Hospitality:
"friendly and generous reception and entertainment of guests
or strangers"
Many times when I sit down with a racer and go over their sponsorship
proposal I hear the same thing: " I need money for this, this, and
this, to race." My response is always the same. "That's great -- but
what is the sponsor's benefit from this"?
We will cover other issues on what sponsors SHOULD look for another time
but today I want to discuss the importance of hospitality.
Although beyond the means of the average racer I felt it best to go to the
leaders in this industry PacWest Racing of Indianapolis, Indiana. PacWest
and their Champ car race hospitality is no Mickey mouse operation -- others
try to achieve this level but somehow come up short. For 17 races, or about
150 days a year this traveling set up hosts and feed up to 250 people a day
for breakfast and lunch -- yet not forgetting the team's dinner as well!!
Walking in you cannot help but notice the attention to detail - details that
take 8 people an average of 8 hours to set-up completely. The fresh
flowers, eye catching graphics, and of course my personal favorite -the ice
cream freezer were only surpassed by the genuine friendliness of the staff.
But why go to this much trouble? Why hire a full time chef? For these
answers we approached the Media Guru, Tom
Hollet.
"The benefits of having such an elaborate hospitality unit is really
two-fold. Hosting customers and sponsors at race event is an excellent
opportunity to develop better business relationships between our sponsors
and their customers. It also gives us a forum where we can generate
business-to-business opportunities within our core of partners, but also with other sponsors
within the series whom may not have otherwise had the opportunity to meet.
We not only provide a place for them to relax, eat, watch TV etc...but we
also provide meeting rooms inside the Summit to try to develop future
opportunities. CHAMP car racing offers the highest level of motorsports hospitality in the
United States. The Summit is really a marketing tool, and we sell it as
such. Our partners know that we will provide them with the highest quality
of services and amenities that few other teams can offer. The track is no
longer just a place to go and watch a race. The summit provides our guests
with behind-the-scenes access to an area where the general public is not
normally permitted, and everyone likes to feel they are receiving a
"special" service that others are not."
Racerchicks.com knows that not every team can afford such a first rate
set-up - but on the same token, we hope you realize the importance of
"hospitality" as an essential marketing tool. It can be done effectively on
a limited budget and as always the benefits and rewards will outweigh the
costs involved.
Thanks again to PacWest Racing for their hospitality :o)
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