Production companies and marketing firms spend their time working to produce events and obtain budgets. they do so via corporate sponsors and advertisers as well as "title sponsorships"
Festivals, sporting events and other public gatherings have many different ways to go about getting budgets, but the ones mentioned here seem the most applicable... imo
These event management "type" firms use the budget they obtain to promote and produce the endevour.
The SN is really not much different, if ya think about it.
The difference is it is grassroots, quasi organized and understaffed-- and the budget comes from the entry fees, for the most part.
Another difference is marketing materials, or the lack thereof...
Brochures, event guides, magazines are what i have seen production companies and marketing firms utilize to obtain a sponsorship and/or advertising contract.
The SN Series has nothing like this from what i have seen. The PDGA is just now getting around to that school of thought and took the big dive by hiring a sports marketing firm. they dove in head first... so to speak.
The firms i mention-- the ones i've worked for anyway, spent about nine months lead time in promoting and marketing an event. (now of course a music festival is a damnsight easier to "market" than a "frisbee throwing tournament")
Presentation is where it is at, when attempting to land a real sponsor.
An array of sponsorship options is where it is at too...
The SN Series is a poster child for sponsorship, from my perspective. heck if bowling can get sponsors-- SURELY dg can...
Another thing that is lacking is a "staff" that persues the sponsorships. Most folks that market events to potential sponsors work on a commish basis. (not all-- as on the bigger scale of bidniz-- but the grassroots level it is very common to have such a scenario where a "part time" staff works on promotion and sales)
Jim0 is one of the nicest guys it has ever been my pleasure to meet, but he has said himself that gettin' sponsors is not his strong suit...
He has enough on his hands anyway...
I agree with his statement that "we" have to step up and make the SN Series grow...
I have experience laying out magazines, brochures, and other professional marketing materials for production companies that produce pubic events as well as utilizing the internet to promote public events.
I am willing to help design a brochure for the SN Series. I can't foot the printing bill, but the QUARK software i have and the skills i can offer will save beaucoup $ up to the point of printing. (you get a better deal when you print in volume... by the way... and that way, jim0 could distribute marketing materials for a whole season-- all across the south-- leading up to hattiesburg and BR hext year)
With "real" marketing materials, the SN Series would be two steps closer to landing "real" sponsors in my opinion...
I am not talking about something that is printed out on a home computer and all centered down the middle, poorly layed out and misspelled.
Real documentation is very important, in my opinion. anything shy of that-- does not leave an impression on a business that the SN Series deserves.
These presentation materials should include info like-- economic impact on a city that hosts a SN Finals event as well as one day events... also demographic info about the dg community, etc, etc...
(the PDGA demographic info paints a pretty darn nice picture of the average dg'er-- homeowner, credit cards, college, etc.. in other words an attractive consumer to businesses)
Until the SN gets real about presentation materials it will be real hard to get beyond were it "is" when it comes to sponsors.
Merely my opinion...
on a smaller level, 25$ per hole sponsorships (not CTP's but small sponsorships that go into "event budget") are an easy way to get $
25 X 18 = 450