How to get sponsorship for your next big expedition or trip

In 2022 to early 23 I found myself in a unique position.

I became a gatekeeper to the sports and outdoor industry. Not because I was a bigshot executive, but because I had the power to decide (with sign-off) which athlete trips we would sponsor while I worked for Equip – whose brands were Rab and Lowe Alpine.

You see, I’d recently started working as Equips new Content Coordinator, and it was my job to coordinate content as the title suggests. I was in charge of making sure our athlete content from trips and expeditions was turned into actionable, commercially viable pictures, videos, and words for use across a variety of campaigns and pos.

As my role progressed, so did my responsibility. I was good at what I did, and struck up great relationships with our existing team of athletes – seeing firsthand what makes a successful athlete, while also talking to new potential athletes who were seeking money for their trips

The outdoor industry needs athletes. That’s the dirty little secret that they don’t want you to know.

Interesting people doing interesting things, that can be turned into pictures, videos, words and live events that make less interesting people buy jackets, boots, and gear.

Yet, as the interest in outdoor recreation has grown dramatically, so has the number of people deciding that being an athlete would be a better alternative to their 9-5 grind. And so inboxes of marketing teams are full of:

‘Support my unique ascent of Everest’
‘Group of retired nurses climb Kilimanjaro’
‘Man walking the Highland Way naked’

And that kind of thing (email subjects made up, but you get the idea).

I’ve seen thousands of requests for sponsorship over my 10 years of employment with Equip. Most were fantastic adventures for the people doing it, but not particularly interesting for anyone else. After all, there are only so many times it’s interesting to see a white CIS male climb Everest, even if they are doing it for charity, which they all are.

I’ve wanted to write this for a while, but I didn’t want to rush into it. I feel it’s an important article to write as I had insider knowledge on how, and why people get sponsored. I hope it’s helpful to you, whether your an existing athlete looking for sponsorship, or new to the world of sponsored sporting events.

Why most trips don’t get sponsored

Let’s be honest, most trips suck. There, I said it. As I mentioned earlier, no one wants to hear about your ascent of Everest, Manaslu, or wherever your big corporate paycheck and friends-in-high-places sponsors are taking you. Yes, it will be a trip of a lifetime. Yes, I’m slightly jealous I will probably never go, but from a brand perspective, it’s not a commercially viable piece of content to pay for.

The same applies to:

Climbing Kilimanjaro
Walking to Everest Basecamp
Bikepacking across Europe
Etc

All of these trips alone are not enough. I’ll touch on that later, but on a planet where everything on land has been explored and likely mapped by satellites uniqueness is a luxury.

The days of claiming first ascents of unclimbed peaks, and discovering lost lands are behind us. Sure, places not previously documented on video still exist, but what are you doing there? Is it interesting? Is it engaging? Does it provoke a sense of wonder and awe?

These are all attributes that you need to consider when looking for sponsorship and more.
How to position yourself

If uniqueness is sparse and everything has been done before how do you get sponsorship?

The first layer of the cake is personal positioning, or in fancy marketing terms, your ‘Personal Brand’.

Even if you do happen to have the world’s best, most interesting and most thought-provoking outdoor adventure lined up, if your only followers are your mum, dad, gran, your highschool mates, and your sisters dog’s Instagram account, I can assure you that brands won’t open their purse.

Yes, it seems unfair. I get it. Life shouldn’t be a popularity contest.

But think about the brands. They want to know that the person they are sponsoring has the leverage to make the trip a success both before, for planning and building excitement, during, for ongoing social media promotion, and after, for PR, events and talking about the achievements.
Unless you already have a sizable following (thousands is enough, you don’t need to be a Kim Kardashian of the outdoor world), you will probably not see a penny, or at best a pair of sympathy gloves usually given to get rid of persistent athletes-in-the-making.

Sidenote. Sorry to all those people who received a pair of gloves from me. I probably didn’t believe in your trip and instead wanted to get on with my day rather than deal with your emails.

I won’t turn this article into an exercise on personal branding, but I’ll leave you with this. Start branding today. Pictures, videos, and words of your process are so important. If you know you want to do a huge mountaineering feat document your training, time spent on the hills, your process, and journey. Build your following today as it will put you in a better position when emailing brands for sponsorship.

What you need to offer

Let’s say you read this article and decide to build a personal brand. You realize you are pretty good at it, and after 6 months you have yourself a small, but dedicated following of 5000 people.

Great start! This is definitely the type of following (provided it’s organic, and not paid for), that will be of interest to brands.

However, I hate to be the bringer of bad news.

Your personal brand isn’t enough.

The good news is that I can tell you what is enough, and also what’s too much.

Let’s take two trips.

They are exactly the same, and come in on the same day on two different emails. For the sake of fairness, both aspiring athletes are CIS white male. One is called Stephen, and the other is called Grant.

Stephen and Grant don’t know each other, but are both planning on a record-breaking self-supported bikebacking event across the length of Mexico following the US border. Their aim is to document the underdocumented migrant crisis.

Stephen sends in a proposal. It hits the inbox of a brand.

Stephen sends in a brief.

So does Grant.

Their briefs are near identical. Same description, same personal bio, same photos, and designs. What are the odds?

However, there are two differences.

Grants brief has better deliverables.

While Stephen offered to document the trip on Instagram, while also providing a 5-minute film, and asked for £6000 of sponsorship, Grant went one better for the same cost.

You see, Grant understood that the trip needed to be commercially viable for the brand to get behind it. By this I mean; the trip needs to have a very positive ROI for the spend.

A 5-minute film is great, and some photos for IG sound fantastic. But then where does the film go? On YouTube? For a few thousand people to look at it?

What about the hidden costs of kit, the staffing cost involved in managing the assets and helping to talk about the film?

Grant’s proposal trumped Stephens simply by being more specific about the goals. It included:

Film:
A 5-minute film of the trip will be submitted globally to film festivals and the brand will have the rights to show it at will at trade shows, retail events, and in any other capacity where it meets its intended target audience.

Social Media:
The film will be broken down into 5 reels for use on social media for the brand to promote the release and viewing locations of the film.
Social media will be used during the trip, with daily drop-ins where safe to do so from my channel.
A pre, and post-partnered Q&A with the brand streamed across multiple channels

Photos:
20 professionally taken photos for the brand to use as marketing collateral

Written Content:
Two blogs were written for the brand website. Blog one will be a narrative write-up of the trip
The 2nd blog will be a value-based blog on the gear and preparation for the trip that offers SEO value to the brand

Events:
Event support will be offered for trade shows and retail talks at the rate of £XXX per day.

PR:
I will leverage my PR connections to attempt to have the film featured in national, and niche/specialty
publications.

You get the idea.

You need a lot more than just a few social media posts and a video. Brands need a package of content in exchange for their spending.

Suddenly seems like a lot of work, but having multiple brands on board will reduce the amount of work you need to do for less money, and with clear deliverables, brands actually know what they are paying for.

After all, would you spend thousands of pounds or dollars on something when it wasn’t actually clear what you getting?

Sadly, being sponsored just to do the trip and talk about it on Instagram just isn’t enough.

A brief overview of briefs

I could write a whole article on this but for now, I wanted to offer you a brief overview of how to write a fantastic brief for your sponsored trip.

What a good brief looks like

A good brief needs to be clear, concise, and visually appealing. If you’re not a designer, use Canva, or find somebody who can design for you.

Like a CV, make sure it’s free from mistakes and the information is written and easy to read.

What to include

  • You need to include the following information in your brief:
  • A hook about the trip. Think of this as your elevator pitch
  • A detailed, but not too detailed description of the trip
  • A personal bio
  • A timeline of your plan
  • If possible a map of your plan including flight details if you are flying
  • Environmental considerations. Are you offsetting flights? Are you traveling by bicycle, on foot etc?
  • What causes the trip supports
  • How much you need, and what you will offer in return
  • Details to follow up and arrange a call
  • Links to social media channels

A tip for briefs is not to over deliver, or under deliver on what you can offer a brand. I’ve seen athletes try to deliver the world and fail miserably which causes frustration and disappointment. I’ve also seen athletes expect sponsorship for simply being an athlete and sharing photos on Instagram.

Offer what’s realistic and within your skill set.

Diversity

Diversity always feels like an awkward subject. I almost missed this out, but I decided to keep it in because it felt hard so let’s talk about it.

Brands still don’t know how to talk about diversity and how to approach the disparity between the amount of sponsored athletes from typically CIS backgrounds, compared to those from underrepresented minorities.

Some brands carry on, sponsoring a sea of white. While others take a different approach, and stuff their athlete teams with as many minority individuals as possible.

I don’t know the right balance, or how to approach this myself, but my takeaway is this.

If you are a white, middle-class CIS male you stand a better chance of getting sponsored. However being a female, disabled, or from an underrepresented minority does now act as an advantage in an industry grappling with race and diversity. The gap is closing. Not fast enough, but I guess what I’m trying to say is this.

Don’t let the colour of your skin, disability or gender put you off from applying for sponsorship.

The art of being a pain in the ass

Before I close, I wanted to talk about persistence. Persistence is annoying to anyone on the receiving end of it, but it’s how you get things done.

Sending an email isn’t enough to get a reply. You will get a rejection.

Your email will go to the inbox of a person in marketing who receives hundreds if not thousands of emails a week, all asking for similar things. Your reply will probably be auto-generated (probably), and your email archived and never seen again.

If you believe in your trip, you will be a pain in the ass.

Send a second email, asking for feedback and a 2nd opinion.

Contact a senior member of the marketing team on LinkedIn, or a few of them.

Message the brand on IG. Even send in a video to the brand so they can see who you are.

Put a proposal in the post. This will really make you stand out.

You get the idea. Don’t back down until you get a firm no from somebody who makes the decisions.

Conclusion

Before I sign off I wanted you to take a long hard look in the mirror and ask yourself. Is your trip original? Thought-provoking? Does it challenge societal norms and break boundaries? Is it uplifting, and inspirational? Will it resonate and help 1 person through the messages you put out?

If you answered yes to even a few of these questions then it’s worth pursuing sponsorship for your trip.

However, don’t be disheartened if you don’t get brand-level, sponsorship. It’s not the end of the world, and realistically the airtime brands can give is still limited compared to the amount of impact you can make on your own. Local corporate sponsors are also a very legitimate way to sponsor a trip and an avenue worth exploring. Sure, they won’t be able to outfit you with cool gear, but they will be happy to have their logo halfway, up a mountain.

Embrace the word no and use it to drive you to a yet.

And, whatever you do please don’t ask for sponsorship 4 weeks before you depart.

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