what were your main challenges for finding a sponsor, how could it be easier for you in the future?

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