How to Get Sponsored by Monster Energy

No brand comes up more often when racers ask me for introductions. Monster Energy was built on athletes rather than TV ads, and it still runs one of the biggest rosters in motorsports. Its marketing, motorsports and finance leaders have told my Sponsorship Summits the same uncomfortable truth: Monster finds its athletes. It rarely gets found by them.

Monster is selling a lifestyle

Joe Parsons, known across off-road as "Monster Joe," has been with the brand since its early days. "We're selling entertainment, you know, we're building a lifestyle. The product is just a vehicle to generate revenue, but really at the end of the day it's all about how can we be a member of that community," he said at the Off-Road Sponsorship Summit. ▶ Watch Joe Parsons explain this

That's why Monster cares more about where its can shows up than how many people see it. "Quality sampling is probably better than quantity sampling," Parsons said on Meet the Sponsors. "If I'm just mass sampling, it's just a product, right? But we're not selling a product. We're selling a lifestyle." ▶ Watch the interview

Monster scouts at the races

Parsons gets his information trackside. "I got to be at every single race. I've got to get my knowledge from the dirt itself," he said. "It might start with a relationship, it might start with a conversation, and it might lead to me asking them to send me a deck." When he does ask, he wants it short: "It just needs to be one or two pages, doesn't need to be long, and it needs to come across obviously on brand. It needs to be polished, of course." ▶ Watch Parsons on how Monster selects

He is blunt about unsolicited decks. "I don't think I've done a deal off a deck that's just been sent to me. Not to say that decks aren't good. Typically, I request decks only to sell to my upper management," he told the Motorsports Sponsorship Summit. He compared a cold request to a stranger on the sidewalk: "You walk down the street and someone says, hey, you got five bucks. Do you give them that five bucks? Chances are you don't give them that five bucks." ▶ Watch the clip

Dave Gowland, Monster's vice president of motorsports, said the same at the Motocross Sponsorship Summit. "Nine times out of 10, we are already looking at it. Make an introduction at a race, make an introduction when we see you at a show," he said. "Just come up and say hi, you know, my name is such and such." ▶ Watch Dave Gowland on getting Monster's attention

Show Monster what you add

Monster doesn't need more logos in a discipline it already owns. "If it's for motocross, and you see I've got already two or three teams, and I've got nine or 10 athletes ... that are winning, how are you going to enhance whatever I've got?" Gowland asked. Piling on riders hurts the brand: "When you keep adding stuff, it starts to dilute the brand, you know, because then it doesn't continue to be either special or authentic." ▶ See the full answer

Get results and look professional

Matt Burroughs, Monster's senior vice president of corporate finance and a UTV champion himself, said racers aiming at an A-level deal skip a step. "I think it's unrealistic to go to a company like Monster and say, look, sponsor me, but you've really had no results," he said. Monster does have its Monster Army program for up-and-coming riders, "and that's a place definitely to start with Monster." The two mistakes he sees most: racers "not out there getting the results that they need to get," and a program that doesn't look professional "from an outside perspective." ▶ Watch Matt Burroughs on two mistakes

He checks the details in person. "What is your presence like?" he asked, then listed what he looks at: "Is your chase truck wrapped? If you are a Monster sponsor, where does the Monster logo, is it placed right? Is it clean?" ▶ Watch Burroughs on presence

Mitch Covington of Monster's sports marketing team added that Monster wants a program that already works. Monster likes to "find teams that are going to go racing and going to win anyway and that are not dependent on us," he said. The famous "Monster personality" matters less than people think: "The performance is probably what's going to get you sponsored at Monster for the most part." ▶ Watch Mitch Covington explain

Monster plays the long game

Once Monster commits, it stays. "Anybody can slap a logo on a champion, you know, but to be a part of the story is a much better, I would say, way to communicate our entertainment," Parsons said. He looks for young athletes he can ride with for a decade. ▶ Watch Parsons on the long game

That changes the math for a newcomer. "Even if it's a five or $10,000 deal, but I can look and gamble for the future," Parsons said on Meet the Sponsors. He prefers multi-year terms: "If I'm going to do a deal with anyone, I need to do at least a two to three year deal so that we can both leverage the program and build a snowball." ▶ Watch the interview

Find the right manager and the right pool

CFO Tom Kelly explained how the money is split. Big properties have dedicated budgets, but "there's over 100 different individuals that we sponsor on a smaller level. And that's the group I think that people would like to get into." ▶ Watch Tom Kelly on the budget

His advice on who to approach: "We have the events broken up into off-road events, bike events, surfboard events, skate events, and we have managers for each one of those events. See if you can't get those names and approach those persons." And don't expect an ROI formula: "Return on investment, we don't measure it. We just know what it is." ▶ Watch the CFO session

On timing, Gowland said his motorsports group isn't locked into a budget calendar: "If something good comes along that we never planned for, and it's really going to do something good for the brand, we find the money." Monster takes submissions "all year long," then follows the racer's results and comes back "when it's time." Parsons plans his own programs far ahead, with contracts running January through December. ▶ Watch the session

Your checklist for Monster Energy

• Be at the races and events where Monster's people are, and introduce yourself in person.
• Win first. Bring results and a program that looks professional down to the chase truck.
• Show a gap Monster hasn't filled instead of asking to join a discipline it already dominates.
• Have a one- or two-page deck ready for when you're asked for it.
• Learn which Monster manager covers your discipline, and look at Monster Army if you're coming up.
• Think in years: accept a small start and plan to grow the story together.