If someone offered to tell you how to get new equipment, hip clothing, radio exposure, funding for tours, and even cash to record an album — all for free, would you be interested in hearing the details? Good. Then keep reading, because that's exactly what I'm going to do.
What I'm talking about is called corporate sponsorship. There are thousands of companies out there, from neighborhood pizza parlors to international clothing conglomerates, constantly looking for new ways to spend their advertising dollars. Behind every billboard, magazine ad, and TV commercial lies a pot of gold. Even in this slow economy, companies still spend a fortune on advertising. For instance, Ford Motor Company's annual ad budget for 2001 was $1 billion. Imagine getting your grubby little hands on the tiniest piece of that pie. That might buy a nice tour van, don't you think?
“But why would Ford care about me?” you ask. I'll tell you.
A successful musical act, even at a local level, has plenty to offer a company in exchange for advertising cash. Take the example of Tim Moyer, an independent folk rocker from Villa Park, California.
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Moyer wanted to take his show on the road, but he didn't have an adequate vehicle. He put his noodle to the task and came up with an ingenious plan. Since he would be on the road constantly, Moyer figured that he might be able to convince an RV company to help him in exchange for some publicity.
“I put the whole tour plan on paper and made a sponsorship proposal for companies that might be interested,” Moyer says. “The components were the geographic areas that I wanted to tour and the demographics of the people that would see me. I also included a CD, a bio, and the normal press kit materials, just to prove I was worthy of their support.”
As it turned out, a company offered him several thousand dollars off the sticker price of a motor home. Bingo. He had wheels. But he didn't stop there.
“I knew that a motor home would have a ton of white space on it, and I figured I could sell that to other advertisers,” Moyer explains. “I talked to a radio promotion company, and we agreed to do a swap. I put their logo on the side of the RV in exchange for some radio promotions in different areas.”
Hmm. What else do you need for a tour? Gear! Moyer refined his pitch and fired it off to guitar companies. Before long, Laravee Guitars shipped him a pair of brand-new axes.
Strings were next. At first, GHS Strings offered to keep Moyer supplied with its product at a heavy discount, “but once I sent them pictures of the motor home and said I'd put their logo on it, they agreed to give me strings for free.”
The only thing Moyer lacked was some spending cash for the road. “I talked to my friends in various companies. I have friends who work at a mortgage company. They gave us some funding to put their company's logo on the motor home.”
Moyer kept selling space, and with surprisingly little effort, he completely outfitted himself for a full-scale tour. All it took was the promise of advertising exposure and the intoxicating allure of celebrity.
“Everybody seemed very receptive,“ he says. “This was a new idea to many of these companies; they'd never sponsored a rock band before. I'd offer tickets to my shows and backstage passes, so they could live vicariously as a rock star. That's what appealed to these guys.”
HUNT AND YOU SHALL FIND
Remarkably, Moyer's experience is not unique. Companies of all shapes and sizes are looking for innovative ways to spend their advertising dollars. Savvy independent musicians are beginning to take advantage of the situation.
Josh Degenstein of Degy Entertainment, a firm that manages independent acts, insists that sponsorship is attainable for working bands. “If you're playing a solid tour schedule and you can show that you have good sales and good attendance at your shows, that's the exposure that companies are looking for,” he says. “They will help you out.”
Degenstein goes on to explain that you don't have to shoot for the new tour bus right off the bat.
“One of the things we try to get initially [for a new band] is promotional material,” he says. “It may not seem like a big issue, but there's a real difference when you go to a club and you see one poster that's on photocopied paper, and then next to it there is a full-color bill with a photo of the band and professional art and printing. That's something that can get costly.”
Jagermeister, the German-based spirits manufacturer, tries to appeal to young adults in its advertising, thus making it a natural partner for rock bands. The company sponsors more than 100 unsigned acts in the United States, supplying them all with promotional material.
“We make posters, banners, shot glasses, you name it,” says Rob Reynaga, a Jagermeister representative, “and we also pitch in for specific needs. Swerve (a band from San Diego) needed a new transmission for their bus, and Jagermeister covered that. When Simon Stinger, a San Francisco band, was asked to do an indie tour in the middle of the summer, Jager wrote a check to put air conditioning in their bus.”
GETTING STARTED
So what's the secret to getting all this cash? Denzyl Feigelson, president of Artists Without a Label, admits that you can't just walk in and ask for money. “You have to offer a company something — good music, a following, a tour, a willingness to do what the company wants you to do,” says Feigelson.
Degenstein agrees: “It's ‘you scratch my back, I'll scratch yours.’ Analyze what your package is — say, x amount of dates on the tour, x amount of people at the shows. You want to be able to report your monthly attendance numbers. Or say you know that you are touring through five certain states, for so many miles a month, for 15 shows. Use those numbers to offer advertising space on the trailer.”
Don't think you have to be famous to stir some interest. Degenstein says, “There are companies out there that maybe can't afford a huge [act], but they're still interested in getting involved with music. If you're a local band, start local. Start in your hometown. Speak to them in person and develop a relationship.” For his bands, Degenstein has landed sponsorships with carpet companies, furniture companies, shoe companies, clothing companies, and a body-jewelry supplier.
Tim Moyer, the man who created a tour from thin air, holds a similar philosophy when approaching equipment suppliers.
“Find companies that are up and coming,” he says. “They might not be appealing to the major artists but would be open to new artists who would grow with them.”
Moyer echoes Degenstein's recommendation that bands start locally: “I actually chose the motor-home companies that were in this state for that reason — so that I could get in their face and talk to them about it.”
For many artists, approaching a business with an advertising proposal may seem a daunting task, but Moyer insists that the most difficult step is the first. “Don't be afraid to make that first call to a company,” he says. “That's the hardest part. Be articulate, respectful, and use good communication skills. They just want to hear that you know what you're talking about and that you sound like a viable product.”
Zach Goode, the lead singer of San Diego…based Ghoulspoon, suggests good old-fashioned persistence as a technique. “The best way to do it is just seek out the company that you want,” he says. “Start out with guitar strings if you're a guitarist. Call them up, find out who the representative is, send out a promo pack and CD, and basically bug them incessantly until they can't say no anymore. That's what we do.”
A BIG PAYOFF
Although it's a good idea to start small, ultimately the sky's the limit when it comes to corporate sponsorship. After winning deals with Pacific Sunwear and O'Neill Sportswear, Jim Hoskins, manager of California-based independent act Common Sense, started thinking big.
“We played a series of shows for the Ford Californopia Tour. The marketing director for Ford was at one of the shows, and I asked if I could buy him a beer. As it turned out he plays a little guitar. So we invited him down to the studio, put a guitar in his hand, and taught him a couple Common Sense songs. At the next couple shows, we invited him up on stage to play. He loved it.”
Knowing it's good to have friends in high places, Hoskins continued the rock star fantasy and kept the marketing director involved with the band, just as Moyer did with his prospects.
“When Christmas came around, [the marketing director] threw this huge party at a real fancy restaurant for the band, crew, wives, and everybody,” says Hoskins. “We were talking about how we needed to do a record, and it's going to cost x amount of dollars. Two months later, the marketing director cut the band a check to cover all our recording costs and living expenses, in exchange for the rights to use the songs in Ford's commercials.”
The band doesn't have to pay back the money, as it would if a record company had fronted the cash. That wasn't the end of Ford's help. “[The marketing director] was nice enough to buy us a brand-new 2002 Ford van,” says Hoskins. “Of course, we advertise Ford on the van. There's a big Ford logo as well as our Common Sense logo on the side.”
Don't say I didn't tell you. Now get out there and start selling white space.
