I have to commit

I basically took Thanksgiving to rest my mind and figure out how to go about sponsorships. When I was making my presentation today for class tomorrow, I wanted to make it clear that I miscalculated my sponsorship plan to not take into account the fact that companies do not have money this time of year and that it will cause us to not bring in as many guests as we wanted. I was looking up tips on how to get corporate sponsors, and basically everything that I came across was keep following up. What worries me about this was that I have been doing that. My new follow up strategy is to ask those that have said they don't have money right now, if I contact them again in January, will it be possible to sponsor us then. I feel like I need to be more aggressive and bolder (but in a good way) about the follow ups, but I am wondering if I am not going about this in the right way. I really want the class to give me feedback on this strategy and give me knew ideas to gain interest in Visions sponsorship.

I am also going to take December and January to commit to Visions. During the fall semester, Visions was a priority in my classes, but it wasn't the only priority. I let myself get distracted and I didn't realize the full time commitment I needed for sponsorships. This caused me to get behind, and now I find myself in my current predicament. I honestly hate that this will cause us to lose guests, but all I can do is try my best to make up for it. I still have good leads that I am in contact with, and I am not going to give up on sponsorships. My favorite quote from my research on sponsorships was "don't take no as a rejection." Whenever companies are not responding to me or saying not right now, I have to be bold and make them give me a concrete answer (preferably yes).  I can't let myself get discouraged because it makes me get behind. I am determined to make this work and get more than just 2 sponsorships.

Indiegogo and Sponsorships

The Indiegogo video has been filmed! Michelle, Zoë, and the rest of the class really knocked it out of the park. Zoë made the script work well and marketable, Michelle made the filming go smoothly and we actually finished filming earlier than we expected. The class helped a lot with actors and crew members. I had to be the main actor, but I still think it is going to be a good pitch video. This week I am going to work on revising the pitch and perk descriptions that I showed everyone last week so they are ready to go when we get back from Thanksgiving. When I get back from Thanksgiving, the only thing I will have left to do is meet with social media to go over the update schedule and the book fee schedule. So far Indiegogo preparation is under control, so hopefully it will reflect when it comes time to launching the campaign.

The sponsorships are not going as well. I still only have 2 confirmed sponsorships from before. I have gotten multiple replies saying that they don't have money left in their donation budget and/or that I should check back with them in January. I am incredibly worried about sponsorships and I am not sure what I need to do. I am going to make sure the person that has my job after me does not make this same mistake! Sponsorships NEED to be started IMMEDIATELY in the fall or even started in May. For now, I am going to have to figure out a new plan and make the best out of the situation.

Ahh Cucalorus...

This week was Cucalorus! Five days of great films, fun panels, and fantastic parties! The biggest thing that I paid attention to during Cucalorus were the sponsors. Even before the festival started, I was going through their schedule and circling the sponsors that I could approach. Since I am currently trying to get cash sponsorships, I was tried to distinguish which sponsors were most likely cash sponsors and which were most likely in-kind or media sponsors. I have compiled a list of those that I think are cash sponsors and they will be receiving an email from me this week!

One thing I noticed about the sponsors was that on the pre-screening slides, it felt like those were thrown together at the last minute. Harsh, but still true. When they advertised the private donors, I wanted those slides to have more on them. It was only the Cucalorus logo and the donor’s name. I think those were donors from their Kickstarter page, but I wanted there to be more to the slides. I also noticed the slides with sponsor logos were not evenly spaced so there were some slides that had 4 logo spots on it, but only 2 spaces were filled so there were 2 empty spaces on the slide. That bothered me. 

Even though I am not in charge of parties, I still paid attention to the way they set up their parties and what they included at each party. I liked that at each featured party, there was some other big event that was happening as well. For instance, the visual sound walls, DJ and VJ events, and karaoke at the wrap party. At the visual sound walls party, I liked how they gave out 3D glasses to people as an added gift or prop. I thought that was really smart and good way to get people more involved in the party. One thing that I did not like about the parties, mainly the parties that took place at Ziggys, were that I felt like they did not think through the flow of the room. The bottom floor of Ziggys was completely cramped and hard to move and mingle with people. The music was also way too loud and made it hard to hear people. On the second floor and balcony it was much easier to talk to people. However, when I went to events at the Ironclad Brewery, the space was much nicer and clean, with plenty of space to mingle and talk on both the first and second floors. 

So this is what exhaustion is like!

My week revolved around Cucalorus. I was there all evening Wednesday and Thursday, but had to cut down on how long I was there Friday, Saturday, and Sunday because I did have work to do! When I wasn't at Cucalorus, I was preparing stuff for the Indiegogo launch! I spent today making the pitch and perks for our Indiegogo home page and preparing it for the class on Tuesday. I also talked to Devin, Michelle, and Zoë and we are meeting tomorrow evening to make sure everything is concise and going along with their art/marketing plans. Devin and I decided that we will have to film the video Thursday night, so tomorrow I am reserving King 101 for that evening and sending out the equipment request. Everything seems to be staying on schedule in terms of Indiegogo so that's nice!

In sponsorship news, WE GOT ANOTHER SPONSOR! This time it was from Southeastern Camera Co. I also paid very close attention to the law firms, banks, and insurance agencies that sponsored Cucalorus so they will be receiving an email in the next couple days from me!

WE GOT A SPONSOR!!!

This week was mainly spent shaking down potential sponsors. AND THAT WORK PAID OFF! Simone and I got a sponsor from Coastal Select Properties! GO US! Unfortunately we have not received the other 2 that we need by Tuesday. I have spent the weekend trying to figure out why we are not getting firm commitments from sponsors and I think I have come up with the reason and a solution. We are mainly targeting stores and restaurants right now. A lot of the places that have rejected us said no because they just don't have the cash flow right now. Yellow Dog Discs actually told us that if we come back in a few weeks, then they probably will have money to give us. The places that we are going after have seasonal cash flow. Once Black Friday passes and the holiday season officially begins, they will have more money to donate. For right now, we need to go after businesses that have a more consistent cash flow such as insurance agents, banks, car dealerships, and law firms. Luckily, we have leads of that nature that seem very interested in sponsoring us so Simone and I will be following up hard on them as well as building a new contact sheet.