Agent, Manager or Agency: Who's Actually Across the Table

When a racer tells me "I need an agent," they usually mean one of three different people. One sells the racer to brands. One runs the racer's business. And one works for the brand and decides where its sponsorship money goes. Mix them up and you end up pitching the wrong person, asking the wrong questions, and wondering why nobody calls back. Here is how the people who do these jobs sort it out.

Agents work for you. Agencies work for the brand.

Bob Walker of Connexions Sports & Entertainment has represented the Deegan family for years. On the agents and agencies panel at my Sponsorship Summit, he drew the line in one sentence. "The agent is the relationship with the talent, and the agency typically has the brand. Either the ad agency, the marketing agency, the social content agency for the brands," Walker said.

The two sides cross over all the time. Walker's firm represents brands as well as athletes, and when a brand sponsoring one of his clients needs more help, "a lot of times they'll bolt us on to do some of that additional work." When a project is outside his skill set, he hands it to an agency like Eric Morley's Blue C, and they all work on it together. ▶ Watch Bob Walker on this

Morley keeps his side of that line strict. "I represent brands, and I'm very upfront with it. We don't represent athletes," he told a motocross summit panel. When Blue C needs talent, he goes to the agents. "We keep it pretty much as church and state." ▶ See Eric Morley's answer

That tells a racer something useful. A brand agency is not going to represent you. It is a buyer. You sell to it the same way you would sell to the brand's own marketing department.

In racing, "agent" and "manager" mean the same job

Hollywood and the stick-and-ball sports treat agents and managers as separate roles. Travis Clarke, executive vice president of action sports and Olympics at Wasserman, says that split mostly doesn't exist in motorsports.

"There's a lot of misconception over what an agent is versus what a manager is," Clarke said at the Off-Road Sponsorship Summit. "Typically an agent is in charge of sponsorships, partnerships, that sort of stuff, negotiating your endorsement deals." Elsewhere, he explained, a manager runs the athlete's wider business and often works alongside an agent. Racing doesn't bother with the difference. "In our world, kind of the names are interchangeable: agent, manager, whatever. Ultimately it's trying to find money for the client, and that's really the primary motivation." ▶ Watch Travis Clarke explain this

So don't get hung up on the title on someone's business card. Ask what they will do: find deals, negotiate them, service them, or all three.

The person in the BFGoodrich shirt may not work for BFGoodrich

This is the part that trips up racers most. At almost any off-road race you'll find Nate Hunt in BFGoodrich gear, helping teams and talking sponsorship. He doesn't work for BFGoodrich. He's the BFGoodrich program director at Jackson Motorsports, the agency that handles motorsports for BFGoodrich and Michelin.

"Basically I'm an agent for a company," Hunt said at the Motorsports Sponsorship Summit. "The way I look at agencies is we do all the work that the big corporations don't want to do. They like to farm it out, they want to pay somebody else to do it." He sees a benefit in that for racers. "Big corporations, there's a lot of people on career paths that are in a role for two or three years and move on to something bigger and better within this big corporation, where in the smaller agency world there's not a big corporate ladder. So you kind of stay in the same area longer and you get to develop a lot more relationships."

At the track, though, he is the brand. "My job when I go to any event or race is to represent BFG. So I'm supposed to be the brand while we're on site." ▶ Watch Nate Hunt on this

For you, that means the agency contact may be the most stable relationship you can build with a big brand. The marketing manager at headquarters may be gone in two years. The agency person at the track may be there for ten.

Find out what the agency actually handles

Not every agency picks sponsorships. A former BFGoodrich motorsports marketing director, now with Jackson, explained that it depends on the client. Jackson reviews sponsorship requests for BFGoodrich and Michelin. For other clients it only handles activation and never looks at a sponsorship pitch. "I think it has everything to do with the relationship between the brand and the agency," he said.

His advice for working out who to talk to is refreshingly low-tech: ask. "All you gotta do is get on the phone. You can call the receptionist and ask the receptionist. She might put you through to the right person who you can then ask more questions to." ▶ Watch the agency answer

Big programs start at the agency. Launches start at the brand.

So should you approach the brand or its agency? Morley's answer depends on how big the program is. A focused campaign, such as a product launch that needs a few riders who fit, can start with a direct approach to the brand. Larger, long-term athlete programs go through the agency. "Those are bigger conversations; those start with the agency," Morley said. "The tactical or launch or specific starts with the brand." ▶ See the full answer

Jim Liaw, who co-founded Formula DRIFT and raised its sponsorship for years, ended up working both doors. "We've dealt directly with marketing departments at a company, we've been kind of pushed over to agencies that represent them," Liaw said. "At the end of the day, we're just trying to raise sponsorship dollars." ▶ Watch Jim Liaw on this

Being "pushed over to the agency" isn't a brush-off. Often it means you've been sent to the people who actually do the work.

The takeaway

• Know which side each person is on. Agents and managers sell you. Agencies buy for the brand. Pitch an agency the way you'd pitch the brand itself.
• Learn the brand's agency. Ask at the track, call the front desk, and notice who's wearing the logo but isn't on the payroll.
• Find out what that agency handles. Some review sponsorships, some only run activations. Ask before you send a deck.
• Match your pitch to its size. A narrow, launch-sized idea can go to the brand. A season-long program will probably end up at the agency.
• Build the long relationship. Agency people often stay in their jobs longer than corporate marketing managers. Treat them like the partners they are.