Ask Not What Your Sponsor Can Do For You….Ask What You Can Do For Your Sponsor!

Last night, in the men’s 2010 half-pipe event, 2006  US gold medalist Shaun White did it again.  He won gold in Torino, and with Red Bull stamped on his helmet, he didn’t repeat just his performance and out board his competitors, he blew them away. 

The synergy between this exceptional snow boarder, and his almost equally exceptional sponsor Red Bull is clear when you consider that Red Bull made a very large bet on this young athlete and spent millions on what they called “Red Bull Project X” – building a 500 ft. top secret half pipe hidden at 12,000 ft. in Colorado’s back country, accessible only by, you guessed it, the Red Bull helicopter.  Though he certainly has other sponsors, Red Bull is certainly his biggest and fits Shaun White’s demographic well.  At the age of 23, his fans and followers are a perfect fit for the customers Red Bull targets and as such it is a match made in snowboard heaven.

If Shaun White wasn’t a household name internationally before last night’s Gold Medal performance, where he easily and expertly glided and tricked his way passed the competition, he surely is now.  And that is above and beyond the hopes of any sponsor when they bet on a sponsee.     And it IS a bet – by it’s very nature,  sponsorship differs from Advertising because of the close connection between Sponsor and Sponsee.  The reputation of each can be either complimentary or detrimental.    On the opposite ends of the spectrum, consider the recent events for Tiger Woods and his personal crisis causing him to be dumped by several sponsors who stated Tiger no longer fit their Brand profile, and the esteem and visibility for Red Bull’s brand reputation only gaining globally from Shaun Whites’ amazing performance last night at 2010 Olympics in Vancouver.

Watch Red Bull Project X in High Def here:

If you’re wondering what this has to do with Authors, no Author Source doesn’t have an inside track on Shaun White writing a book – (but we are available if he is!) - the connection is simple:  Through our Sponsorship Marketing for Authors program, where we match authors and speakers with corporate sponsors,  we have found that there is a common misconception about the cooperative nature of that match. 

Many individuals do not understand that it is not a matter of  grinding the marketing team of a corporation to just approve an amount and write a big cheque.  Though negotiations are certainly part of it, that corporation’s reputation, their brand, can rise or fall depending on who they hook themselves with.  It comes not just with financial risk, but with BRAND-confidence risk which is worth more than gold (even Olympic gold) to any corporation.

What Red Bull did with Shaun White was match themselves with a soaring star that was a perfect match to their target market. While many authors may not reach that level visibility that Shaun White has, to have brands like Red Bull knocking on the door, the point of the perfect synergy of that match is still a key one.  The target audience of a Sponsee and Corporate brand match have to be there for any deal to made, and the more complimentary that match, the higher likelihood there is of a big deal, or any deal at all.  So if you’re looking for Corporate Sponsorship, ask yourself, “what can I bring to the table?”, and if it IS a fit, you’re well on your way to finding a sponsorship partner that thinks you are Gold too.

You can watch Shaun White’s interview on 60 mins here:

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