First City Cycling’s Bill Heistermann during the Rocky Mountain Endurance PV Derby. Photo by Jason GugelmanA few weeks ago many of you took part in Grant VanHoose’s cycling sponsorship survey. Thanks for taking time to complete the questions, here are the results. The research objective of this survey powered by Qualtrics was to attain statistics for Fort Collins based cycling teams to approach potential sponsors with. From being apart of the cycling community the last three years, I’ve seen how cyclists in town get behind the companies that have their backs, however for some potential sponsors hard data goes a long ways.
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Total respondents: 105
YGR Facebook forum: 540
Having roughly a 20% sample size of the Fort Collins competitive and aware cycling population is an appropriate portrayal. This survey was primarily distributed through the YGR Facebook forum, two local cycling email list serves and a few shares on social media outlets. There were some outlier response locations including Kansas, North Carolina, New Zealand and Denmark. Additionally, there were a few responses where the location of the survey taken was not shown. The majority of responses were from Fort Collins and then a few were from Denver. To be safe, I feel that a margin of error level of 7% is appropriate for this data for those stated reasons of not every respondent being in the Fort.
Question 1: Do you recognize when a cycling jersey has sponsors on it?
Yes: 104 respondents; 99%
No: 1 respondent; 1%
After question 1, there were fewer respondents because when the answer “no” was selected, they were eliminated from the survey. In addition there was an 18% drop out rate of people who chose to not continue the survey (despite an average survey time of less than two minutes). Dropouts happened throughout the survey, not only following question 1.
Question 2: Are you more likely to buy product(s) from a company that sponsors cycling in some form?
Yes: 91 respondents; 94%
No: 6 respondents; 6%
The overwhelming response of “yes” shows that when you support a Fort Collins team, our community gets behind your business.
Question 3: Can the attitude of a sponsored cyclist create a new brand perception of the sponsoring company?
Yes: 91 respondents; 94%
No: 6 respondents; 6%
This is a sensitive area, companies don’t just want anyone to be representing their logo. If you don’t already, have team standards that cover poor rider behavior and be prepared to share these standards with potential sponsors.
Following question 3, only respondents that answered “yes” were sent on to question 4. Respondents that selected “no” were sent to question 5.
Question 4: If the attitude is negative, will that prevent you from purchasing from a sponsoring company?
Yes: 48 respondents; 63%
No: 28 respondents; 37%
More reason to have strict team standards.
Question 5: Will you research a company that sponsors cycling if you aren’t aware of their brand?
Yes: 81 respondents; 95%
No: 4 respondents; 5%
Question 6: Will you further research a company that that sponsors cycling if you are already aware of their brand?
Yes: 51 respondents; 62%
No: 31 respondents; 38%
This is reassuring that people will continue to learn about a company that is likely having to continually learn about the sport we take part in.
Question 7: How many cycling teams do you follow on social media?
Option 1 of 0-9 teams: 45 respondents; 53%
Option 2 of 10-19 teams: 33 respondents; 39%
Option 3 of 20-29 teams: 5 respondents; 6%
Option 4 of greater than 30 teams: 2 respondents; 2%
Social media is now a driving force in our society, make it clear to potential sponsors the reach social media can have to help get their brand out there. For large teams, i.e. First City Cycling, that could mean upwards of 80 people sharing a post on Facebook. The average Facebook user has 338 friends, the reach in this example could have over 27,000 people see a brand.
Question 8: Have you ever shared a post from a cycling team’s social media page?
Yes: 59 respondents; 70%
No: 25 respondents; 30%
Even more reach.
Question 9: How many races do you attend a year as a competitor?
Option 1 of 0-9 races: 24 respondents; 28%
Option 2 of 10-19 races: 26 respondents; 31%
Option 3 of 20-29 races: 18 respondents; 21%
Option 4 of greater than 30 races: 17 respondents; 20%
Question 10: How many races you attend a year as a spectator?
Option 1 of 0-9 races: 61 respondents; 72%
Option 2 of 10-19 races: 20 respondents; 24%
Option 3 of 20-29 races: 3 respondents; 4%
Option 4 of greater than 30 races: 1 respondent; 1%
This is not surprising that people only attend 0-9 races to spectate, especially given that in Colorado there is only one National Criterium Calendar event, one USPro CX event and one UCI event on the calendar.
Question 11: Do you stay after a race for the podium presentation?
Yes: 52 respondents; 61%
No: 33 respondents; 39%
Question 11 was another elimination question, for respondents answering “no”, their survey was ended and for respondents answering “yes” they continued onto question 12.
Question 12: When you see a sponsored rider on the podium, does this make the sponsor company seem to be better in their respectable field?
Yes: 39 respondents; 72%
No: 15 respondents; 28%
This one surprised me a bit, in a positive way. There are plenty of companies whose respective fields have nothing to do with cycling so for a rider to be on a podium and make that company seem better is great. Take this one into potential sponsors that might not be in a field relevant to many cyclists.
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Overall, I’m very excited to see the responses given in this survey. This gives Fort Collins teams proof of what we already knew. Happy sponsor hunting!
