Fishing can be an expensive hobby. Between buying and upgrading rods & reels, losing lures, line & hooks, buying bait & accessories etc - the costs add up quickly if you’re fishing often.

If you’re exceptionally good at what you do, you may be able to pick up a few sponsors to help offset these costs.

As a worldwide fishing brand, we get plenty of sponsorship requests, and we do try to help people out where we can, but there are a few common mistakes people make that mean their requests don’t get very far. Before we get into the do’s-&-don’ts when approaching a brand for sponsorship, we should clarify exactly what ‘sponsorship’ is.

For the majority of companies, it’s simply another avenue of marketing & advertising. It’s important to understand that when you partner with a fishing company, you become a part of their brand. The idea behind sponsorship is to work with prominent people in the fishing world to promote their product and in turn, generate sales.

Right now, social media is one of the most accessible and effective ways to do this for the average Joe. At the higher end of the sponsorship spectrum you’ve got TV shows, web series, pro-staff etc; but like everything else, you usually have to start small and work your way up. If you’re regularly putting out good content (videos, photos, IG stories), building your own following, entering fishing competitions, attending events to name a few, you quickly become a valuable source of exposure for the brands you use & support. A typical low end sponsorship would usually involve receiving discounted/free product to use - often in exchange for marketing images and a bit of promotion on your end.

Now that we’ve covered what a sponsorship is, let’s get into what you should be keeping in mind when angling yourself for a sponsorship.

How To Get Sponsored By A Fishing Brand

Treat yourself like a brand.

As mentioned above, if you’re sponsored by any company (fishing or otherwise), you essentially become part of the face of that brand. Before approaching a brand, make sure you portray & conduct yourself online and in the real world in a way that is professional and compatible with the company you are wanting to work with. No company wants to be associated with the person who does reckless, illegal, or immoral stuff. Treat your gear with respect and treat your catch with respect.

There’s no such thing as free stuff, and sponsorship is a two way street.

This is why we prefer the term ‘partnership’ instead of ‘sponsorship’. If you slide into a company’s DM’s just asking for free stuff, you will be left disappointed. We mentioned earlier that although the product comes free to you, the brand has to absorb that cost as an advertising expense, and will usually require something return to help recoup that cost. The only way this is sustainable is if the brand can convert that into some kind of promotional material. eg; a photo for use on the brands social media. Free stuff requires some work on your part - so be prepared to give something in return.

Be authentic. Approach brands that you genuinely believe in and want to support.

This is a big one for us. It’s obvious when somebody is just looking for a sponsor and will go with whoever takes them. We want to work with people who genuinely relate with our brand and believe in our products. Remember, if you’re successful in your request, you’re now representing that brand - make sure you can be proud of that association.

As a side note; if you’re happy to sell yourself to whoever gives you the most free stuff, you’ll probably find a sponsor pretty easy, but be wary, and don’t expect long-term support or a mutually beneficial arrangement.

Have a niche. Be unique.

Identify something that will make you stand out from everybody else. Aim for better photos, bigger fish, unique locations, more action - whatever it is, push the envelope a bit, try something new and make sure it stands out!

Have a plan.

Usually the first thing we ask for is a sponsorship proposal. A few sentences in an instagram direct message won’t get you far - at a minimum the brand will want to know who you are, what fishing you do, how you can help the brand, and how the brand can help you. The more effort you put into this, the more time the marketing team will spend reviewing your proposal. Double check your spelling and grammar before hitting send too.

Proposal checklist:

- Introduce yourself & where you’re from. Explain why you think you’re a good fit for the brand.
- Explain what makes your fishing unique and what makes you a better choice than the other people who are looking for sponsorship.
- The fishing you do (offshore, inshore, freshwater, land-based, kayak, jetski)
- How often you’re fishing
- Your plan for growth. As an example, this could be a regular video series, some cool fishing adventures, entering fishing competitions & attending events, working with other fishing accounts. But make sure you deliver on this.
- Be clear about what you’re asking for from the company you’re approaching, and include an idea what you can provide them in return.

Be consistent and be present in the industry.

As previously mentioned, you should attend events, enter competitions, interact in the fishing world and become prominent in the industry. While a social media following helps, it’s certainly not essential. If you can produce regular high-quality content, you’re already halfway there. Before approaching a potential sponsor, you’ll ideally you want to have a solid history of posts on your instagram/facebook/youtube channels, and update them regularly - even if they don’t get massive interaction. This helps to show that you’re here for a long time, not just a good time. If you regularly post, and regularly promote and use a brand’s product, there’s a good chance they will even approach you first. Use the brands hashtags and tag them in your posts to get noticed.

Put in effort.

This means don’t copy and paste your message to 20 other brands. Trust us, we can tell. First impressions count, and minimal effort from you will result in minimal effort from us getting back to you. Keep in mind that you’re applying to represent their company. An application or message filled with spelling mistakes and missing info isn’t a good way to represent yourself, so there’s not much hope you’ll represent the brand in a professional manner.

Summary

Remember this is just a general guide on things to consider when approaching a brand for sponsorship - based on what we look out for here at BKK New Zealand. Other brands may differ slightly, but working on the above points should give you a major advantage over everybody else, and is likely to get you noticed by almost any brand in any industry.

Keep in mind that doing all the things we’ve mentioned doesn’t guarantee a sponsorship or partnership - there are many factors that play into whether a brand will want to work with you. Sometimes it might just not be a good fit, sometimes they’re not currently looking for anybody new to work with, and that’s okay… keep doing what you’re doing, put in the work, and you may find other opportunities opening up for you 🤙🏼

Use the following hashtags for BKK:

#bkkhooks #bkknz #bkkallday

Or the following tag:

IG: @bkk_nz
FB: @bkkhooksnz

How to Get Sponsored By A Fishing Brand