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Attracting sponsorship opportunities - Q & A

Darrell wants to know how to attract name brand sponsors to his broadband television network.

Rich Sloan:  We're first going to go to Darrell out of Bryan's Road, Maryland.  Welcome to our show, Darrell.

Darrell:  Hi, Rich and Jeff.  How are you guys doing?

Jeff Sloan:  Doing great.

Rich Sloan:  How can we help?

Darrell:  Well, I've got a couple of questions for you.  I've just recently launched a broadband television network on the Internet called the Minority Business Channel.

Rich Sloan:  Okay.               

Darrell:  It is an on-demand video content website located at MBCTVnetwork.com.

Rich Sloan:  That's a very hot area on the Internet.

Jeff Sloan:   Yes, it is.  Yeah.

Darrell:  Say that again, guys.

Rich Sloan:  It's a hot area.  You know, broadband video content, all that.

Jeff Sloan:  Video on demand.  Very hot.

Darrell:  Oh, yeah.  I've actually known this for about five years and have been waiting for the technology to catch up with my thought process.  And it looks like it's there.  It's available now.  So I'm excited about the technology.  You know, as you know, that there's streaming video on demand but there's also video podcasts that I think are going to be huge.

Rich Sloan:  Yes.  Yeah.

Darrell:  So I'm looking to find sponsors for my channel.  I'm trying to find out how do you go about attracting name-brand sponsors to the channel?  And also, the other questions are, How do you go about finding expansion capital once the channel starts taking off?

Rich Sloan:  Sponsors are always drawn to one of two things:  Either clear statistics that are easy to analyze and make conclusions from that indicate that the customers they're trying to reach are at that website.

Darrell:  Okay.

Rich Sloan:  Which you probably don't have yet.

Darrell:  That's right.

Rich Sloan:  Or your ability to paint a picture with them that they can grow with you.  So for a very low level of sponsorship, you can start to get them involved in what you're doing.  And as you grow and achieve new levels of audience and viewership, you can ratchet up the relationship with them.  So the key for you is creating that compelling story that, indeed, they are going to get the audience that they're looking for.  That's the only reason sponsors like to have their name on anything.

Jeff Sloan:  Of course.  And in terms of raising money, raising money's easy if you've got a successful business model.  You can prove that by earning the revenues according to the plan you just mentioned, Rich.  Once you've got those results, if you're looking for expansion capital, if you're a success, expansion capital's always easy to get.