Webb

Webb

Well Known Member
Sponsor
Before you think I've lost my mind, hear me out.

We've all seen the Miss Budweiser racing speed boat. I ran across a picture of it tonight and that got me thinking......Has anyone thought of approaching one of the companies that might be interested in a free flying canvas if they paint your plane for free. Just think of the excuses you would have to go flying. You might even get free fuel!!!!!

Products suchs as Coors, Budweiser, Red Bull, CocaCola....you get the ideal.

I don't know about you but almost everything I've ever seen painted with the colors and format from big companies is a winner.
 
Webb what a great idea!

Hey Doug, how about paying to have my plane painted in VAF colors?

You need an East coast presence!
 
Probably be able to gather some interest if you had a 4 ship demo team that was going to fly an airshow schedule. In this economy however you are going to have to look very hard to find a sponsor. A significant amount of corp dollars for that kind of stuff is a zero line right now. Fly unpainted until the economy gets better.
 
I have a story about a guy . . . . .

Webb said:
Products suchs as Coors, Budweiser, Red Bull, CocaCola....you get the ideal.

I don't know about you but almost everything I've ever seen painted with the colors and format from big companies is a winner.
Click to expand...

A guy I work with and has a Zenith 601 he built a couple hangers down from mine was able to get sponsership to build and paint his entire airplane. He has a desease and is under medication from a drug company. He was able to get his medical back so the drug company wanted to promote that you are still able to fly even with this desease. Story is not only does it hold the desease in remission but enough so that you can get a medical. They wanted to use the plane for marketing the advantages of their drug to pilots and non-pilots.

After they paid for the kit and he finished the plane the drug company's marketing guys wanted him to paint it in their colors with their logo on the side. The drug company's lawyers stepped in and decided that it may not be good to have their name on it if he ever crashed so they paid for the paint job of his choice.

He now flies to different places around MO in his plane to give lectures about how he has been able to build and fly a plane because this drug has allowed remission of his desease.

Pretty cool.
 
I pitched Red Bull and Garmin with no response also. I even had some concept scheme drawings done by an artist for a Garmin themed RV-7...I guess they're making enough money as it is.

- Peter
 
It hurts

I started laughing so hard last night that my sides hurt when I thought of the following.....

With some of the beautiful but slightly on the side of naughty tail art out there, perhaps the Trojan company might be a choice. You could always have the single men out there tell their date going up for the first time that the plane was properly equiped.

Please guys - keep it "G" but you can think otherwise!!!!
 
A year ago I was communicating with very talented artist from Ukraine. His dream was to paint an airplane. He decorated private houses and expensive cars. Beautiful job. He wanted not just paint but do sort of fine artwork. We were talking special tools and techniques, aircraft paint qualities, booth and so on. And he agreed to do everything for free. I would pay only accomodations during his stay.
Later I gave the idea another thought and decided not to continue this way. I decided to go with reputable paint shop.
 
Marketing

The bottom line for any company is the question, "what benefit does this do for us?? If the benefit/cost ratio isn't there, it isn't going to happen. Then there is the liability factor. Would a crash of an Experimental (aka, Homebuilt by the media) with our name on it survive the headline test? Finally, if you were successful, you'd be prisoner to the company. That might not be fun.

Spend the $2K (or less) on materials and do it yourself. Not that hard and you get a great sense of accomplishment.
 
OK I'll fess up...

I made a follow up pitch to Garmin after they shot down my first idea. The follow up was that I would actually pay to paint my plane with the Garmin theme if they supplied the hardware for my panel. I also agreed to attend a certain number of the major shows and rep the 900X for 5 years. I figured the G900X costs them less to produce than this paint scheme would cost to put on my plane. ...and they would have the benefit of me be at all the big shows selling their stuff.

No response on that one. Oh well. If you never ask you'll never know.

- Peter
 
Liability

N200PF said:
OK I'll fess up...

I made a follow up pitch to Garmin after they shot down my first idea. The follow up was that I would actually pay to paint my plane with the Garmin theme if they supplied the hardware for my panel. I also agreed to attend a certain number of the major shows and rep the 900X for 5 years. I figured the G900X costs them less to produce than this paint scheme would cost to put on my plane. ...and they would have the benefit of me be at all the big shows selling their stuff.

No response on that one. Oh well. If you never ask you'll never know.

- Peter
Click to expand...

Peter,
You are overlooking one reality of our society, legal liability. Several years ago I restored a 1950s race car to use for tours and shows. The original paint scheme included the logo of a beverage company that is still in business. I contacted them about using the logo and perhaps some support on the project. I received a response from their legal department stating that they would "allow" the use of the logo after I provided proof of a 10 million dollar liability policy with them as a named insured. Needless to say I took a pass and changed the logo.

John Clark
RV8 N18U "Sunshine"
KSBA
 
East Coast representation

Hey Bill R.- DR is already represented on the east coast. Check the wheel pants. Keep waiting for my kickback ;). I guess it's late because of the economy. :D
IMG_0993.JPG
 
Someone hit the nail on the head. It's the same reason why lot of things in this country are the way they are. If there was ever an incident, lord knows any logo in the plane ends up in the court filings! Believe me....I know. It's a sad, sad reality that our society is the way it is, but I can tell you 100% that most of these companies are even getting shy about sponsorships in racing, etc.. It's not what it used to be...a few bad plaintiffs have ruined it for all.

Cheers,
Stein
 
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