Terry Lacoss

Southern Kingfish Association teams will need to work harder when securing sponsors in a growing and competitive marine industry.

There is one factor that fishing teams should have first on their list when approaching sponsors that may be willing to sponsor their SKA fishing team. That very important factor includes: will you're fishing team increase the sales of their product or products? In the competitive marine related product world, gone are the days where sponsors were willing to simply give their products to fishermen to use. Today, sponsors dollars are even harder to secure. "Mercury's programs are geared towards our dealer network," Mercury's Pam Behnke said. "So it's very important that fishing teams establish a relationship with their local dealer and become an extension of their sales force. It is a major key."

Pam Behnke is Mercury Marine's "Competitive Angling Manager". During the 2006 Bell South Greater Jacksonville Kingfish Tournament, Pam fished with Team Mercury's Captain Scott Beattie and his Preferred Marine fishing team during the VIP portion of the event. Things couldn't have gone better. They weighed in the heaviest kingfish and took home a nice check for $50,000.

The 46-pound king mackerel was really an eye catcher at the Sister's Creek weigh-in site. Of course weighing the winning kingfish, while fishing from a 36-foot Mercury powered Dakota tournament boat, was exactly what many marine sponsors are looking for. Winning a high-dollar SKA kingfish tournament is definitely an excellent start towards securing a variety of sponsor monies and products. Realistically though, no matter how experienced your kingfish team, you cannot depend on winning a kingfish tournament each year. There are numerous excellent kingfish teams presently fishing the SKA tournament trail that your team will be competing against and they also share the same goals. The competition is so good, becoming a repeat winner from year to year is a very difficult fishing task.

As the 2007 Southern Kingfish Association tournament season gets underway, kingfish teams should have a game plan for landing potential sponsors for not only the 2007 kingfish season, but 2008 as well. "There's just so much competition these days in the fishing business," Gary Walker said. "Fishing related companies are also cutting back on many of their sponsorships. However, there are still a lot of different types of sponsorships available to fishing teams out there and at different levels. Fishing teams shouldn't set their sponsorship levels too high, be prepared to except a level of sponsorship that will at least get your foot in the door. Once you have opened up a few doors, sponsorship levels are more likely to grow during future tournament seasons."

Gary Walker heads up Walker & Associates along with his son Bo and Steve Mathews. Some of their main accounts include Lowrance Electronics, Hobie Sunglasses and Bimini Bay Resort and Fishing Wear. With this in mind, many of the marine related companies are contracting marketing companies to handle most of their advertising and promotional needs. In many cases this includes a variety of levels for team sponsorships.

The best way to get started is to call the marine related company and find out the name of the person or persons to contact for sponsorship. Record their name, address and phone number in a file, or better yet, in your computer for future reference. Instead of just picking up the phone and attempting to talk directly to the marketing director, put together a letter stating your intentions as a Southern Kingfish Association tournament team. Include the tournaments that you are planning on fishing and simply ask if there are any levels of sponsorship available for your fishing team. Also enclose your team's resume. Be sure and include photos of your fishing team, boat and equipment, as well as any magazine or newspaper clippings that included your fishing team during past fishing seasons.

Also include a local dealer that you have purchased their products from during the past. As Mercury's Pam Behnke mentioned earlier, working through a local dealer is key. In fact, I would strongly recommend having the dealer forward your package to the company with their recommendation. By working with a local dealer, you will have a much better chance of receiving sponsorship. Sit down with the local dealer and try to work something out with your boat, motor and fishing package. Explain to the dealer that you will be more than happy to work with his customers in demonstrating his products out on the water. In many cases, his customers have never owned a boating package before. By talking with a real Pro, they are more apt to make that purchase. Particularly if you have the time to take them out on the water and actually show them how the electronics, boat and motors operate.

If you are a local fishing guide, take the time to put a photo section in the dealer's showroom. Include not only pictures of the big fish that your customers have caught, but also a variety of shots that show your boat and equipment in the background. A good example would include a picture of a large grouper in front of your boat's fish finder. Write on the photo, 30-pound gag grouper that we marked with our fishing finder holding on a small ledge in 80-feet of water. Be sure and include the manufacturer's name of the fish finder as well.

Most marine related companies have several levels of sponsorships. The most popular is a discount, which is normally 10 to 40 percent off the retail cost of the product. A second level would give your team a discount, plus memo billing. Here your fishing team gets to use their product for 365-days without paying until the term of the agreement is up. Finally there are very few teams that receive free merchandise. These are typically teams that have a TV fishing show and have been very successful in the fishing world. In many cases, the free merchandise is part of an advertising package. Besides working directly with your local boat dealer, one of the most important tools in both keeping your sponsorship for many years to come and securing new sponsors is a camera. Unfortunately there are still many fishing teams that do not carry a camera along with them during a tournament or even recreational fishing trips.

The modern day digital camera can be an extremely important tool, particularly when your team lands a high-dollar SKA tournament kingfish. Major problems surface when kingfish teams find themselves smack in the middle of a kingfish bite and don't document their catches. A boated kingfish is quickly deposited into an iced down fish bag, then team members scurry around the boat while putting out kingfish baits. After arriving at the Southern Kingfish Association weigh-in site, the half-frozen kingfish is taken from the bag and photos are taken. Not the best of photo opportunities.

However, a digital camera can be a very important tool when telling sponsors a story of the success your fishing team has experienced. The photo is also of a freshly caught kingfish, not the half-frozen version! First try and gaff the kingfish where the gaff won't rip and ugly hole in the kingfish, and more importantly, where the kingfish won't bleed all over your boat. The best location is located high on the back and just behind the head of the kingfish.

Have the camera ready and take pictures as soon as the kingfish is landed and with sponsor products clearly in the background. If the kingfish is bleeding, first stick a small rag into the hole to stop the bleeding, and then wash it down with a bucket of saltwater. A wet kingfish will also look as though it was just landed and more importantly, makes for a better fishing picture. Also shoot different angles with your camera and ask that the fisherman remove his sunglasses and tips his fishing hat back for a better photo. A photo with a shaded face, does not give the angler any justice. Finally, even though you have bright sunlight, use the flash to completely eliminate any shadows!

After the tournament is over, e-mail your sponsors and local boat dealer the digital photos, which include your day of fishing with their products. Both will more than likely use these photos to help sell their products and when it comes time for your team's sponsorship, sponsors can now justify their sponsor decisions! Finally, avoid calling the sponsor directly. Take time to build a good working relationship with your local marine dealer and take plenty of digital photos of your teams fishing success. SKA teams will need to work harder today to gain a variety of sponsorship levels. However, success can be yours when taking the proper steps towards becoming a sponsored SKA kingfish team.