Creating opportunities

12th March 2013

Creating Opportunities for Sponsorship and relationships

Over the years we have found that nearly all athletes would like to increase their opportunities to generate more income through their sport (ie sponsorship).

Whether you are simply needing additional income to cover living expenses, or it could be campaign costs are in excess of what your Sport or High Performance Sport NZ funding might cover.  

There are many opportunities out there for you - with the right strategy, approach and supporting material (ie proposals, social media, website etc) you greatly increase your chances to benefit from these opportunities.


We think some of the key areas in sponsorship and creating opportunities you need to have as an athlete include the ability to:

1. Share/sell your message in less than 90 seconds for why someone should support your campaign (elevator pitch)It could be you are sitting next to someone on a plane that just might be interested in being involved or it might be that someone comes up to you on the beach while you are getting ready for a training session.  You never know when an opportunity might crop up that you can take advantage of.  Practicing and getting a great message across can make all the difference.
2. Be clear on your top 8 key messages that you should get across in your proposal/pitchIf you are giving someone a proposal or more information about what you do, it needs to be to the point, concise, eye catching and something that the reader wants to read.

3. Be able to identify 5-6 people that you want to contact regarding a possible partnership and have a how strategy in place for how to approach the contact 
Think about your existing sponsorships, partnerships or where your support comes from.  How often is it that it is someone you know or someone who knows someone who knows someone?

Athlete Life has put together a session that includes a panel of athletes who have been successful with sponsorship, and practical components to help you achieve the above objectives.  On top of this we can offer carded athletes a 1 on 1 follow up to go through each of these areas and get them ready to put into practice and any follow up support you might want. 

To register your interest email helene.wilson@hpsnz.org.nz