Finding Sim Racing Sponsors As a Startup Team

We would all love to have our favorite product whether that’s beer, food, a service, or your favorite clothing brand give you money and be a Sim Racing sponsor however, it’s definitely not a simple task. This is especially true if nobody even knows who you are yet. Even though we had not raced a single race yet as of the original post, our sponsor list is pretty impressive, in our opinion. Today we’re going to tell you about some of the resources we used to build up our Sim Racing sponsors list.

A Good Sponsor Pitch

No matter if you’re approaching Coca-Cola or a local one-man landscaping business in your area, you want a good pitch, otherwise, you are going to be turned down every time. The key item to understand is you are not there to tell what you can do for the potential sponsor, you are there to listen and find out what a potential sponsor would need from you. Next, it’s a matter of determining if the relationship is worth moving forward.

Clashing Sim Racing Sponsors

Do not put comparable sponsors on your car. What I mean by this is you would never put a Coca-Cola and Pepsi logo on the same car, so don’t do that with your sponsors. Understand the goals and values of your sponsorship companies. You also wouldn’t take sponsorship from a kids’ toy company and put the logo next to a beer company logo. It should be common sense, but when you’re trying to raise money and often time in a short period, common sense goes out the window.

Don’t Be Afraid to Walk Away

As tempting as the money is, don’t be afraid to walk away. If the relationship is going to be bad, overly demanding, or potentially be bad for PR, don’t take the money. It’s not worth the long-term issues.

Affiliate Marketing

Looking at the above Stadium Scene TV Racing Dallara IR-18 you see quite a few logos on the car. All of those are affiliated with F-R Racing in one way, mainly as affiliate marketing partners. Player One Coffee, Printful (also our merchandise supplier), and Rogue Energy are all affiliate partners. By clicking on one of those links, you help us earn a small commission from your sale and help us keep our program running. We thank you for your support!

We promote the products of our affiliate partners and provide either a link or a promo code to the product. If you click that link and buy a product, or use a promo code when buying that product, we receive a small commission for the sale. Some companies have requirements regarding blog traffic or a specific number of social media followers. However, others understand you have to start somewhere and will partner with you from day one.

To learn more about affiliate marketing, Neil Patel, a leading expert on Internet Traffic gives a great summary.

Sim Racing Sponsorships Without Money

Even if a company is unwilling or unable to give you cash, there are definitely ways that both parties can benefit without direct cash or product changing hands. For example, our partner StadiumScene.TV (full disclosure – I co-founded the company) has a mission to grow online sports brands by showcasing the work of bloggers, podcasters, Twitch streamers, and YouTube producers. You may be reading this post on StadiumScene.TV right now!

In addition to Stadium Scene TV helping us expand our brand and our reach, we’re happy to put the logo as our primary Sim Racing sponsors. It’s not uncommon for a start-up race team to put the business logo of one of the car owners until real sponsorship money comes in.

In Summary

The key takeaways from this article are as follows:

• When pitching Sim Racing sponsors, listen to their needs and build your pitch based on their needs
• Don’t put clashing sponsors on your cars (Example: a kids toy company logo next to a beer company logo)
• Don’t be afraid to walk away from an opportunity if it’s not a good fit
• When you’re starting up, check out Affiliate Marketing as a quick way to generate some partnerships
• Money is not the only option. PR, merchandise, and brand exposure can be worth way more than cash