A cautionary tale...
No tale of how modding sponsorship
does work would be complete without a little note on how it
doesn't work. Too many people seem to think that sponsorship is like having a magical djinni - that there is an endless, bountiful supply of kit just waiting for you.
As with all things, sponsorship involves a very large amount of balance. Companies are providing these pieces of kit from their advertising budgets, and that is not a limitless well. If the advertising proves to be unproductive, problematic, or (in worse cases) non-existent, sponsorship dries up - but not just for the modders that did poorly.
Because of that, it's important to be responsible about soliciting sponsorship. If a company were to give kit to a modder that then never completes the mod, the company may remember that and turn down the next modder who could benefit from sponsorship. Though often times site mod managers are used as "gate keepers" in this pursuit for the big boys, there are some companies who no longer accept sponsorship requests due to the surplus number of bad experiences.
Therefore, if you do get sponsorship for your mod, make sure that you're going to live up to your end of the bargain. Otherwise, you're not just ripping off a faceless company - you're hurting the reputation of an industry that's been based on trust and gentlemen's agreements. If someone from a site has vouched for you, you might also be ruining their reputation, preventing other members of that site from getting sponsorship.
And from a consumer standpoint, look around on the site and the front page to see the companies that
are sponsoring mods. These companies believe in the artistic value of what you're doing, and they deserve your attention. The manufacturers and retailers aren't just throwing 'extras' out to the masses, they're spending money on
you. Each sponsorship is a statement that modding has artistic and commercial validity, and that's something that's good for all of us in the industry.
Left: Peter Dickison's Orac³
Right: Dave Williams' Macroblack
Finally, it's always worth mentioning that people like me not only read through how you treat your mods, but how you treat other people in our forums. When you reach the point of one or more front page articles on
bit-tech, you start to represent the site and the industry as a whole - and we don't take that lightly. I'm sure that other sites would agree - you can build a great mod, but if you're a pain to deal with or treat other members badly, your time at the top will be a short one (if given at all). Nobody with a reputation for quality wants to be associated with someone that acts like an idiot.
Wrapping it all up
I hope that this guide will prove useful to those of you who are looking for sponsorship - or, at the very least, I hope it answered some questions as to what to expect. It's a hard bit to write, as there's not really a "right" way to go about it - just a lot of things that should be done. There definitely are some wrong ways to do it - posting on ten different forums, sending out massive amounts of emails and asking for top-of-the-line free kit are all sure-fire ways to be handed a polite "get lost."
When done right and not abused, sponsorship is a mutually beneficial and fun way to "spread the love" of great kit and top talent. Most companies in the industry try to keep a bit of their advertising budget free for talented modders, and feel it's part of giving back to the consumers who spend so much on their products.
On the other hand, when it's clear that it's all about the free kit, the whole of modding suffers. Companies waste budget on people who never intend to finish a project or do a lousy job, and then don't have anything left for the people who do finish great work. Both sides get bitter and, in the end, it's the art that suffers most.
If you take your time, have patience and accept that sponsorship is a business arrangement and not some magical money tree, you'll find that there's plenty of help around. Who knows, maybe you'll just find a PM in your inbox from me, wondering about featuring
your next project.
Until then, thanks for reading...and mod on!
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