Getting sponsorship for expeditions
This has never been an area in which I can pretend to be extremely successful though more out of lack of application than anything else. The basic rule is: if you ask enough people and companies enough times you will get the money and goods you need. Some rules emerge from my own experience which includes gaining free flights, gear and fat tyre bicycles for our latest Bike the Sahara expedition.
1. Asking for money is harder than asking for gear. Don’t be greedy and ask for both. Just ask for gear/service assistance.
2. Offering to return the gear after the trip increases the chance of being offered gear.
3. Make a video- even if it’s on your mobile phone and tell them you are making a video. A gear supplier can put that up their site.
4. Have a blog that mentions your sponsors- this site gets over 2000 hits a month so any sponsor- such as Speedway cycles of Alaska are getting exposure all the time.
5. Be inventive. The more firms you contact the more likely you will find a true enthusiast who wants to back you more fully even perhaps with hard cash.
6. Be prepared mentally to do the trip even with zero sponsorship- this puts you in a stronger position when it comes to asking. You don’t sound all needy. It also makes the trip more real in your own mind.
7. Don’t rely on email alone. Use email, phoning and faxing. Faxes are good because they result in a hard copy on someone’s desk. Assume most emails are only glanced at. You have to phone to confirm and enlarge on the project.
8. Have website full of info about your expedition so a potential sponsor can check you out immediately they get your request.
9. Offer to write an article for the website/inflight magazine of an airline to get freeflights. Always ask the marketing director and not a lower down hireling. Check out airlines offering new routes- they are most open to getting publicity.
10. But don’t compromise the success of the expedition because of the lure of lucre from potential sponsors. They are entitled to publicity but not if it means you can’t get the expedition finished.
Most of my expeditions I have paid for myself with only sponsorship adding a tiny fraction to the overall cost. This way I actually went places rather than spent ages waiting for that phonecall. In the end a cheap trip that works is worth ten big ones that don’t.