Sponsor Communication for Teams with Unusual Names
 

Hello, All!

Since our competition season is over, it is time for team 4301 to resume reaching out to potential sponsors in order to raise funds for next year. However, we fear that our name (New Tech Narcissists) may negatively affect our ability to receive sponsorships. I was wondering how teams with somewhat silly names (Looking at you, 254!) market to potential sponsors.

Thanks!

Luis Trueba

Re: Sponsor Communication for Teams with Unusual Names
 

We are That One Team, and we market it as we are that one team the people remember for our gracious professionalism, or that one team that exceed expectations, and etc.

Re: Sponsor Communication for Teams with Unusual Names
 

I would highly recommend you can get in contact with anyone from 1902, Exploding Bacon. They are have won multiple imagery awards, at the regional and championship level, in addition to several RCA's. They have done a conference for the past few years at the championship on marketing your teams image.

Re: Sponsor Communication for Teams with Unusual Names
 

While I personally cannot speak for that (since my team's name isn't really that odd), I'd first start off by saying why you chose that name. Is there a reason why you chose Narcissists as your team name?

Re: Sponsor Communication for Teams with Unusual Names
 

We actually went through a name change for exactly this reason. 2004-2007 we were team GhettoBot. It was entirely a snotty response to misperceptions (or perceived misperceptions) of our school and community. We later saw that all we were doing was perpetuating stereotypes and giving ourselves a reason to be jerks. We adopted our school mascot and changed our name and I'm really glad we did.

Re: Sponsor Communication for Teams with Unusual Names
 

That's what we did too.
Our (well theirs, I was actually recruited right after they bagged 2013's robot) team was named "No Robot!" in our rookie year. We changed it for many reasons, but misconceptions could be drawn from it so we too adopted our mascot, and now we are "Patribots".

Re: Sponsor Communication for Teams with Unusual Names
 

If I were capable of changing the name, I would do so in a heartbeat. However, our three teacher sponsors and principal have an inexplicable attachment to the name, so it's not going anywhere anytime soon. It actually originated as a joke on the way home from competition last year and was intended to be ironic, as we as a team are anything but narcissistic, and have a tendency to underestimate the capabilities of our robot.

Re: Sponsor Communication for Teams with Unusual Names
 

There is a difference between having a name that is odd or whimsical like "Exploding Bacon", "Cheezy Poofs", "Eastside Boiler Invasion" or "DiscoBots" and a name that has negative connotations. I suspect that the later would likely turn off many potential sponsors but the former would likely only turn off sponsors with no sense of humour :D

Re: Sponsor Communication for Teams with Unusual Names
 

So under this logic, would we fall under the latter category?

Re: Sponsor Communication for Teams with Unusual Names
 

Well, I rarely call someone a narcissist as a compliment...

You could try mostly marketing your initials or something of the like. Frankly, the name your team has paints a very negative picture without ever having met you, and you're already at a disadvantage trying to raise money. While I'm sure your team is nothing but graciously professional, I at least would perceive your name as an active disadvantage.

Re: Sponsor Communication for Teams with Unusual Names
 

Just saying, Cheezy Poofs is a reference to one of the most controversial/edgiest cartoons of all time.

Re: Sponsor Communication for Teams with Unusual Names
 

True. The first episode, in fact.

http://www.southparkstudios.com/full...-an-anal-probe

Re: Sponsor Communication for Teams with Unusual Names
 

Sorry. Missed that one. I haven't watched TV for the last 30 years.

Re: Sponsor Communication for Teams with Unusual Names
 

He's referring to South Park

Re: Sponsor Communication for Teams with Unusual Names
 

...but NASA

Re: Sponsor Communication for Teams with Unusual Names
 

.....but South Park http://southpark.wikia.com/wiki/Cheesy_Poofs

And South Park is capable of intelligent social commentary. It's just that it's also capable of wonderful-but-utterly-idiotic humor.

Re: Sponsor Communication for Teams with Unusual Names
 

So, given the obvious negative connotations of our nickname, would it be better for us to exclusively market with our school name, and only use the nickname at competitions?

Re: Sponsor Communication for Teams with Unusual Names
 

That would be an elegant way around the problem. _____ High School Robotics is a bit dull, but at least it's not actively working against you. Plus they're mostly likely going to remember you by your high school/ team number anyway.

Re: Sponsor Communication for Teams with Unusual Names
 

Exactly this! Think about how FIRST lists teams on the official event pages on their website: by their official school/sponsor names (like so: link --click on a regional, then what teams are attending --sorry I'm on my phone, so it's not linking directly!). Use that name when recruiting sponsors and it should definitely help.

Just wondering though: have you had any pushback from any (potential) sponsors about the name?

Re: Sponsor Communication for Teams with Unusual Names
 

For the record, it is Cheesy Poofs with an "s", not Cheezy Poofs.

If you are looking for help from them specifically, I recommend sending Cory, Tom, Pat, Travis, EJ, or anther member of their team a PM directly - as they may or may not look at this thread. That being said you could also try contacting their [Student] Public Relations Director. They also have a very well put together branding/imagery document for the team. We read it and modeled much of our imagery guidelines from it.