Chris Goodall wrote: ↑Sat Sep 18, 2021 12:36 am
What can we offer sponsors? Chess players resent "branding" or any attempt to get them to purchase something they don't need, and no-one watches visuals of chess being played. The only money is in laundering the reputations of crooks and dictators by naming an event after them
I am sure others can bring more ideas to the table, but as I see it, chess sponsoring brings at least a couple of things:
- Associate your brand with a "serious" and "intellectual" activity. In some countries it can be associated with other notions like "elite" or "perfect gentleman".
- Increase brand awareness with your future employees by funding the junior end of the spectrum. Junior chess players tend to be from ambitious professional backgrounds that are likely to be profiles of interest for some companies
Per example, in France I saw the Boston Consulting Group finance the creation of a new junior chess club in Paris. They gave hard cash to pay coaches, but also offer some head office space on Saturdays.
In England, we are lucky (or unlucky depending on the point of view) to have a thriving banking and consulting industry. Many of these companies, if properly approached, could also finance the chess circuit at little cost to them while increasing their visibility with potential future employees.
Chess tournaments and clubs in many other countries find private sponsorship, so surely we have something to offer back to them.
And that's before even getting into public sponsorship. I am still amazed how local council abroad offer their amazing historical town halls for a chess tournament (gaining visibility and tourists), but here they would rather keep their assets unused rather than give it for free to an activity that cause little disruption and has an overall positive image.
Just thinking of my own little town, if I were to organise a 50 player tournament, surely that would attract about 100 people to the town for 2 days, that will spend in local supermarkets and restaurants and maybe even hotels. And the council could brag about organising a chess tournament and encouraging children development, etc...
I am not a marketing guy, so I am sure someone could have worded the above much better than I would, so please focus on the essence of the message (there is money out there, and people do find benefits in funding us) rather than my convoluted word smithing.