so in my quest for sponsorship for the 'Clipper Round the World Yacht Race', there have been a lot of ups and far more downs. Last week i accomplished more work than i have done in the past 6 months! my dad being the main reason for my doing any work at all, mainly because he views any form of laziness as something like a criminal offense.
so i was on the laptop 11am-4pm and 7pm-10pm everyday! unfortunately i am rather depressed at the moment as i am running out of companies to contact, which may sound impossible with the millions of companies around at the moment, but they have to meet certain requirements or i could just b wasting my time:
- they have to have a marketing budget big enough. a lot of big companies have a budget for sponsorship as well but this is usually for community or charitable activities so no luck there.
- they have to have offices and customers based worldwide so they will benefit from my promoting them in the many countries we visit.
- they have to want to reach an audience interested in yachting and travel. the industries i have been contacting so far have been;
- wind energy companies based primarily in the UK
- sun cream companies, which would be absolutely perfect as they have worldwide distribution
- yacht charter companies and websites that sell yachts. people on the race will have a keen interest in things like this because the 400 people taking part on the race as well as the people viewing the race will have further contact with yachts
- package delivery companies. the idea here is a media stunt with the yacht delivering parcels round the world, a demonstration of the distance it has to travel and an excuse to give people a gift or award in the various ports.
- marine electronics, actually only one company so far has been contacted but they are hard to find when you have a specific idea in mind, but a few other wi-fi companies who install them in yachts for Internet in port.
A breakthrough came when i emailed the editor of Expat magazine, who had previously expressed interest in doing a feature. he mailed back asking if we could arrange a time to meet. of course, when mailing him i gave him some dirt to work with on living in Singapore, which added flavor to the story. as i have been telling people, if you give the media a story out of the ordinary they couldn't be more happy to have content to fill those columns.
plenty of rejection letters came through, most companies, however, didn't even bother to send anything back. i have called a few of them and they always have the same answer - they don't 'do' that kind of sponsorship. Though i know if they thought about it they would see the amazing potential this race has. i am chock full of ideas, all i need now is an innovative company that is ready to become famous.
another breakthrough came with Bhavik Gandhi - a man who rowed across the Atlantic ocean alone as well as being a great sales person. he raised US$ 6,000,000 through sponsorship so he said that US 55,000 is definitely doable. what surprised me, as i looked on his sponsors page is the diversity of the companies, most of them nothing to do with rowing and many of the companies in direct conflict with each other like the communications companies ericsson and nokia that were both supporting him. he must have got a none exclusivity contract with them.
i found out about him through my mum, who is looking for a job in a company which provides entertainment packages for companies who want to put on some corporate hospitality for clients. Bhavik used to work for them, so now i have an excuse to interrogate him with the pages and pages of questions i have written out.
For those who are following it, the Volvo race left Singapore on Sunday. we got there just in time, trying to save money by taking public transport was not a good idea and they were half gone, traveling to the start line somewhere out of sight to set off for Qingdao, China through the harsh Siberian winter that has come with this January - which is surprisingly similar to the route taken by the Clipper race i want to be on. this time next year i could myself be travelling through icy storms to the colours of Chinese New Year on the other side. the similarities between the races end there though as they take a marathon route round the Antarctic instead of heading to California like we will be.
i want to go on this race so much. when i shut my eyes i see where i want to be - at the top of the mast sailing into the sunrise on the horizon, with all my senses heightened from the four hours of sleep that we got that night. that is when I'll be happy, and feel at peace with the world.
till then life is a nightmarish blend of stress and procrastination in my search for sponsorship.
