How to Get Sponsored by OPTIMA Batteries

OPTIMA Batteries backs a long list of racers, drift drivers, desert racers and events, from King of the Hammers to the OPTIMA Ultimate Street Car Invitational. Cam Douglass, OPTIMA's director of marketing, has spoken at several of my Sponsorship Summits, and he is unusually candid about how small his team is, how he picks partners and why a cold deck has never landed anyone a deal with him.

A battery brand needs to be remembered

Start with how people buy batteries. Nobody buys one on impulse. "My product is a long purchase cycle, so I'm just hoping that I can be top of mind when it's time to purchase a battery," Douglass said. The goal of every sponsorship is "to be associated with somebody who helps us be a memorable brand when it's time to buy our product." ▶ Watch Cam Douglass explain this

That's why he isn't interested in a one-time splash. He compared big social media influencers who charge tens of thousands of dollars for a post to a Super Bowl ad: great exposure for a day, but a battery sale happens when somebody's battery fails. "If I'm top of mind when they go look for that battery, when their battery fails, I win," he said. "It's those lasting impressions, not the flash in the pan, that are important for us." ▶ Watch the clip

Be a hand raiser

The partners OPTIMA values are the ones who show up. Douglass wants people who are "breaking through the noise. They're willing to be creative, willing to take risks, and most of all, they're hand raisers when we have an idea, whether it's a good one or bad one, they'll participate." ▶ Watch Douglass on what OPTIMA wants

His longest partnerships are his favorites. "I'd say the ones that we have, because they've lasted, are the best ones," he said, naming trophy truck racer Chris Polvoorde, Tanner Foust and UTV racer Wayne Matlock. All three "are always hand raisers. As long as their schedule allows, they'll make the time, they'll be creative, they'll spend the time on the phone, on a Teams call, in person." OPTIMA also gives its partners a common look, with colors that make a trophy truck and a drift car "look like they belong together." ▶ See the full answer

What never shows up in a proposal

Know the product cold. When I suggested that a racer who can't explain the difference between OPTIMA's RedTop, YellowTop, BlueTop and ORANGETOP shouldn't be calling him, Douglass agreed: "Yeah, that's for sure. Definitely need to know who you're talking to." ▶ Watch the clip

Follower counts and wins are table stakes. "Those are things that I take for granted, and that checks a box for me," he said. What wins him over is harder to write down: "That you know about the product, you use the product, you're excited about it, you're passionate about it. Those are kind of the unwritten things." His list includes chemistry with OPTIMA's team and agencies, creative suggestions, a can-do attitude, and partners who lighten the workload instead of adding to it. That last one matters because OPTIMA's marketing group is tiny. "There's four of us," he said, even though parent company Clarios makes, by his count, 70 percent of the batteries in the automotive market. ▶ See the full answer

Teach people about the product

Because the battery is hidden under the hood, OPTIMA leans on its ambassadors to educate. The most common question, Douglass said, is simple: "What's the difference between red, yellow and blue, and now we throw in orange?" ▶ Watch the session

His favorite piece of content happened by accident. A Polaris RZR that OPTIMA backed sat overnight in the desert with its lights on. The new ORANGETOP has a feature called OPTIMA CPR that shuts the battery off before it drains and saves one more start. "Dad pushed the... he did it with his iPhone, walked up to it, pushed it, and fired it right up," Douglass said. It was "real life content," and it taught people about the product better than an ad. ▶ Watch the story

Meet OPTIMA at its events

Most OPTIMA batteries are sold to consumers through big national auto parts retailers, but racers are "the center of the bullseye," the core influencers whose reach spreads outward. Is OPTIMA looking for more ambassadors? "Always." Just don't expect to surprise him. "It would be unusual... if I wouldn't already have heard of you first or know of you," he said. "A great way to make yourself known is to be at the events OPTIMA is partnering with," which he put at well over 400 a year. ▶ Watch Douglass on how to get sponsored

He has never signed anyone from a cold approach. "I have never sponsored somebody via an agent that sent me a deck, or that they personally sent me a deck, or they found my phone number and they called me out of the blue," he said. Every partner was "either referred by somebody that I trusted or I knew them personally." His standard: "I should have seen you within the last 12 months at one of these events... The best way to get my attention is to come and make friends." ▶ Watch the session

You don't need to find Douglass himself. "It's not about meeting me. It's about meeting OPTIMA," he said. Walk up to whoever is staffing the event, and lead with this: "The best icebreaker is, I use your product and I love it, and I'd like to have a relationship with you guys." ▶ See the full answer

Proposals that come in through the website go to OPTIMA's agency first and usually lead to product deals, he explained at another Summit, and they don't get decided "in a day or 24 hours or 48 hours." To rise above the pile, "somebody has to be pretty creative." ▶ Watch the panel

Start with product, and stay likable

"Every single one of our relationships has started out with our partners using our product first," Douglass said, and he's "happy with a product-only deal to get started." He sponsors one world-champion team with four batteries and a decal, because "that's just the way we start." Racers who get upset about starting small lose out. ▶ Watch the session

His last words of advice were short: "Be willing to start at the ground floor, right? And be likable." ▶ Watch his closing advice

Your checklist for OPTIMA Batteries

• Run OPTIMA batteries and know the difference between every top color.
• Show up at OPTIMA-partnered events and get to know the staff, months before you ask.
• Get referred by someone OPTIMA trusts instead of sending a cold deck.
• Offer educational content that answers real customer questions.
• Be a hand raiser: say yes to appearances, ideas and last-minute requests.
• Accept a product-only deal at first and grow it over time.