COLLETT CONTROVERSIAL
Sponsorship: Is it a big kick in the nuts for dealers
In the fi rst of a monthly new series, angler, shooter, retailer, industry stalwart and general controversialist, Steve Collett, vents his spleen. This month… it’s all about sponsorship!
I
can clearly recall it now, a bit of a telephone row. That turned into a meeting, which in turn lead to a face-to-face row. After some table banging I cancelled all my adverts in the magazine. The reason, a cover mounted gift...
Not a big deal you may think, but in the early nineties it was. I had a proper big bee in my bonnet about it. My thinking was simple: This cover mounted gift meant that around 30,000 people wouldn’t be buying my product. The cost of it was irrelevant, as to me it meant that 30,000 people wouldn’t be going into the shops that month to buy that product. And in turn the shopkeeper wouldn’t have the chance to up-sell. It meant, well to me and my bosses at the time anyway, that the only people making any in- road was the magazine.
The Modern Day Now fast-forward a few years, well quite a few actually. We now face a new danger as shopkeepers, retailers, dealers, or however we are labelled. What is that new danger I hear you say? It’s the rise of the sponsored angler. Sponsorship. It’s a word that used
1 Steve Collett 36 | Tackle & Guns | June 2017 1
to be reserved for the few, the few that had actually done something to earn such a title. Done well, with
consummate professionals, and it works a treat. There are companies that use sponsored anglers very well. But sadly, there are many that don’t. Things have changed. These days sponsorship is handed round like sweets. Everyone’s at it. Everyone knows a sponsored angler. And I tell you this now; it’s killing the sport and our businesses.
Everyone’s at it.
Everyone knows a sponsored angler. And I tell you this now; it’s killing the sport and our businesses
False Economy The manufacturer, the person handing out the sponsorship, may think he or she is getting good value. Their sponsored commodity touts his or her wares all over social media for them. But what they are actually creating is a large-scale turn off! The trouble is… the manufacturer is blissfully unaware. I can reel off the perfect instance of just what happens to a brand when they sponsor a mediocre angler,
www.tandgmagazine.com
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