SPONSORSHIP CONTEST OPEN TO ALL ANNOUNCED BY ERNIE SAXTON

LANGHORNE, PA November 18, 2007 . . . A sponsorship contest open to ALL short track and local drag racers has been announced by Ernie Saxton and his monthly sponsorship marketing newsletter Motorsports Sponsorship Marketing News.
The first prize of $5,000 ($4000 in cash and at least $1,000 in prizes) will go to the racer that is able to create the best sponsorship proposal in the eyes of the judges.
Racers from all tracks and all forms of motorsports are invited to participate in the contest. The prize money is posted by current NASCAR Whelen All American Series car owner Chad Sinon along with semi-retired car owner Joe Bertothy. Photographer Chris Budihas will present the winner with a photo card package and Ernie Saxton will give the winner one of his sponsorship kits. Other prizes are being negotiated.
The winner will be required to carry the logos/names of Sinon and Bertothy on their race cars for the 2008 season of competition.
The absolute deadline for all entries will be January 3, 2008. Those wishing to have their entries returned are required to include a self-addressed postage paid envelope. Entries should be addressed to ESC Inc., 1448 Hollywood Avenue, Langhorne, PA 19047.
The winner will be announced at Motorsports 2008 presented by VP Racing Fuels in Atlantic City, NJ on January 19th.
Earlier in the year Saxton with support from Chad Sinon, Chris Budihas and Blake Tobias Motorsports paid out more than $3,000 in cash and prizes to Grandview Speedway sponsorship contest participants.
Saxton has also announced that his new DVD titled “Sponsorship Success With Ernie Saxton, The Basics That Everyone Understands And Can Do” is ready. A special introductory offer is available for just $99.95 and includes the November 17th Sponsorship Seminar DVD and a one year subscription to his newsletter for just $99.95. Normally that package would be priced at more than $175.
To order the package telephone 215.752.7797. Check out Saxton’s website at www.saxtonsponsormarket.com to get free information and additional materials that are available.

SPONSORSHIP MARKETING
With Ernie Saxton

In a recent edition of our monthly newsletter Motorsports Sponsorship Marketing News, Milt Gedo wrote that the majority of racers continue to under-value their race team and the actions they car provide a sponsor. I agree.
Gedo, who has been involved in motorsports marketing for more than a dozen years, understood why this happens. He feels it is because most racers are not in the marketing or advertising business, and therefore don’t have a clue as to what companies spend on various types of advertising and promotion each year. Personally I find that to be true and a more serious problem is that the majority of racers that are seeking sponsorship support are not willing to take the time to learn more about marketing.
There are far too many racers who handle their sponsorship efforts much like the Salvation Army. They are looking for handouts……donations rather than putting together a sponsorship package that shows a potential sponsor all the benefits of being involved in sponsoring the racer’s team.
As Gedo pointed out in the article, a motorsports marketing program, when properly designed and implemented, is a very effective form of advertising and marketing. Sponsorship is not about charity, or tax write-offs, or about the business owner who “likes auto racing.” If you don’t understand this fact about sponsorship, your chances for success are limited.
The article offered a quiz. We are not going to do the quiz but we will tell you the answers because they are eye-openers when it comes to understanding the value of advertising.
* A full-page, black and white ad in the Wall Street Journal, 2 million circulation, for one day will run $164,300.
* A full-page, color ad in the same publication for one day will run $210,300.
* A half-page, black and white ad will run $96,900
In Los Angeles a black and white, full-page ad in the LA Times will run $70,000 reaching 850,000 readers.
In Milwaukee a full-page, black and white ad, in the Milwaukee Journal reaching 236,000 readers will cost $15,000.
Sports Illustrated, the largest circulation sports magazine in the U.S., offers a full-page, full-color ad on the inside front cover, reaching 3 million subscribers (they claim there are 23 million readers), will run $500,000.
Keep in mind that all those costs are based on one issue and there is no guarantee that everyone is going to read the ad.
Now let’s go to the television where you get to talk some serious money. With 90 million viewers (based on Nielsen ratings) the Super Bowl gets $2.5 million for ONE 30-second commercial spot. And that does not include the cost of producing the commercial which can easily run another $1 million.
Just think, a company could sponsor a top racing team in just about any form of auto racing for that kind of money. And the neat thing about a company spending money on a race car sponsorship (don’t forget to include the hauler) is that they can almost guarantee that everyone at the racing events will be paying attention.
The recent Oscar Awards Ceremony had 40 million viewers and ONE 30-second TV commercial ran $1.7 million not including the cost of creating the commercial.
When we do seminars around the country, even did one in Alaska in the winter, we often toss out the advertising costs and attendees are stunned to learn what is being spent by companies to advertise.
Gedo shared some other numbers with our newsletter readers. Subway Restaurants spend more than $300 million a year on marketing. AFLAC Insurance, you know the people with the wacky duck, spend $75 million. Tecate Beer budgets $12 million each year.
Though Milt and I don’t agree on everything about sponsorship marketing, we do agree that there are two lessons (maybe even more) that a racer can learn from the advertising and marketing data that was offered. FIRST, advertising and marketing are not cheap!!! An effective ad campaign can easily cost millions of dollars.
Think about this. What would your race team do in return for the cost of a SINGLE DAY, full-page, black and white ad in the Wall Street Journal? How many personal appearances would you make? How many product samples would you distribute? How many customers of the sponsor could you provide hospitality for at your hauler?
A properly designed and implemented motorsports program is the BEST deal in advertising. At least Milt Gedo and I think so.
The second lesson to learn is that companies allocate huge sums of money towards selling their products and/or services. If you can offer an innovative and unique method to market and promote a sponsor’s product and ONLY get 1% of their marketing budget, that could still be a very nice sponsorship deal for a Sportsman racer. For example, using figures supplied by Gedo, if you could get 1% of Tecate’s budget, that $120,000. Even if you only could get 0.5% of their budget, that’s $60,000. What about AFLAC? Only 1% of their budget is $750,000.
Think about what you could do for a sponsor for just a fraction of what they are spending on newspaper, TV and other advertising. Create a marketing program and present it to the potential sponsor. Do it the right way and your success rate will be much higher when it comes to securing sponsorship.
To be successful in sponsorship you must know the value of what you offer to a sponsor.
Over the years, more than 40 in the motorsports marketing business, I have found that the majority of racers under-value what they have to offer sponsors. This is where research comes in to play. Find out what the potential sponsor is spending on marketing. Call us if you don’t know how to do that and I will fill you in on some ideas. Racers have to stop looking for handouts, donations, and start understanding the true value of the marketing opportunities they offer a potential sponsor.
LOOKING FOR NEWS. We would love to hear from race teams that have successful sponsorship stories to share with us. They could become part of this column or featured in our monthly newsletter.
SPRING SPONSORSHIP SUCCESS SPECIAL. Since we have been sharing some of Milt Gedo’s information with you we are offering a Spring Sponsorship Success Special package that will go a long way toward helping you be a success with your sponsorship search efforts. Included is the Milt Gedo CD/ROM “How to Write a Winning Proposal”, an actual generic sponsorship proposal that we have created that shows how we think it should be done, a copy of Andrew Waite’s “Winning Sponsorship” book (easy to read and understand) and a one year subscription to our monthly newsletter Motorsports Sponsorship Marketing News. A total value of close to $400 and we will ship it to you for just $199.95 plus $10.00 for shipping and handling. And when is the best time to be seeking sponsorship for 2008? Now is a good time.
This offer is not found on our website and can only be ordered on the telephone at 215.752.7797.
You can check out our website at www.saxtonsponsormarket.com for loads of FREE sponsorship information and some special offers on our sponsorship help materials.

SPONSORSHIP MARKETING
With Ernie Saxton
Have you ever noticed how many sponsorships seem to last just one season? How many companies have you seen get involved in motorsports for a short time and then disappear just as quickly? Why is that?
I think it has to do with poor communications.
How often do you get feedback from your sponsors? Talk to them on a regular basis so that if there is a problem you are aware of it quickly and can steps to correct it before it impacts your sponsorship deal and the sponsor pulls out.
Make sure that you are keeping in touch with the sponsors so that you are in a position to renew the sponsorship and keep a competitor from stealing your sponsor. How often have you noticed that a sponsor on one team shows up as the sponsor on another team? Was it a better deal or just a lack of communication?
Be sure that you have a good relationship with the key players who influence the decisions on sponsorship. A bad relationship with one of the key players can spell the end to your sponsorship deal.
Make all the people involved with your sponsor feel like they are an important part of your team. If you are not doing that the feedback could spell disaster for your relationship with the sponsor.
Did all the decision makers with your sponsors receive holiday cards? Do you send birthday cards to the decision makers? Do you send thank you cards or special occasion cards to decision makers? Did all the decision makers get team t-shirts and team hats? There are so many things you can be doing to keep everyone as a supporter.
It is not hard to keep sponsors happy, just produce more than you promised in your contract and communicate.
PAY ATTENTION TO THIS ONE. This may have nothing to do with drag racing but it is something all those who have political sponsors may want to pay attention to. And the next two years are going to offer some great opportunities for race teams to get involved with political sponsors. Be careful and I do suggest you get your money up front just in case your politician loses.
According to an article appearing in the December 28th edition of the Washington Examiner, it’s no secret that NASCAR drives skew Republican, which is fine with the Federal Election Commission, just so long as they don’t display their preferences where anyone can see them.
In a decision announced recently, the FEC sent an “admonishment letter” to Kirk Shelmerdine Racing. Shelmerdine, a former crew chief for the late Dale Earnhardt, has been a somewhat unsuccessful, under funded and under sponsored driver. He has never finished higher than 26th.
So back in 2004, in a move perhaps designed to draw some attention to his car, he placed a “Bush-Cheney ‘04” decal on his rear quarter panel, which was otherwise unencumbered by advertising. Democratic activist Sydnor Thompson complained to the FEC, and the agency found that Sheltering “may have made an unreported independent expenditure or a prohibited corporate expenditure.”
Former commissioner Bradley Smith dissented in one of the case’s early votes and blogged about the result this week. He has written that in reference to the FEC’s $250 expenditure limit, “evidence is strong that the market value of Shelmerdine’s rear quarter panel was approximately $0, give or take $249.”
Shelmerdine will be back trying to qualify for the Daytona 500 in February. He will probably be more careful about what he puts on his race car.
*********************************
WE LOVE LETTERS LIKE THIS ONE.
Dear Mr. Saxton,
Four years ago my wife and mother purchased one of your sponsorship packages. I have read and researched and tried to concentrate on your advice. As a result, I have had a sponsor ever since. Through the years I have increased my racing operation to two cars with a larger trailer, race shop on my property and spare equipment.
This year my long time sponsor was bought by another company. Last week I closed the deal with this new company by going back to your basic principles. I am very thankful for the product you sell, and I am not a “pro class “ racer. I race IHRA Hotrod and Quickrod sportsman classes. Please take a look at my website at preiserracing.com or give me a call if you ever need testimony on your products. I am always asked “How could I get sponsored?”……call Ernie Saxton.
Thank you.
Richard Preiser, Jackson, NJ
**********************************
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!!!! “THE NEXT BIG THING WILL BE A MILLION LITTLE THINGS.”
The 24th Annual IEG (International Events Group) Sponsorship Conference is set for March 11-14 in Chicago. The publisher of IEG Sponsorship Report will have about 1,200 people at their annual Conference.
From Sunday through Wednesday, according to their brochure, you’ll be immersed in the what’s-next thinking that blasts apart the status quo, the culture of futurism that gets you where you want to be first and in the strategic solutions that build brands and profits which enhancing lives and communities.
Whether your turf is B2B or B2C, public or private, sports, arts, leisure, events, entertainment, media or nonprofit - local or global - IEG is your quickest and most effective opportunity to discover all the new areas where growth is bubbling up, meet the people who are making it happen, charge your creative juices and turn up the velocity on your partnerships.
Featured speakers will come from AT&T, Cat Lift Trucks, Crocs Footwear, McDonald’s, Miller Brewing, Motorola, NASCAR, NFL, PETCO, UPS, and more. There will actually be more than 40 sponsors on hand that are will to talk with you, provided you register quickly. Included are AirTran, Allstate, FIGI Water, Frontier Airlines, Office Max, Wal-Mart and a long list of others.
You can get information on how you can attend by checking in at www.IEG2007.com or call 800.834.4850. They do other smaller conferences throughout the country and Canada that you may want to ask about.
GREAT INVESTMENT. I read Jeffrey Gitomer’s columns in the Philadelphia Business Journal each issue. It offers great helps in sales, promotion and public relations. Those of you around the nation who have a Business Journal published in your area should be making a point of reading it. Business Journals are weekly publications that you keep you informed on what is going on in business in your area and carry list of “new businesses” opening in those areas. It is a great source of potential sponsors.
Gitomer has also written some great books and he is offering two of them as a special package. For just $20 you can get his Little Red Book of Selling and his Little Black Book of Connections. They are highly recommended reading. Telephone 800.486.3289 or order or check in at bizbooks@bizjournals.com.
KICK OFF THE NEW YEAR SPECIAL. We are offering Milt Gedo’s “How to Write a Winning Proposal” CD/ROM, this is a fantastic tool to show you how to create a proposal that works, and a one year subscription to our Motorsports Sponsorship Marketing News. Our newsletter is now in its 23rd year of help racers throughout the nation and throughout the world become successful at sponsorship marketing and stay informed on what is the latest sponsorship deal in motorsports.
The two sell separately for more than $150. For a short time we offer the CD/ROM and the monthly newsletter for just $99.95 plus $5.00 for postage and handling. We will also throw in our “Hodgepodge of Sponsorship Helps and Ideas” and the last three editions of our newsletter to get you started. Call today at 215.752.7797.
Don’t forget to check in at www.saxtonsponsormarket.com where this is a load of free sponsorship help and, of course, information on the sponsorship tools we have available.