How to Get Sponsored by Off Road Warehouse

Greg Adler sits on both sides of the sponsorship table. His grandfather founded 4 Wheel Parts, and Adler ran that company for years before it was sold to Polaris. He then bought Off Road Warehouse (ORW), the Southern California off-road retail chain, and grew its store count. He also races: short course, Ultra4 and King of the Hammers, desert, and Baja in a trophy truck he co-owns with a partner. When I interviewed him for Meet the Sponsors, and later on the presidents panel at my Off-Road Sponsorship Summit, he explained what a retailer actually needs from the teams it backs.

Understand that ORW wants people in the store

ORW sells online, but the store is the point. "Our focus is on the retail stores and the emphasis of trying to get somebody in the doors, connect with a salesperson, touch and feel the parts, really process the build of the vehicle, more so than click and buy," Adler said. ▶ Watch Greg Adler explain this

That is why a decal alone does little for him. "Just a logo or a sticker on the side of the car without any way or interaction to connect that to businesses, it's a tough sell... and it gets tougher and tougher." Today, he said, "it's all about digital content and really, what's the social media connection," linking "the sticker on the side of the vehicle and the driver or the team to that end consumer, hopefully coming in to purchase a product that they've seen on a race vehicle." ▶ See the full answer

His model example is a store event. ORW is a small associate sponsor of a Supercross team, and when the series came to Atlanta, ORW's store in Marietta, Georgia promoted a rider meet-and-greet online and gave away race tickets. Hundreds of people showed up, including plenty of customers who didn't know ORW. That is sponsorship a retailer can see at the register.

Race where ORW sells

Geography matters. ORW's stores are mostly in the Southwest, and so is its racing budget. "Primarily from a sponsorship standpoint, we'll continue to kind of focus on races and series that make sense more for the Southwest. We also sell a ton of race products to race teams," Adler said. ▶ Watch Adler on where ORW sponsors

If you're picking which products to pitch around ORW, he named the categories that move. "Suspension, tires and wheels is the bread and butter for an off-road retail store... and they're bigger tickets, so those are good brands to go after." ▶ Watch the clip

Start with contingency and earn your way up

ORW is a growing business, not a deep-pocketed manufacturer. "We're not in a position to just wing out sponsorships, right?" Adler said. Contingency is how ORW backs racers it doesn't sponsor directly: "Contingency gives us a way to give back to the racers that are out there working hard to win the races." He wanted ORW's payout to stand out from the typical small per-race amounts, so its program paid class champions $5,000 in ORW credit, and it came with strings. "You have to sign up with ORW marketing. You have to commit to doing some social posts at a minimum after the race, talking about the race and tagging ORW." ▶ Watch Adler on contingency

Post content ORW can repost

ORW doesn't have a giant media department, so it relies on its drivers. "We encourage any of our sponsored drivers to upload that content, email that content," Adler said at the summit. Drivers are told to tag ORW Race and the store's accounts, "and then we're able to pick up those stories or posts and post them on Off-Road Warehouse." His bottom line: "We want that content, and the more we get from those drivers, the better we feel about that investment." ▶ Watch Adler on the presidents panel

Following counts too, but you don't need a huge one. "I always encourage racers that are looking to get sponsored to make sure they have a social media game of sorts," he said. "You're not going to have maybe a million followers... but to have a respectable following, to build a following, and to do those things will help you with any brand." ▶ Watch the clip

He pointed to Brian Deegan as the example. Their friendship started at a race, when Deegan walked up and said, "Hey, I hear you're the guy in off-road and I want to start selling some parts." Years later the Deegan family's following made a deal simple: "It was easy for me to do something through Off-Road Warehouse with Hayden and with Brian because of this great following that they have." His advice: "Study what they've done, study what other young racers have done, and figure out how to connect the social dots there." ▶ Watch Adler on the Deegans

Make your sponsors money, not just exposure

As a racer, Adler runs a sales contest for his own sponsors' products in ORW stores, with a Baja trip as the prize for the top seller. "We don't just buy their product, which we do, but it's an opportunity to grow their product." He wants teams to think the same way. "If you're able to connect the dots between your sponsors in some way, benefit their business and benefit their bottom line... then that's gonna obviously create some goodwill with that sponsor." And: "If you can show that you're providing value beyond what they're paying you, you're gonna create a lot of goodwill and probably create another extension to your sponsorship." ▶ Watch Adler on adding value

At the summit he joked that his own route to a sponsor was to "buy a company and then sponsor yourself." For everyone else, it's relationships. "If you have some other partners in your program that you can connect with another sponsor, there's that leverage and that connection that's helpful." ▶ See his advice to racers

Pitch it, he'll listen

Adler pointed racers to ORW's marketing department by email and said contingency is the main way in for now. But he keeps the door open: "One thing I learned a long time ago from my dad in business was never hurts to listen, always listen." ▶ Watch the close of the interview

Your checklist for Off Road Warehouse

• Race in the Southwest or near an ORW store, and say which store your audience can reach.
• Propose something that puts people in the store, like a driver appearance or a meet-and-greet.
• Sign up for ORW's contingency program and post after every race, tagging ORW.
• Send ORW content it can repost, and keep sending it.
• Build a respectable following and track it. Followers, likes and videos posted are what Adler measures.
• Show how your other sponsors, especially suspension, tire and wheel brands ORW sells, can move more product through ORW.