Behind the Headlines

By Paula Wethington / paula@monroenews.com

When a NASCAR driver wins a race, there is a ceremony in Victory Lane called “the hat dance.”

This tradition developed as a way for the winning driver to thank all of his sponsors. The driver and his pit crew put on ball caps that represent a particular sponsor, pose for a formal photograph that will be delivered to that sponsor, swap hats to pose for next photo for the next sponsor and so forth.

It’s quite possible that by the time the photo session is done, the team will have faced the camera a couple of dozen times.

Most of those sponsors are businesses and corporations you’ve never heard of. The driver, his team, and the media announcers, at least on a regular basis, don’t rattle off the entire list of 40 or so names whose logos appear on the car and uniform. Instead, the cars are generally known by the name of their major sponsor: “The Budweiser Car,” “The AT&T Car,” and so forth.

The hat dance is where all of the financial backers get a chance to be in the spotlight – at least to a certain extent.

After all, you don’t see the hat dance played out as part the media coverage of the race. The broadcast crews know this ceremony is more advertising than news, is going to take up a lot of time, and will not be watched for long by their viewers. So they treat it appropriately with a quick peek to for fans to notice the festivities and then cut to the sports news roundup or the next program on their schedule.

This story is a good analogy for local volunteers, civic clubs and community leaders to consider. How do you thank your sponsors?

One thing that doesn’t work – just as it doesn’t work in a NASCAR race – is to rely on news reports of the event to carry your thank-you message.

Page 1 in The Monroe Evening News is meant to let local residents know about the most important or most interesting story of the day. The Community Page section is meant for announcements of events, programs and awards. The Letters to the Editor section is meant for discussion of current events.

There isn’t enough space anywhere in the newspaper to provide a thank-you column for all of the sponsors of all the local fundraisers. (If you want to pay for an advertisement to list your thank-yous to the sponsors, a lot of people do that. But as someone who’s been involved in fundraisers and community events, I’d rather send or receive a thank-you card in the mail or in person.)

So if you want your sponsors to get recognition in the community, in addition to any individual thank-you gifts or thank-you notes that proper etiquette dictates you should provide to them and your special guests at the event or immediately afterward, here’s what I suggest instead:

• Allow sponsors to display advertising banners at your event. For example, it’s customary for charity golf outings in this community to have “hole sponsors.” At each hole, a banner explains which sponsor paid for that advertising spot.
• Sell advertisements in the program that will be distributed at the event, when you have the undivided attention of the people who attend the program. (If you don’t wish to sell advertising spots, you could still list those people as patrons.)
• Allow your sponsor the privilege of introducing the winner of the award they have sponsored. This is done very effectively at many local award and honoree events.
• If you have a long list of sponsors, select the one or two that provided the biggest amount of donations to promote as “major sponsors” in your publicity. (That’s what NASCAR teams do, after all.)
• Use your club’s or non-profit’s web site, or the club’s newsletter, as a way to publicize the list of everyone who contributed to the cause.
• Create a “sponsored by” plaque to display in your meeting hall or non-profit office.