The "Buy Now" Button You Won't See.
What a week!! - lots of news that we're excited to share with you in the next few days. To cap it off - 75 degree weather in NYC and two game seven's coming this weekend. We'll be putting out some exciting news next week, but first I wanted to take a couple minutes to tell you more about where we're headed. Whether you're a buyer or seller of sponsorships, we think that the goal is the same: to efficiently share information and build relationships in a way that eventually leads to more business opportunities. We're not all the way there yet, but we're getting closer every day. We need your help to make it happen.
Now here's what SponsorPitch is not...
We are not a listings service.
If you want to post your text description into a static database, there are plenty of places on the net to do that. SponsorPitch will host your dynamic presentation, allow you to promote and network around it and allow brands to connect with you in the most targeted way possible. Everything we do revolves around this. SponsorPitch was built as a conversational platform, not a database. While we want to host your pitch, we're giving you the tools to take your pitch to the internet. For instance, embed pitches on other sites, tweet about it from the interact section, "share" your pitch with your linkedin contacts, link the html widget from your own site to your pitch. We'll tie it all together for you and make sure you're leveraging the internet to grow targeted interest for your sponsorship opportunity.
We are not a transaction platform.
If you're serious about sponsorship (and the value that experienced sponsorship pros play) you don't want us to be. We have a team of development super ninjas. It would take them a couple hours this weekend to drop in a paypal function that allows properties to take payments from sponsors. In fact, the investors we talk to - almost ALWAYS - want to know when we will do that.
As much as we'd like some more seed coin, we didn't build this site for VC's.
A payment feature is something that a social media guru, not a sponsorship professional would implement. Heck, you won't even see a pricing section on the profile page here. This is on purpose. SponsorPitch wants you to demonstrate the spirit and potential of your offering, rather than simply sell media. As former buyers within an agency, 75% of our time was spent brainstorming internally and with the properties we partnered our clients with. As sponsorship professionals, we MUST realize that our most valuable asset is the creativity that we bring to work everyday. Do you want to be packaged and priced on a menu - because if you do - then you're not a sponsorship professional, you're a media buyer/seller. Further, sponsorships are NOT AN IMPULSE DECISION. When done right, sponsorships require a TON of creativity, planning and communication. Be wary of promises to sell your sponsorships for you, either by representation or a buy now button. Our experience buying and selling sponsorships tells us that sharing information and building relationships is much more valuable than taking signage buys via paypal. We're not going to commoditize sponsorships for a little extra commission revenue and if you're a true sponsorship professional you love the fact that we won't do that. Why? Because your passion for creativity and client services led you to this industry in the first place. You're not asking for a handout (that's charity, not sponsorship) and you shouldn't put a price on something before learning about the needs of your prospective partner! Are you with us on this?
As always, we'd love to hear your thoughts and suggestions for the future of SponsorPitch. Drop us a line at [email protected]
