Airline Sponsorship??

[Surfing50States]

I am heading to the USA for 7 months in November to screen a documentary film I filmed with a friend where we went to ALL 50 states of the USA and 'surfed' in every one. We have had amazing response and feedback from our tour and movie release in October, so we are heading back for a tour of over 100 screenings.

We feel this is a great opportunity for some Aussie airlines to gain some cheap positive publicity through the DVD and screening tour (and a great way for us to get some free flights!).

Can anyone tell me the best way to go about this for QANTAS and V Australia??

Find marketing manager emails? Cold calling? Mailing in a hard copy of sponsorship documents? Showing up at their offices with sponsorship documents and trailers in hand?

Thanks,
Jonno

 

[sr81]

I work for a not-for-profit and spend a huge amount of my time looking for corporate support. All I can say is good luck.

Showing up at their offices will achieve nothing and you will not get past the front desk. You need to get someone up the ladder to take an interest in your project.

Do you have a friend, relative, spouse etc. that is in a ASX200 company in a serious position of management and I mean something like CEO or CFO. They, or any senior member of Parliament you may know, might be able to arrange you an introduction to senior management at QF. Golf/yacht/hockey etc. clubs are also good for this.

QF spend millions each year on directed marketing to specific markets and with serious results in mind. These campaigns are aimed at millions of Americans - how many people will you reach with 100 movie screenings? With this and the sacking of 2000+ staff in mind I would suggest that you have an up hill battle.

BUT all is not lost. You may find QF has a surfing mad manager that flies your flag high. You can only try. Get a meeting with the highest person you can not in their community support office as they will pretty much dismiss you out of hand. They have 20 to 30 people a day beating down their door looking for free flights.

 

[ANstar]

Definately try for someone in their MArketing department or Campaign Management. THey would probably have more interest than most.

In saying that, I have never really seen QF have any paid for product placement.

 

[Happy Dude]

In saying that, I have never really seen QF have any paid for product placement.

They paid Greg Norman plenty to spruik their services a few years ago. These days they appear to have dumped all the sponsor dollars into the Wallabies and major artistic events.

Jonno, I can't offer any specific advice but my guess on the best approach is to show them 'what's in it for them' (emphasise popularity of surfing safaris, how surfers will need QF to get to these places in the US, QF logo plastered everywhere, etc and perhaps you can write an article for their inflight magazine (or other travel-related publications) and show a short version of your film as part of inflight entertainment).

Good luck, sounds like a great "project".

 

[vitaminp]

Hi surfing50states,

I remember your doco getting some press coverage back when you were in the states doing the filming, on Sunrise or Today or something. Well done on getting it to this stage.

I would be focusing on Jetstar for this one.

1. The content of your doco is probably best strategically aligned with the low cost, young, adventure seeking market that Jetstar targets.

2. Jetstar flies to Honolulu - surfing being a major activity in Hawaii, could be an opportunity for some kind of alignment, maybe focusing on your Hawaii part of the doco? I'm picturing a "Surf one state for blah blah" type of campaign.

3. Jetstar has that travel show they do, where their crew are the presenters. Combined with the Jetstar Magazine, this may present an opprotunity for coverage - again, probably only with regards to Hawaii.

I would look at putting together a pitch and call Jetstar, ask for their marketing dept and go from there.

As an aside, I would say you would be likely to get more success from some surfing magazine..ASL or the like? you may find them much easier to access.