At the end of our last meeting, I set all three of us jobs to complete before the next meeting. I took a proactive approach and completed this within 48 hours. My jobs where:
- Conceptualise video for Kickstarter and YouTube
- Make a statistics package for distribution at Autosport
- Make further updates to the script so George can understand when he needs to prompt me
- Order a plain helmet and applicable mounts
Conceptualise Kickstarter Update Video
One of the most important things to do over the next weeks was to ensure our Kickstarter is a success and the £800 gets fully funded. I decided to put together a basic script for a 15-20 minute video where myself, Cailan and George explain the project in further detail to our donors and possible new ones. I am doing this as the director to enable myself to interact with the kind people who have donated, while also hoping more people will join. This is a very important part of our project because the Kickstarter [and hopefully its success] are a part of the story that I have crafted. Ensuring the Kickstarter hits its goal is one of my main priorities. I worked on this script which will allow us all to explain our individual roles and enable the donors and new viewers to connect to our story. In this way, we are creating further trust between ourselves and the viewers so we can launch this project successfully!
Here is the basic script I have made for this video:
As can be evidenced in my pre-production, I spent a lot of time on my script which has allowed me to be in a strong position going into this final, production unit. George had pointed out that he would like a further indication of what he should be saying to provoke my response. This will help the story be formed as naturally as possible. These changes have been made and can be seen below. The script still needs to be adapted and improved as we go through this process and I am excited to see what happens next. One of my first questions to Simon will be where to go next with my script. I want to understand what improvements I need to make, but I know I am starting at a good point after many hours spent on it in pre-production.
I added hints like this to help provoke a natural response to questions:
Creating a Statistics Package
I created a statistics package to ensure we gave the most important details to possible sponsors. This was very important because, without this, we would have gone into these conversations without facts to back up our reasoning. As we are using my social media "presence" to try and capture sponsors, I decided I would be the one to write up this document. Below is the statistics package that I sent to George so he can adapt this into cards that he can give out on the day at Autosport. I was happy that I was able to turn around this document in a small time period as it enabled George to get on with the rest of his work.
“Full Statistics Package - AlexZAfRo”
57,000 YouTube Subscribers:
YouTube views November & December combined: 572,000 Total Views - 2.6 million minutes of watch time
Video views average between 4,000 - 8,000, but as this is a special video we expect that number to rise significantly
Your company could be seen by 10,000s of potential new customers, so a small contribution of £150 would be beneficial. Your logo will be on the suit and have a link in the video description and visual reference before the end credits. “In association with…”
The Top 5 audience is 29% UK - 15% USA - 7.5% Netherlands - 6.1% Germany - 5.8% Australia - A chance to expand your brand overseas to different markets if you are UK based.
10,000 Twitter followers:
A typical tweet (Not auto-tweet from YouTube/Instagram) will receive:
8,000+ Unique impressions (people seeing the tweet)
1,200+ Unique engagements (people retweeting, sharing, responding etc)
We can do multiple tweets including your company to drive engagement towards your company and personal accounts
8,200 Instagram Followers:
I have an engaged Instagram audience which has already led me to work with big brands in the gaming and watch industry! MVMT Watches and RIDE 3 Video game by Milestone. I have also been invited to many major motor races because of my Instagram page including the World Endurance Championship at Silverstone
A typical Instagram post received between 800-1300 likes. We will be posting a lot of pictures through the production of this project, so there will be an opportunity for your brand page to be viewed by 10,000s of people via Instagram.
George and I along with a friend visited Autosport International at the NEC in Birmingham for a couple of important reasons. 1- I needed to buy the rest of my motorsport equipment 2- Create interest for our project amongst professionals within the industry & hopefully secure sponsorship.
I had arranged for myself and the team to have press passes a few months prior through the Autosport International Website. I also had arranged the train travel to ensure we had a full day to accomplish both key asks.
After arriving, we all scouted the location to see what was on offer. This was very important as it allowed us to understand the scale of the event as well as the companies who may be interested in this kind of offer. The location scout allowed us to be more confident about pitching the idea.
After a few attempts at trying to pitch the idea as a duo, it became obvious that this was not the best approach. For example, I would start a sentence and George would overlap what I was trying to say because he thought we needed to give more context. It did not work out and we did not get any interest as a duo. As a producer, It was George's role to go and speak to people, but I wanted to be there to help and answer motorsport related questions. However, after these attempts, it was decided that George would focus on speaking to possible sponsors, while I would ensure I bought the rest of my equipment. George had a successful day and secured emails of 10-12 companies that were interested in our idea. This leaves us in a good place in terms of funding, assuming some of these companies pull through and sponsor us. It is important we secure additional funds to add to what we have put in plus money from our fundraiser so that we don't have to spend a lot of our limited University grant. I managed to buy a helmet and HANS [head and neck system that protects you from whiplash] which puts me in a good position as I have not got all the equipment needed to race. Autosport was a very important event and we both managed to come out of the event with what we wanted. I am really excited about the next stages of this journey and hopefully, a lot of that will be thanks to the additional funds brought in.
Emailing Companies
George managed to have success at Autosport with sponsors so I decided to get in contact with the majority of the rest of the companies at the show via Email. George did not have enough time or cards to visit every company, so I decided to use the Autosport trade book to send out a bulk email to try and capture some additional funding. As stated previously, I am doing this because we need the extra finances to ensure each scene is crafted in the best way possible. Without additional funding, we would also have to cut segments from our documentary as we would not have enough money. We really hope that it doesn't get to that situation and, that is why we are pushing ourselves to find sponsors now. As George did his work on Friday at Autosport, I decided to do the emails. I sent out over 300+ emails to companies in the book along with some others who sponsor current race teams. Thanks to our project being very unique, companies are already taking an interest. Here is the email that I sent out to these companies:
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To whom this may concern,
Myself and my 2 colleagues are in our final year of a 3-Year University degree in Television production. Our university, UCA, is based in Kent. For our final years' project, we are creating a 20-minute motorsport documentary, where I take part in my first ever motor race (750 Motor Club, Roadsports race at Brands Hatch in April 2019). It has been my dream since I was a child to compete in a motor race, so this opportunity could not have come at a better time!
The reason we have contacted you is that we are hoping to secure a small amount of funding from a few companies to ensure this project is a success! We are hoping for 6-8 sponsors to pledge £150 towards our project. This will give us a sufficient budget to make sure we have all the equipment and resources needed!
Thankfully over the past 8 years, I have grown my social media channels on YouTube, Instagram and Twitter, which will enable us to help promote your brand in a way which is unique to all of your other sponsorship requests you undoubtedly get. Here is the full rundown:
Each sponsor who contributes ONLY £150 will get...
A prominent logo on my race suit (5-7 slots available) or helmet (2 available) or race visor strip (only 1 available) which will be seen throughout the documentary and on social media!
A large feature on the premiere of the documentary. This will be broadcast on my YouTube channel with 57,000 Subscribers (“in association with” before credits)
Multiple tweets from my Twitter account of 10,000 followers, which will tag in your company & products.
Multiple Instagram posts [On my account of 8,200 followers] where your company is tagged and featured on the race suit and race helmet.
We can offer some support with social media and tips on how to grow a brand. I enjoyed growing my brand from nothing! My experiences in growing multiple social media channels can help anyone, even if you have an established company!
We are offering this opportunity at a low price as we know this is a one-time race deal. But we hope this opportunity could lead to further sponsorship into 2020 when I plan to race in a championship full-time (with opportunities for sponsors all over the car!)
We hope these, alongside helping us achieve an incredible project, would be a good enough reason to donate just £150 towards our project. If you would like a larger logo and an even more prominent part of this documentary, a larger sum can be discussed! Of course, you will be the only brand in your category, so there will be no overlap with a rival company!
I will leave full statistics at the bottom of this email so you can look further into my social media presence, which can bring in a new wave of potential customers! If you are interested in collaborating on this project, please leave a response so we can get chatting! If this opportunity does not suit your current plans, thank you for your time and we completely understand that you cannot be involved!
Thank you so much for your time
Alex Baldwin.
“Full Statistics Package - AlexZAfRo”
57,000 YouTube Subscribers:
YouTube views November & December combined: 572,000 Total Views - 2.6 Million minutes of watch time
Videos views average between 4,000 - 8,000, but as this is a special video we expect that number to rise significantly
Your company could be seen by 10,000s of potential new customers, so a small contribution of £150 would be beneficial. Your logo will be on the suit and have a link in the video description and visual reference before the end credits. “In association with…”
The Top 5 audience is 29% UK - 15% USA - 7.5% Netherlands - 6.1% Germany - 5.8% Australia - A chance to expand your brand overseas to different markets if you are UK based.
10,000 Twitter followers:
A typical tweet (Not auto-tweet from YouTube/Instagram) will receive:
8,000+ Unique impressions (people seeing the tweet)
1,200+ Unique engagements (people retweeting, sharing, responding etc)
We can do multiple tweets including your company to drive engagement towards your company and personal accounts
8,200 Instagram Followers:
I have an engaged Instagram audience which has already led me to work with big brands in the gaming and watch industry! MVMT Watches and RIDE 3 Video game by Milestone. I have also been invited to many major motor races because of my Instagram page including World Endurance Championship at Silverstone
A typical Instagram post received between 800-1300 likes. We will be posting a lot of pictures through the production of this project, so there will be an opportunity for your brand page to be viewed by 10,000s of people via Instagram.
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This email has produced a great response. As of writing, I have 4 companies who say they want to commit to one £150 space in our project along with another who may give us a free item to help with our project. George is yet to email the people he spoke to at Autosport, but this dedication to contacting people is rewarding us handsomely. We hope to have confirmed some sponsors by the end of the week. I am happy that my endless hours of emailing has paid off and together, George and I have got some great contacts to ensure we are fully funded for this project. This was a team effort between myself and George and without doing this, we would definitely not have got the funding needed to complete this documentary properly.
Working out Donors and What They Need & Ordering Motorbike Helmet
Lastly, I completed a few small jobs that we needed to do. I worked out what the current status is with the fundraiser and who has pledged what. [EX: Poster/Shirt etc] Doing so has enabled me to understand how many orders we would expect to receive by the end of our fundraiser. This was important to do because I have been sent money outside of the fundraiser [because some people give cash - family members, or don't have a Card - mostly my YouTube followers] which means I need to keep track of what budget we need to put aside for this. While this is probably technically George's job, he is under a lot of pressure with arranging dates so I offered to help him make sure the budget is correct and people are getting what they ordered. We expect to order 25-30 posters and around 10-15 T-Shirts by the end of the fundraiser. This is important as it means we will have successfully completed our fundraiser and will be in a good position going forward.
I also ordered a plain motorbike helmet for the karting scenes [Not using a new race helmet as that costs £600+] as my current one has stickers on it, which may conflict with our sponsor's interests. This was only £30 and did not much affect our budget, and certainly less than what our sponsors will be bringing in. This was received along with the Go pro mounts on 14/01/2019 and will be ready for our scenes to be filmed in late January [Karting and race license scenes]
My role as a director and editor will pick up in the coming weeks, but right now the emphasis is on George
I am also practising for my race license test later this month. I am both very excited and petrified at the same time!
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