It's showtime!

Entrepreneur, Nov, 2001 by Peter Kooiman

Imagine putting your logo on billboards, banners and T-shirts, and handing out free product samples to countless potential customers--all for next to nothing. With event sponsorship, you can do all that and more.

"Sponsorships [are] a great way to quickly get market awareness about our product," says Steve Yacht, 28-year-old cofounder of Warp Energy Mints in Toronto, which frequently sponsors extreme-sports events.

To find events that reflect your business, "you need to think about your customers," says Robert Madrigal, professor of marketing at the University of Oregon in Eugene. Warp, for instance, sponsors extreme-sports competitions because they appeal to the company's target market of 18 to 29-year-olds.

Products considered new and innovative--like Warp's mints--can often get free ad space at events in exchange for product samples. "Traditional companies offer [event promoters] more money," says Ron Cheng, 28, also a Warp co-founder. "But [many would] rather associate themselves with cooler, up-and-coming brands."

Networking is the best way to get started doing sponsorships. Yacht used an association with Strength (a skateboarding and snowboarding magazine) to secure Warp's first event sponsorship: a Converse skateboarding competition. Since then, the mints have made their way into more than 10,000 U.S. and Canadian retail locations.