ShortAndFast Posted July 13, 2012 Share Posted July 13, 2012 Funny; I do not see these aforementioned corporations balking to support, albeit through advertising, a 501c3 like the PGA (how much money dose each major pro golfer make?), and I do not see these corporations balking to help the Little League Baseball World Series (with teams flying in from around the world and only around 15 "well-off financial" youth players per team). So if their objection was that they only support things like urban reading programs, women's health issues, adoption services, nutrition programs, elderly care issues... things with REAL bang-for-the buck in an attempt to help some of the problems in society, they were being downright hypocritical. How do the audiences for the PGA tour and the Little League World Series compare to DCI's? That's probably your answer as to why these corporations would spend promotional money with them. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stu Posted July 13, 2012 Share Posted July 13, 2012 Possibly the problem is presenting DCI corps as "charitible" as in: "They "invest" their charitable dollars for things like urban reading programs, women's health issues, adoption services, nutrition programs, elderly care issues... things with REAL bang-for-the buck in an attempt to help some of the problems in society" Guessing what you listed could come under something like publicity but yeah... certainly not charity. PGA is a 501c3; Little League is a 501c3; DCI corps are 501c3's; the difference is that as far as I know PGA and Little League do not go after those corporations charitable donations but their advertising dollars. My hypocritical point was based on the fact that those corporations certainly do help, albeit through ad money, some 501c3's other than urban reading programs, women's health issues, adoption services, nutrition programs, elderly care issues... If someone with a corps, or someone with the DCI, can show an outside corporation how that ad spending would benifit that outside corporation, the corps or DCI would begin to receive the same support as the PGA or Little League. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stu Posted July 13, 2012 Share Posted July 13, 2012 (edited) How do the audiences for the PGA tour and the Little League World Series compare to DCI's? That's probably your answer as to why these corporations would spend promotional money with them. Herein lies your conundrum. You should not view, or have the corporations view, DCI corps as charities but show them how their ad dollars can help those corporations (DCI does reach hundreds of thousands of people nationwide, just not at one show called finals). Promoting corps trailers, and corps staff/performers tshirts, as traveling billboards is a possible route to take. Edited July 13, 2012 by Stu Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stu Posted July 13, 2012 Share Posted July 13, 2012 (edited) How do the audiences for ... the Little League World Series compare to DCI's? While the Little League World Series has live-in-stadium fans and is on ESPN2 (I think), I would venture to say that taking into account all of the DCI sanctioned shows during the summer all around the nation, including the theater broadcasts, DCI reaches more fans than the Little League World Series. It is just that one activity is Baseball, and the other activity is viewed as the "one time, at band camp" stigma that corps have which turns away potential sponsors. Edited July 13, 2012 by Stu Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JimF-LowBari Posted July 13, 2012 Share Posted July 13, 2012 PGA is a 501c3; Little League is a 501c3; DCI corps are 501c3's; the difference is that as far as I know PGA and Little League do not go after those corporations charitable donations but their advertising dollars. My hypocritical point was based on the fact that those corporations certainly do help, albeit through ad money, some 501c3's other than urban reading programs, women's health issues, adoption services, nutrition programs, elderly care issues... If someone with a corps, or someone with the DCI, can show an outside corporation how that ad spending would benifit that outside corporation, the corps or DCI would begin to receive the same support as the PGA or Little League. Yep.... It's Friday afternoon and taking a brain break from a nasty database problem at work and HATE to use a govt-ese term but... *sigh* charitable and advertising/promotional $$$ - "different pots of money" Any Steel City Ambassadors out there? They had the Wendys logo on the unis for a while. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ShortAndFast Posted July 13, 2012 Share Posted July 13, 2012 Herein lies your conundrum. You should not view, or have the corporations view, DCI corps as charities but show them how their ad dollars can help those corporations (DCI does reach hundreds of thousands of people nationwide, just not at one show called finals). Promoting corps trailers, and corps staff/performers tshirts, as traveling billboards is a possible route to take. Let's be generous and say that DCI reaches 250,000 audience members each summer. The PGA tour reaches millions. Suppose you are a marketing manager for a big company, like the ones dannyboy mentioned - which one would you tell your boss the company should sponsor? I'm not saying it can't happen - was it '88 when the Cadets carried the KMart flag at retreat? - just that DCI is a tough sell for that kind of thing. It's much easier to sell companies like Pearl and Yamaha on DCI sponsorships, because DCI gives them excellent marketing for their products. But my sense is that the corps + DCI have pretty well maxed out the sponsorship available through the marching music suppliers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stu Posted July 13, 2012 Share Posted July 13, 2012 Yep.... It's Friday afternoon and taking a brain break from a nasty database problem at work and HATE to use a govt-ese term but... *sigh* charitable and advertising/promotional $$$ - "different pots of money" Any Steel City Ambassadors out there? They had the Wendys logo on the unis for a while. There have been other corps with ad type sponsorships: Suncoast with CircleK; The Knights with Knights Inn; River City Railmen with the Union Pacific Railroad. Granted these corps are no more; but can someone answer why these ad based sponsorships were a bad idea? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GUARDLING Posted July 13, 2012 Share Posted July 13, 2012 There have been other corps with ad type sponsorships: Suncoast with CircleK; The Knights with Knights Inn; River City Railmen with the Union Pacific Railroad. Granted these corps are no more; but can someone answer why these ad based sponsorships were a bad idea? they werent a bad idea...the sponsors just found out it wasnt a viable place for them to put their money...we are to small and very little return on the effort Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JimF-LowBari Posted July 13, 2012 Share Posted July 13, 2012 (edited) There have been other corps with ad type sponsorships: Suncoast with CircleK; The Knights with Knights Inn; River City Railmen with the Union Pacific Railroad. Granted these corps are no more; but can someone answer why these ad based sponsorships were a bad idea? Or what changed and it's no longer a good idea..... Probably lack of visiblity of DC anymore. Just came across a national syndicated comic strip from the mid 70s that had drum corps in the punch line. Doubt if that would work anymore: Scene is a Native American (NA) sitting in a NA run bar talking to the NA bartender: "Ever have a band in here?" "Yeah once, no one came near the place" "What was the name?" "7th Calvary Drum & Bugle Corps" Oy... First Federal Blue Stars with an opener of "First Federal March" Think a bank... IIRC, Pittsburgh Rockets (Sr) got their name because of funding that was supposed to come from a company dealing with missles or areospace (forget which). Deal fell thru but the corps kept the name.... Edited July 13, 2012 by JimF-LowBari Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ShortAndFast Posted July 13, 2012 Share Posted July 13, 2012 While the Little League World Series has live-in-stadium fans and is on ESPN2 (I think), I would venture to say that taking into account all of the DCI sanctioned shows during the summer all around the nation, including the theater broadcasts, DCI reaches more fans than the Little League World Series. It is just that one activity is Baseball, and the other activity is viewed as the "one time, at band camp" stigma that corps have which turns away potential sponsors. Here's a press release where ESPN gives the TV audience numbers for Little League World Series in 2009 (about 1.1M). And obviously they draw a live audience to the games themselves. So at a rough guess, a sponsor might reach 4-5x as many people by sponsoring LLWS. In marketing terms, I don't think marching band has any special stigma with would-be sponsors. If DCI figured out how to grow its audience to the size of the activities you mention, it would attract similar sponsorships. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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