In October of 2009 with the Vancouver 2010 Games still four months away US SpeedSkating was in dire need of cash after its biggest sponsor Dutch Bank DSB went under. With $300,000 in corporate sponsorship suddenly gone - US Speedskating was in need of a white knight and Colbert was happy to fill that role....but not in a financial sort of way.
Colbert agreed to promote the sport on his show and encourage viewers to donate money to the team. In return US SpeedSkaters would wear Colbert Nation logos on their skinsuits. Without any other plan in place US Speedskating jumped at the opportunity and donors have responded. More than 9,000 individuals have donated money (average donation is $30) and the organization has raised close to $300,000. Further, traffic on the sports website has increased two fold and the skaters are garnering huge amounts of media attention.
The success of the Colbert initiative gives light to Canadian Sport Organizations as to how they can raise money. Instead of relying on handouts from traditional sources sport organizations have to start appealing to their fan base. Post video of athletes looking for money on the organizations webpage. Show video from recent competitions. Get athletes to write blogs about their daily trials. Get the fan base involved!. Today the webpage of most sporting organizations here in Canada is bland and boring. Start appealing to the base of your sport.
By interacting with the sports base not only will interest increase but so to will corporate donations.
Thanks for posting about the US Speedskating team. We're now using social media to help find our next sponsor. I'm helping with the Facebook and Twitter pages for USS. We're definitely trying to engage more with our fans, and fans of the Colbert Report who are newly discovering the sport. And yes, we're hoping for a big increase in corporate donations!
ReplyDeleteThanks again for the post.