Here is an article a buddy of mine wrote that might get you started in the right direction:
How to Make an Impression For Your Sponsor
![[Image: spacer_blk.jpg]](http://secretweaponlures.com/images/spacers/spacer_blk.jpg)
by Doug Cavin, Secret Weapon Prostaff
WHAT SETS YOU APART from other anglers looking for sponsors? It could be something as little as your posts on a fishing forum or e-mails you send to your buddies.
How can these things affect your chances of getting a sponsor? It is something called an
impression. Every time your name comes up and someone sees it, it creates an impression. When you put your sponsors' names and logos in front of potential customers, it creates positive impressions and business that sponsor anglers are keenly aware of how important this is.
According to Secret Weapon Lures president Joe Haubenreich, "To grow, any company has to brand itself. that takes multiple, high-quality exposures. Anglers must see and hear the name 'secret Weapon' at least seven times before it even registers as a company worth investigating. We count on our Professional Staff to help us to get our name out before the public."
![[Image: fitzboat600.jpg]](http://secretweaponlures.com/prostaff/images/other/fitzboat600.jpg)
SWL Prostaff Tim Fitzgerald's Ranger Commanche
So, how can one person make an impression? Let's look at some examples. First, I posted on my blog 39 times in 2007, which was viewed 1270 times. I posted about 1,700 times this year on the Ultimatebassforum.com
I went through all the forums I frequent, my MySpace profile, YouTube, and every other site I used this year. 54,098 is the total number of items out on the Internet related to me.
Multiply that by 10-20. Why, you ask? If I make one post and ten people look at it, I've just made 10 impressions. Some of my posts this year had as many as 200-300 views, but to be conservative let's go with ten.
In addition, the fishing resume I posted on ultimatebass.com has been viewed over 11,000 times since October 2006. That's 11,000 more impressions that I have made for my sponsors.
Here is another big number for you: 216,000 - the projected number of page views by visitors to my personal website and forum in a single year.
So if you add views of my Web posts and profiles, plus page views for my personal Website, I can offer a company just over three quarters of a million opportunities to impress their brand on Internet users who share my interests.
Every magazine article in which you are featured or that you write offers provides more exposure. North American Fishing Club did an article about the
Take a Soldier Fishing Program I run. If you consider that magazine's 3.4 million readers, it increases my total impressions per year to 4.15 million, and we're just getting warm!
Having sponsors' logos on your tournament shirt, boat and tow vehicle adds in a few million more impressions throughout the year. How do we get there?
Use traffic reports for your area to estimate the number of impressions you may expect while driving. Or, just conduct your own informal study. Count the number of vehicles passing you in both directions per minutes as you drive down the highway. For me, that's fifty every minute on average, including both city and country interstate travel. In an hour, therefore, 3,000 vehicles pass by. If my Suburban and boat are wrapped in eye-catching designs, that's 3,000 people, potentially, on whom I've made an impression even assuming one person per vehicle.
How many hours per year do you drive? I drive my Suburban 15,000 miles a year. At an average highway/city rate of 30 miles per hour, it takes me 500 hours to drive those miles, so each year my wrapped boat and vehicle account for 1.5 million highway impressions (500 hours x 3,000 impressions per hour).
In addition, I fish fifty tournaments a year, some large, others small. On average, 150 people per tournament will see my wrapped boat and vehicle and the logos on my shirt and cap. Take into account all the other anglers and boaters who see Suburban parked at the ramp or my boat on the lake, and that's easily the same number again. I figure that tournaments add 15,000 impressions to my total.
Even when I'm eating and sleeping, I can be at work for my sponsors if I park my boat and vehicle close to high-traffic areas where passers-by can see them. The average billboard in Dayton, Ohio gets 32,540 views per day at an average cost of $3500 per month. A company will pay $42,000 to get approximately 11,877,100 impressions per year. Think of your rig as a floating, rolling billboard for your sponsors, and you will start to get an idea of the value you can bring to a company that provides the wrap.
Say I park in front of a restaurant for an hour. How many drivers pass by and see my sponsor's logo and message? Wrapped boats seem to always draw a crowd, too, especially at shopping centers and tackle shops.
My rig is parked in high-visibility areas (not counting at tournaments, since that has already been factored in) at least 10 hours a day, 365 days a year. So if it gets even half as much as a typical billboard (16,270 per day, or 678 per hour), that works out to be 2.47 million impressions (678 impressions per hour x 10 hours/day x 365 days/year).
Adding sponsors' links to the signature line in my e-mails contribute even more impressions. I send out an average of 12 emails to anglers and people in the sportfishing market each day. My sponsors are listed below my name with links to their Websites. In a year, that's 4,380 targeted impressions.
If you do seminars at fishing retailers and tackle shows, add those in. If you're a guest on an outdoor television or radio show, toss those in as well. I did two radio interviews this year where I promoted my sponsors, and each one reached 10,000 listeners, so I'll factor in another 20,000 for those. I will work eight tackle shows this year and will talk to or at least be seen by 10,000 people at each one. That's another 80,000 targeted impressions - ones made on the very people my sponsors want me to target. Toss in ten seminars at 100 people in each for another 1,000 high-quality impressions.
The chart below shows the estimated impressions I will make for 2008 based on the above figures.
Source Impressions Internet 750,000 Magazine articles 3,400,000 Highway 1,500,000 Tournaments 15,000 Parking near high-traffic areas 2,470,000 E-mail signatures 4,380 Radio 20,000 Tackle shows 80,000 Seminars 3,000 Total 8,242,380
We began by posing this question:
What sets you apart from other anglers competing for sponsors? The answer is
the number and quality of impressions or exposure that you can offer.
Imagine two anglers with identical resumes. Everything about the two appears to be the same, but one offers eight million impressions and the other angler doesn't even mention what kind of exposure he can offer the company.
Which one do you suppose will be offered a sponsorship package?
The angler who can offer the exposure a company needs will most likely get the nod. Haubenreich said, "The amount of exposure the angler offers is one of the most important factors in our selection."
Take the time and do the research, and the next time you submit a resume to a company,
make an impression.
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