Corporate Sponsorship of Tours

[Halffro777]

I was wondering if anybody knew of any Segway tours that were sponsored by a larger corporation. My tour goes through the most affluent neighborhoods in Tampa and goes along a road with somewhat heavy traffic. If you're reading this then you probably know that a good majority of the people who pass all stare at the tour as it goes by. Attracting a large number of eyes is usually the hard part for someone trying to start an advertising medium, but I've already got that part covered. So now I am trying to figure out how to start the process of having someone pay me to promote their business on my tour.

Any and all help or suggestions would be welcome.

Thanks,

Geoff
www.magiccarpetglide.com
813.380.1916

[wwhopper]

Think of who would pay to be seen by your rolling billboards. Or better yet in this economy, who has the money to pay.

Plenty of companys use the Segway as a rolling billboard, and I am sure there are tour operators out there who rent out space on thier wheels, bags and signage to other companies.

The key is would it make your tour look any less of what you want it to look like. Not sure some tourists would want to go out on a tour on Segways that look like rolling bumper sticker displays.

Probably the best place to start would be with your convention and visitors bureau, no doubt they have networking events where you could meet potenial sponsors.

[nickyboy]

We put our company website front and back on the batteries, (www.southernsegway.com) but I guess you could sell that space, albeit it is small. The other alternative is on the handlebar bags. I think Will is right though, paying public do not want to pay you and then feel they are just an advertising billboard.

[Bob.Kerns]

My thought is that there is one customer for whom advertising on a Segway tour is a PERFECT fit, who stands to benefit from the tie-in more than any other.

And that would be YOU. Bringing in more tour business seems to me to be a greater benefit than advertising revenue. Especially if you also have good word-of-mouth bringing in additional customers for each customer that comes through. If, for every 5 customers that come through, you get one more because they told someone else what a good time they had, that's really about 1.25 customers for each advertising success. (It's more than 1.2 because some of word-of-mouth customers bring in new customers, too). (If you do better than one-in-five, the effect is even more dramatic. If you can get it to 1:1, there's NO LIMIT to your business.)

A more promising partnership, in my opinion, would be local businesses -- eateries, bars, etc. along your route. For example, you could hand out discount coupons to various places you've visited, and pointed out. You might be able to negotiate a small cut -- but I fear that'd leave you to promoting them in ways that might turn off your customers, or make you seem dishonest in your tour statements.

A better deal, in my opinion, is simply cross-promotion. And it's probably a lot easier to negotiate. Just get those coupons -- they serve to remind people about the place they've seen when they're looking for dinner later, and get YOUR coupons into the other place of business.

Take what I say on this with a grain of salt. I'm not a marketer, I've only BEEN on one tour (though I suspect they had some sort of deal, at least informally, with a couple of businesses), and have no retail experience whatsoever. I'm just offering my thoughts of what might work from a customer's perspective, in hopes it's useful. (I like the idea of Segway tours and want y'all to be successful!)