Does Sponsoring Aaron Gwin Pay Off?

Hey Uncle Dave,

So where I’m from we have a group ride every Tuesday night and the turnout is normally pretty good at around 25 guys and gals. Unfortunately this past week mother nature decided it was time to change seasons and the summer dust turned into fall mud. Of course all the wimpy (pronounced roadie) riders stopped showing up to the group ride leaving me and the old farts (not an insult) as the only ones at the ride. As I was waiting for them to slowly and painstakingly descend the fastest and flowiest part of trail, I started to think about their apparent lack of improvement. So getting to my question. Judging by your intro on the Ask Uncle Dave column you are most likely kin to these “plateued” riders I mentioned previously. Can you remember an instant or situation in which your skill “flatlined” so to speak? Thinking back, If you’d made different decisions would you be a better rider? Please Uncle Dave, if anything, answer this just to help prevent other riders from suffering the same gruesome (or maybe perfectly ok?) fate. Do it for the children.

Sincerely,
The Representative of the Children of Washington State

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Dear Rickets:

Jesus. You’re probably the kind of guy that agrees with his wife when she says she’s getting a bit chubby to fit into her pants, aren’t you? Yes, I am older. And I am slower. But I’m not that old or that slow. And I can probably hold my own against some group riding yahoo from Washington State. Don’t assume that because I self-deprecate, it’s now open season on Uncle Dave. This isn’t about me.

Now, for a solution to your problem…it’s obvious that you’re too good for these “friends” of yours. I suggest ditching them. Spend more time riding alone, preferably on isolated trails with little to no traffic. It will be best for everybody involved.

Sorry,
Uncle Dave

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Dear Uncle Dave,

I just spent a few hours last weekend watching the world championships on Redbull.tv. I truly love world cup level DH racing. In my opinion it has more excitement and drama than most conventional sports, but I understand that it will never have widespread acceptance in North America. I believe that unless you have felt the sphincter tightening fear of riding a crazy line faster than you should, you can’t truly appreciate the amazing skill & courage on the WC DH circuit. But, as I was watching the race I wondered, “how can this be a good investment for the bike brands?” How many more bikes will Lapierre sell because Bruni put together that amazing run? Does running ads showing Aaron Gwin in bike magazines really sell a lot more Specialized Demo DH bikes? I ask because I’ve personally never met anyone who has bought a bike based on professional racing. Most consumers don’t even really follow it. Almost everyone I know buys a bike based on the recommendation of their mountain biker buddy that spends way too much time reading about bike tech on the internet (this may describe me) or the recommendation of their local bike shop sales guy. Do you think bike brands would do better by giving special deals to grass roots “brand ambassadors” rather than shelling out big bucks for a UCI race team? Maybe I just think about this because I’m a finance nerd, but where is the return on investment?

Thanks,
Sponsored Content

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Dear Spooky,

Boy have you come to the right place! Ask the Engineer some marketing questions!

The interesting thing here is that, in sending me this e-mail, you’ve put more thought into this subject than many bike companies have. As far as I can tell, the current sponsorship plan for most within the bike industry is:

1. Throw some money/parts/t-shirts at some “professionals”
2. ????
3. Profit!

There really seems to be no logic or reason behind most of the sponsorship deals that companies hand out. As a result, you have washed up pros driving around in Lamborghinis and Bentleys (I assume) while some contest/race winning pros are begging for handouts (relatively speaking). You have tiny little companies whose bikes you’ve never seen under a retail paying customer with a large stable of high dollar pros, and gigantic corporations with nothing more than a couple of dudes bringing up the back of the pack on clapped out hand-me-downs. This world makes no sense.

But let’s answer your question with another question. What do you think of brands that don’t have a major international racing/freeride/slopestyle program? I’m going to answer this question for you. You don’t. There’s a degree of respectability that comes along with sponsorship, and anybody that doesn’t at least play the game seems distrustful and scary and you most likely want nothing to do with them.

And really, outside of a small handful of people, nobody really cares who is winning these things. You don’t care if the bike model that you happen to be riding won the latest round of the Enduro World Series. But you do want to know that it is at least capable of making it down the mountain without maiming the operator and a dozen spectators. Involvement without embarrassment seems to be the minimum threshold necessary for us to trust these companies.

The great thing here is that we actually have a fantastic case study for the effects of sponsorship-based marketing. One Aaron Gwin. In the last few years, Aaron and the Demo have gone from “race losing disaster” to “so good they don’t even need to pedal to win races”. From goat to hero in a few short years. And I’ll bet that in that time the shift in profits for Specialized has been negligible. Yes, they probably have sold more Demos to DH racer types since they started winning (again), but that’s probably not a market that matters all that much to the Specialized bottom line. For the rest of the product line, whether it’s Sam Hill or Aaron Gwin out there winning or losing races, it’s totally irrelevant. A participation ribbon seems to be good enough.

You’ve raised the prospect of “grassroots” sponsorship. This has been done in the past, and judging by the lack of these programs, has been deemed exceedingly unsuccessful. There is a reason for this. The problem is that the people that you would want as “brand ambassadors” (knowledgeable, in touch with the latest trends, enthusiastic, able to ride well, etc.) are the very people that you’re relying on to buy your crap at full retail, each and every year. They’re who you are targeting with this insane fantasy and who you are selling the dream to! Start giving those guys deals and the whole business model falls apart.

Your other problem is that you’re a self-professed “finance nerd” trying to make sense of the bike industry. As far as I can tell, there is zero financial logic behind anything remotely related to bikes. From the cost to the wages to the margins to the distribution models there seems to be nothing to support the way any of this stuff is accomplished. I think this is because engineers are cheaper than accountants. But both are far more expensive than marketing guys. Hence our current situation.

Sorry,
Uncle Dave

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Sometimes your reward is getting abused by Uncle Dave, and sometimes it’s a fork.

You picked a good week to ask a question Spooky! You’ve won an Uncle Dave approved SR Suntour Auron fork.  Check out Dave’s review of the Auron here.

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Would you sponsor a top level DH racer if it was your decision?