TAKEOFF
TOURNAMENT LIFE
THE OFFSEASON SPONSOR REPORT
T
By Joe Balog
SHOW SPONSORS HOW HARD YOU’VE WORKED, AND ESTABLISH A PLAN FOR NEXT SEASON
hroughout the tournament season, it’s often difficult
for anglers to communicate with sponsors due to strin-
gent time demands. However, the offseason remains
an opportune time to get caught up on paperwork and vital
relationships, whether you’re a pro, an aspiring pro or a rep-
resentative of a fishing team.
As both a product spokesman and owner of a promotion-
al firm for nearly 20 years, I’ve been involved in dozens of
relationships with some of the industry’s leading marketing
executives. Behind closed doors, most of them share a com-
mon complaint about dealing with pro-staff: A large segment
of their pros fail to update the sponsor regularly.
Many tournament anglers simply don’t know the best way
to harness and report examples of their work. Fear not;
today, it’s pretty easy.
Collect Your Clips
26
Tournament anglers should regularly scour the internet
for any mention of their name, photos, videos and tourna-
ment standings. Learn the screen-capture function on your
computer to grab the “press” when you find it. Keep an
organized file, and also learn to reduce file sizes to around
1MB each.
Having these files is the first step in building a progress
update for sponsors. The goal is to include as many valid
examples of promotional work as possible. This can also go
beyond print.
Record dates of interviews, work with potential sales leads
(especially useful for boat and motor sponsors), appearances
at consumer or trade shows, seminars, guide trips, youth
events, and anything that might gain positive attention for
the sponsor’s brand.
When possible, include photos of events and your inter-
actions with the public. All of these can be included in the
folder and later placed in the update. Even radio clips can
often be found and downloaded, with a link included for the
sponsor to sample. And don’t forget to include tournament
standings.
Package an Update
Once all the relevant materials are compiled, it’s time to
assemble the update itself. Packages don’t need to be extrav-
agant as much as organized. Separate each promotional
effort into its own category, and build a page designed to
showcase your work.
At one time, my company specialized in highly technical
graphic packages. However, with today’s advanced technolo-
gy, I’ve found that a basic understanding of easy-to-use soft-
ware such as Microsoft PowerPoint or Publisher is all that’s
needed to develop a quick, attractive update or portfolio.
The key is to keep it clean and organized, without crowd-
ing too much on each page. It’s important to realize that the
marketing personnel behind sponsorship choices are often
stretched incredibly thin, so hit the high points and make
viewing easy.
Include a Social Media Report
Social media is a vital tool for anglers’ publicity needs. Here,
building a following is the name of the game, as posts and
shares can then be broadcast to thousands of viewers instantly.
Become adept at the basics of Facebook, Instagram and
YouTube, and include them in your game plan. Once pages
are established, demographic and publishing tools allow
anglers to track the reach of their posts, and easily provide
that information to sponsors.
Along the way you should also notify sponsors or their
social media contractors when a particularly compelling
piece of social media is posted so they can share it, which
dramatically increases the reach of the post.
For your offseason update, grab a few screen captures of
posts that have done particularly well, and include those in
the report.
Add Important Extras
A few more useful resources can be included to complete
the progress update, and each will separate you from the
competition. First off, include supplemental photography.
FLWFISHING.COM I FALL 2018