Branding, Sponsorship, and Sports- Part II: Know Your Audience

The key to any good marketing campaign or well established brand is the ability to understand and know your audience. For an athlete of any skill level looking for sponsorship it is important to realize that you are the brand, and in your quest for sponsorship, the businesses you target are your audience. So ultimately, to earn that golden ticket of sports sponsorship, you need to have a strong appreciation for what drives the decision making process for businesses allocating marketing/sponsor dollars.

There are several key factors that advertisers and marketing managers use to determine whether an athlete(s) is/are a good fit for sponsorship. Here's a quick overview of them;

Communications objectives and fit- All businesses should have a specific objective for how marketing and communications dollars are spent (or they should anyways). These objectives may be as simple as establishing their presence in the community and building brand recognition, or more commonly trying to actively to drive sales. Its key that you give some thought to what their objective(s) may be and how you can appeal to that. Example; A new health food store opens up in your town, building a relationship with them may make sense for both parties. In exchange for logo placement on your jersey they may be able to provide you with nutrition, vitamins, supplements, etc.

Who is Your Target Market's Target Market?- Lets face it Viagra isn't going to sponsor you if you're a fertile young man in his 20's (or female for that matter). This is another thing you have to think about when you choose who you're going to approach for sponsorship, do you and your audience's target market have a natural fit? In the Viagra example perhaps not, but if a marketer recognizes that you're age group happens to be their exact target demographic, then thats one more point in the pros column for you. This is a no brainer if you look at any pro-triathlete's race kit, but sometimes at the local level you might have to look at other ways your brand appeal can work with a sponsor's, and matching demographics are one important way.

Personality- There are good personalities that you want to be spokespeople for your brand, and there are not so good personalities that have been spokespeople for brands. It goes without saying that a socially active individual in their community presents more opportunity for exposure than a recluse who doesn't know what Facebook is. So its important to have a sincere, positive, and high level of interaction with those in your real world and online community. Essentially, the way sponsors see it, the more people who like you, the more people who may have a receptive response towards their brand.

On the flip side of that coin, is how important it is to realize that the more exposure you and your brand develop, the more important it is that you reflect positively on your sponsors. The only reason Nike didn't dump Tiger Woods when he failed to keep it in his pants was because they had invested far too much in building his brand to simply write him off. Sure you won't ever be subject to the level of public scrutiny as Tiger is, but in a world where social media can make everyone a star in their own little corner, you have to be careful with how you represent yourself and your sponsors.

Your Track Record and Your Story- You don't have to win every race to get brand sponsorship, but results help. Consistent podiums even within your age group should start to turn some heads and will get you noticed even when the sponsorship application consists of an online form through a medium such as Promotive.com . But if you're a team of like minded individuals getting into the sport, or an age grouper with a story to tell, or just a dedicated and hard working triathlete, that counts for something too. The Team in Training athletes rarely win races (sorry guys), but they've got Nike, Powerbar, and Runner's Mag as some of their top sponsors. What is key here is that something sets you aside, it can be race results, it can be a story of overcoming individual adversity, or it can be the fact that you've motivated 50 people in your community to race their first tri, but its got to be something and its got to be good.

Return on Investment- What you ask a sponsor to invest is going to have a lot of weight on whether or not you're going to receive a sponsorship. If you go ask your local bike shop for $10 000 cash to fund your travel expenses to the Abu Dabi tri as an AGer, they'll tell you to get lost because its $10 000 invested that won't turn into a single sale. CycleOps provides introductory levels of sponsorship through discounts on merchandise, which works for them because they forgo a little margin on product in return for guaranteed sales, and marketable individuals using their brand.

What works best is that you find opportunities for sponsors to help you through in-kind contributions. For instance, all triathletes need nutrition, shoes, clothes, bikes, hotel rooms, travel to races, etc, and these are all things that sponsors are more forthcoming with than cash outright. On the other hand if its cash that you need for coaching, etc, build a relationship with your local businesses and eventually present them with your sponsorship proposal with differing levels of commitment, and they may be willing to work with you on that basis.

Think about these key things before you approach sponsors, and with them in mind cater your proposal and approach to your target audience. Do that, and you'll be well on your way to standing out from the masses.

Stay tuned for my next blog in the series on Branding, Sponsorship, and Sports.

Branding, Sponsorship, and Sports- Part I: The Importance of a Brand

This will be the first in a four part series on the important of personal branding for athletes from amateur to elite. My focus over the next four posts will be to highlight to Age Grouper and Elite Triathletes alike how the field of branding and marketing can help elevate your level of exposure and ultimately sponsor attractiveness. For the record, I hold a Commerce degree in Marketing and work as a consultant in that field, in addition to my experience in Business Planning and Development (incase you were wondering whether I'm qualified to write this).

We're all familiar with marquis brands built up from individuals such as Lance Armstrong, Tiger Woods, and David Beckham. Of course at that level we can see the obvious benefits towards properly managing that brand. With that level of exposure comes the associated sponsorship dollars, individual recognition, and opportunity to further your development as an athlete by having the means to focus more greatly on your sport. But by no means does sponsorship and the importance of having a personal brand need to be limited to professional sports, nor does the benefits.

The challenge for age groupers, amateurs, and emerging elites in many sports is to determine how or if you can have access to a small piece of that sponsorship and recognition pie. In this first blog post I'm not going to cut too deep into the details but I'll summarize what the next few posts will discuss and I'll try to convey one important point; that winning races can help, but sponsorship opportunities is all about knowing your audience and developing a strong and consistent personal brand.

Obviously winning races is a huge plus that will really get you recognized but its not as important as having a personal brand that will positively reflect on potential sponsors and appeal to the target market of the sponsors. Athletes of all levels who are trustworthy, have a positive outlook, are highly interactive with the community (online and real world), have strong reach and influence, and who can speak well about a product, are considered to be the safest bets which will yield the greatest return on investment for the budgeted sponsorship dollars.

Take for instance the sponsorship opportunities available through sites such as Promotive whose brands include Adidas, Helly Hansen, Suunto, and CycleOps. The mandate of Promotive is to sponsorship opportunities to athletes who have significant influence in their personal and professional communities. With over 150,000 members, to M.O. isn't to dole out sponsorships to the select few who win the prize money, but to connect sponsors with individuals who will use their product and can share information on its benefits within their social circles.

In the next few blog posts I'll cut more in depth into specifics, with the general topics as follows;

• Part II- Know Your Audience
• Part III- BYOB, Be Your Own Brand
• Part IV- The Basics of Social Media
• Part V- Putting it All Together

If you have any questions feel free to post them in the comments.

Cheers,

Raf

Your First Successful Season

I began training formally with a coach this year and I must say that I've really started seeing the benefits and the difference between casual/unstructured, semi-structured, and very structured training. I speak with a lot of beginner triathletes and I know that whether you are entering your first sprint distance race, or are trying to finish your first Ironman, knowing how effectively manage the demands of the sport with the rest of life's commitments is one of the most important factors to success.

I realize that many beginner triathletes testing the waters (no pun intended) of the sport may not want to go with a coach yet so I thought I'd post seven quick points on how to set yourself up for success and provide some sites you can visit to help plan your year.

1. DO set goals- List off the races that you want to complete this year and write them down on a piece of paper and in your calendar, or better yet, sign up and pay for those races right now. The nice thing about how the human mind works is that when we set a goal, we begin to work backwards and rationalize how we'll achieve it. Think about when JFK said we would reach the moon in 10 years, no one knew then how they would do it, but they did, because thats the way we meet challenges best.

2. DO your homework- There is soooo much literature out there on triathlon, both on the web and in bookstores. There are always going to be different takes on how to train and its up to you to figure out what works best but in order to do that you need to do a little reading first. If could only buy one book on triathlon I'd recommend The Triathlete's Training Bible by Joe Friel. Don't be intimidated by its size, its loaded with beginner friendly information and will help you learn the sport. As far as websites go, Beginner Triathlete, Trifuel, and the TrainingPeaks Blog are great resources.

3. DO become a part of the community- I'm talking about the online and real life community. If you haven't already, go to your local bike shop or local triathlon shop and introduce yourself. Ask if they have group rides, or hold spin classes, or have a tri club. Don't be afraid to ask questions, and try and build a relationship with them, you'll be glad you did. As for online, Trifuel and Beginner Triathlete have great online forums with lots of athletes of all different skill levels. Again, don't be afraid to ask questions, but before you do, try and use the search function to see if its been asked before. Slowtwitch also has some very active forums but its users can be a little intense for the average joe.

4. DO have a budget- Second to golf triathlon has to be the most expensive sport out there, but it doesn't have to be. If all you've got is a mountain bike and helmet in the garage, an old pair of runners, and a swimsuit, you can enter your frist triathlon. You won't win any races, but you have all you need. That being said, a road bike, a wetsuit, and a watch will make a world of difference. Figure out how much you have to spend for the season and include race entry fees. Then go to your local shop and work with them to figure out what you need, and be up front about how much coin you have to spend.

5. DO have a training plan that you can stick to- This goes back to the do your homework part. There are many schools of thought on how to train and for the beginner without a coach I like Joe Friel's approach in the Training Bible. And once again Trifuel and BT are great resources with some decent free plans for you. While they're fairly simple, they'll get the job done if you objective is just to finish the race. Its important to stick to your plan and a big part of that is involving the people who are important in your life, they can either train with you, or they can make sure you stick to the plan on those tough days when the stress of other parts of your life seems to add up.

6. DO be aware of your body- Its important to listen to your body, when you're training for a triathlon you need rest and you need fuel. This means getting a decent amount of sleep and eating sensibly. A good rule of thumb is to only increase your training volume by 10% a week. Any more than that and the stress you place on your body increases your likelihood of illness or injury. Rest days and active recovery weeks play an important role in training by allowing your body to adapt and recover from the intense physical demands of three sports. If you go out for a run and your legs aren't there, or get in the pool and your stroke is garbage, a good way to go about it is give yourself 10 more minutes and if things don't start to feel better, then its time for a day off.

7. REMEMBER that you are a triathlete- Whether you've been racing for 10 years, or are doing your first triathlon this season, if you're reading this, you are a triathlete. This is an incredible sport and whether you finish first or last in the race the mental fortitude and physical strength required to get across the line is something deserving of the utmost respect. You're a triathlete, so you better start thinking like one, this means rather than worrying about whether you can make it through the swim, you start thinking about which swim class fits your schedule, or rather than complaining about sore joints after the your runs, you think about whether yoga, or stretching, or better run form is the solution.

To be a successful athlete you have to be honest with yourself and truly know why you compete because thats the thought that is going to get you through the tough parts of training and racing. Recognize that gains aren't going to be made overnight but if you're committed and surround yourself with positive influence you'll find that there's no limit to how far or how fast you can go.

Training with Power

Power meters are a device that have really come down in price quite a bit over the past few years and they are becoming more and more common for cyclists and triathletes alike. I began training with power myself about a year ago now and I firmly believe it is as powerful a tool as a heart rate monitor.

There is no shortage of literature out there on power meters, TrainingPeaks is a great resource for such material with a good amount of info here. Anyways, I thought I'd do a quick blog post on power meters just because its a tool even that as a cyclist for a few years I wasn't really familiar with until recently.

The power meter measures the absolute power in watts that you generate on the bike which makes it an ideal tool for training and pacing. By measuring wattage, you remove all the variables that make speed a poor measure of effort such as wind, incline/decline, heat/cold. And since power is an immediate measure of effort, you know how hard you are working in that instant as opposed to heart rate which usually lags a little bit behind the effort you apply.

The great thing about this is that you can train and race far more effectively. Most triathletes are familiar with the concept of training in heart rate zones, and to determine these zones you do threshold tests. Well with the data from a threshold test you can similarly determine your power zones and train in each zone accordingly. And accordingly you can retest through the season to see how your abilities have progressed. In January your max HR for 20 minutes may be 175bpm, and when May comes around it may still be 175 bpm. But if you've been training with power you'll know that in May at 175bpm you produce 230 watts for 20 minutes, while in January you were only producing 200 watts watts for 20 minutes.

When race day comes around you can use the data you gather in training to develop a far more thorough pacing strategy. I've been passed by many a cyclist out of T1 in a long race only to pass them later on the bike or in the run, and seen many guys mash up a hill only to blow up later on the ride. But with power I know that I can produce X watts for Y hour hours, and going up/down that hill I can stick to those watts knowing that while I'm going slower/faster, I'm still sticking to my plan and will feel good for the rest of the race after.

For the record I ride with a CycleOps Powertap Elite+ powermeter. Its an entry level get the job done sort of tool but still runs a price of about $800 online. There are other brands such as SRM and Quarq which are about $1800+. So they can get pretty pricey but the nice thing is that with a technology called ANT+ you can often skip the computer they come with and save a couple hundred bucks if you have an ANT+ compatible unit such as the Garmin 310xt.

With Polar and Garmin bringing new power meters to market in the next year or so, expect prices to come down in the next 12-18 months if you're a little gunshy on spending that dough. But at the end of the day I strongly recommend powermeters for the technically inclined or anyone racing in distances longer than Olympic. They're great tools and more and more coaches are working with them so definitely add this to the wish list.

A Constant State of Motion

The amazing thing about training for an event as big as an Ironman is that it starts to feel like you are in a constant state of motion. Day in and day out the committed triathlete will move themself from one point to another either in the pool, on the bike, or on the run and in the course of a year will spend literally hundreds of hours logging the same distances that some people will put on their car in that same timespan.

Its been a little over a year since I signed up for my first triathlon, the Calgary 70.3 Half Ironman, and it was probably a year ago that I signed up for a Half Marathon in prep for the Half IM. In that time I've learned a lot and had the opportunity to meet a lot of incredible people who I'll no doubt mention in this blog. One of the things that drew me to the sport is the incredible spirit and discipline you must have to race. Whether you're the first or the last across the line, the journey there is never an easy one, but rarely is there a more rewarding experience than finishing a race well done.

So now I'm training for the big one, Ironman Canada with my coach Todd Malcolm of No Limits Triathlon Coaching and the support of Tri-It Multisport, CycleOps Power, my friends at the TriCommitment Team, and my wonderful girlfriend Shirley Blundell (find her on Twitter, @littleredlime). Its a long way to go until IMC but I have no doubt that the weeks and miles will fly by so I thought it would be prudent to capture that long road through a blog.

I'll be talking about my training, races, the Western Canadian triathlon community, gear and equipment (I'm pretty into the toys of the sport), and whatever else comes to mind over the next 8 months. My hope is that you'll find at least a couple entries interesting and helpful and that maybe you'll want to come for a run, bike, or swim with me in the meantime.