Pornstar’s View of Sponsorship

Yesterday i was reading the Urban Ninja blog and Raoul makes a good point. Live the brand. This got me thinking. Have had my own company for 5 years and i received tons of ” Please Sponsor me ” letters and emails and now with Puma we get equal amount of these letters.

And to be honest most of them we just giggle at. Most people out there have no idea what it takes to be sponsored, to represent a brand and to grow with it. They get a few results and then thinking wearing your T-shirt at races will get you Free stuff and boy is that far from the truth.

I started with Puma 8 years ago, I had a dream , an idea and went to present it to them. They said to me sorry, no budget. But we put together a plan. To start all we did was buy at cost. I got a bit of cash out of a sponsor and bought kit for 6 of us and then got involved with their sample sales to get more kit for guys. We also got each individual athlete to buy a few pieces so we looked bigger and better than we were. If you want to be PRO or sponsored then you need to look or act like it from the start.

From there the next year we got a few pieces free and still spent some money on buying more and adding to our collection. The attitude was the important part, we made ourselves available to help the brand where ever they needed. Also I gave away all my other brand of stuff and just wore Puma. I lived the brand.

The following year we got more and then eventually I had a full sponsor and today 8 years later I head up the Running division for the brand. So hard work always pays off.

I have only ever raced in one wetsuit, Orca, I have only ever worn the best sunglasses in the world, Oakley. I have spent money buying only the best brands in my opinion and never used other stuff even when i have been offered it. You got to believe in the product you use and you got to build relationships. Too many athletes jump back and forth to different brands and never build up any history and get a bad name for themselves.

So my point is think 5min before you just fire off emails to brands asking for free stuff, try and think of it from their side. Try think of a angle which is different. Then if you start with a brand work with them, grow with them and become apart of it, don’t jump around. Its a very small industry and we all talk to each other.

Be realistic with your results too, email as many pictures, race results, exposure as possible. Get twitter and Facebook involved in your weapons too, attack everything with everything.

Have a plan, Focus on the bigger picture and the end result and not only on now. Be realistic with what you ask for. Why would a bike company give you R 45 000 bike ?

Remember that at the end of the day all sponsorship is about sales and making money back.

So go out there, live the dream but be realistic and never give up.

Here is how it started for me :