Effective Sponsorships: What the Best Partnerships Actually Look Like

Racers constantly ask me what sponsors want. The honest answer: look at the sponsorships that keep renewing, year after year, and copy what those racers do. At my Sponsorship Summits, when I ask marketing executives for examples of partnerships that impressed them, they never describe a logo placement. They describe behavior.

Wake up like an employee

Start with the man behind one of the longest-running sponsorships in all of motorsports. When I was writing my book years ago, NHRA Funny Car champion Ron Capps told me he was spending 45 to 50 days a year at NAPA Auto Parts stores — more days at the counter, some seasons, than at the races. That's not a coincidence of scheduling. It's a philosophy.

"I've always woken up in the morning and sort of considered myself an employee of whatever that sponsor is, whether or not I'm employed by them," Capps told our Summit. "You wake up and you try to make that company better that morning, just like you're an employee — then you're going in the right direction. If you wake up and you're like, 'Well, this company is a sponsor, they sponsor me and my race car' — with that attitude it's not going to go very far." ▶ Watch the session

Capps learned activation early, on a Brut cologne deal long before NAPA. The brand used his car and his name to launch a new fragrance — "we did a lot of grocery stores and convenience stores and drug stores and pharmacies" — retail activation, not racetrack activation. When Capps stepped up to team ownership, NAPA jumped on board, and the relationship has outlasted nearly everything else in the sport. ▶ Watch the clip

Be the sponsor's extra set of hands

Bill Tichenor, corporate director of marketing at Holley — whose family of brands includes Holley EFI, MSD, and Racepak — answered my "what impresses you" question with a name: Chad Henderson.

"He had a really fast small-tire radial car, and we were breaking into that market with our newest computer. He was an early adopter, so he helped us prove it out, test it out, give us feedback — and became just a great friend and partner," Tichenor said. The relationship kept compounding: "Late last week we were working with him on a Racepak dash."

What made Henderson invaluable wasn't his win record — it was that he multiplied Holley's reach. "He became pretty proficient at Holley EFI, and then he could go out and help us support other racers at the tracks he was at, because we can't be everywhere," Tichenor explained. "We look for racers that can help us more than just exposure, a decal on a car. What other added value can you do? Will you be out on forums helping us with tech? Are you a good enough dude to help your competitor out there?" ▶ Watch the clip

Notice the standard: "Staying with each other through thick and thin... It's not 'what can you get from Holley and what can Holley get from you.' We like to build long-term partnerships that sometimes start really small."

Custard, sprinkles, and authenticity

JR Twedt, president of K1 RaceGear, told our Summit audience why he sponsors sprint car star Brian Brown — and the example he reached for had nothing to do with sprint cars.

Brown has a sponsorship with Andy's Frozen Custard, and Twedt has watched it up close. "I saw what Brian did with that sponsorship from day one," Twedt said. "He didn't want any VIP treatment — he wanted to be standing in the dirt with his kid, getting their ice cream, covered in dirt and sprinkles. I watched him foster that relationship with that company. That is a very, very authentic connection that the CEO and owner of a massive franchise saw value in right away." ▶ Watch the clip

Twedt keeps a stack of Andy's coupons Brown gave him — "my daughter just begs me to take her all the time." Think about that: a firesuit maker's president is personally driving customers to his driver's other sponsor. That's what effective looks like — every partner in the program amplifying every other partner. ▶ Watch the clip

And Brown didn't start with money, as Jason Smith, president of USAC Racing, reminded the same audience: "He didn't start with a lot of money. He started at the bottom and worked his way up." The authenticity came first; the budget followed. ▶ Watch the clip

The pattern

Put these three stories side by side and the pattern is unmistakable:

Effective sponsorships are jobs, not gifts. Capps clocks in for NAPA whether or not there's a race. Effective sponsorships deliver skills, not just stickers. Henderson gave Holley R&D feedback and trackside tech support no ad budget could buy. Effective sponsorships are authentic. Brown's custard runs with his kid did more for Andy's than any hospitality suite, because the CEO could see it was real.

None of these racers asked, "What will you give me?" All of them answered the question every marketing director is silently asking: "What will you do for us that we can't do ourselves?"

If you're building your program for next season, pick one sponsor and design your own version of these stories. Spend a day at their retail counter. Become the product expert other racers call. Take their product somewhere genuine in your life and let people see it. Then document all of it — because in a later column we'll talk about the proof of performance report, where these stories become your renewal pitch.

The racers above didn't get lucky with generous sponsors. They made themselves impossible to cut.