On the confirmed barges (currently 25), we can offer a sponsor logos or bands to be flown on one, many or all of the barges using pennants or flags depending on the sponsorship,
There can be one pennant and one flag on each barge and locationing of these items on the barges can be negotiated with safety borne in mind that the PLA may enforce.
This is a unique opportunity as the Port of London Authority (PLA) do not generally like adverts to be visible in high density from on board a vessel, especially with historic vessels like Thames Sailing Barges which they love.
Your brand will be seen by thousands on the bank-sides and millions through visual media such as television, print such as papers and magazines and digital media online. We have another approach for audio media such as radio.
With audio media we may be able to follow any interviews with a “sponsored by...” advert during a commercial, but if not, we will voice a thank you to our major sponsors by name during the interview.
With television we will not have control of how much your logo is seen, but it is safe to say that if your sponsorship attains a place on all the barges, it will be seen on television.
With print media we will be able to follow any article with our sponsor’s logo and in special circumstances, we may be able to incorporate our sponsor into the article itself with a few lines.
Not in all cases will we be able to do this and will let you know if we can before your decision to sponsor us.
Our sponsor’s pennant or flag will stand out slightly from the other pennants and flags which will be those awarded to the barges for their wins at barge matches or for other special occasions and such like.
We will be deliberately flying those other pennants so that our sponsors pennant or flag blends in with the occasion, as a requirement of the PLA, so that any historical documentation reflects the occasion of the barges first and foremost.
Where a barge has no pennants or flags awarded from winnings or other special events, then the sponsors pennants or flag with fly with perhaps bunting displayed on the barge.
Advertising opportunities for a sponsor through media comes with every article and editorial that we get published before and after the event. There will be pre-buildup of editorials sent to a list of newspapers and magazines so that they all know of the impending event.
Some will take the editorial as is and run with it, other will want to form their own write ups.
We will push further editorials onto the media to generate articles that speak of the event’s success after the parade has finished.
Either way, we will be generating public awareness, directing them to our website and presenting footage of the event in the years following.
For five years we will carry the branding of our sponsors because should the Lottery Heritage Fund play a part in our achievement, it is a condition of theirs that we preserve public access to footage and archives for at least five years so that those members of the public that could not be there on the day will be able to see what the day was like anyway. That includes any one or all sponsors.
We will also be targeting the web sphere to generate articles in the online digital media, again with our major sponsors close by.
Advertising opportunities for a sponsor through our shoreside event comes in a variety of offerings at West India Dock:
Any sponsorship pennants, flags, logos etc are displayed within the marquee and surrounding areas, only major sponsors pennants and flags will be set on the barges, probably from the Sprite.
It is down to the sponsor to ensure we have the pennants and flags to be placed about the suggested areas at West India Dock, We will, however, advise you on numbers.
Sunday 18th September 2016:
All pennants, and flags from both sponsor and barge owner will be set as will the topsails of the barges if suitable weather conditions permit. Barges that agreed are open to the public for the pop-up museum.
Sponsors can have their branding seen on small sandwich boards or sponsored info boards about the barges attached to railings alongside barges. The cost of doing so has to be borne by the sponsor outside of the agreed sponsor funding for the parade.
Stallholders will set up to include: token cargos, shipwrights, riggers, sailmakers, SSBR, Chaffcutter books, Knot man, Docklands Museum, National Historic Ships, old barge skippers telling tales, barge owners advertising boards, photo boards and anybody else connected with the historic side of barges.
Sponsors will be allowed to setup as stall holders too after a discussion of pitch and placement. Appearances of sponsor logos on any of these stallholders stands is again, another negotiation that we will channel for a sponsor with the independent stallholder.
We can approach a particular barge owner if a sponsor would like to hold a static event on a barge, but this too will be a separate costing negotiated directly with the barge owner.
These are all separate opportunities where sponsors can get involved, but again, they carry extra costs.
Model Barges sailing about the dock with local Sea cadets available to rescue.
We are still awaiting confirmation from the model barge community if a sponsor can have a barge built for them or if a sponsor can have a pennant (model size of course) flying in the dockside demonstrations.
You can see a the model barges in action through the following video link. This was just a relaxing day out for the model makers, but on the day, it will be just as competitive as the barge matches the real barges see all season. Here’s a preview of the models in action.
Fun opportunities to be confirmed is our ability to collect donations from the banks during the parade and we are hoping to offer T-Shirts for sale during this time as an inaugural memento of the parade. Sponsors can support this with the pledge of a small number of T-Shirts that can carry their logos along with an illustration of a parade of barges.
Photo opportunities of the event will be taken all along the river of every barge. These will be made freely available on our website for media to use at anytime for articles they wish to write about the event or a particular barge at the event.
As a sponsor, your visibility will be seen many years down the line and be a part of history.
We encourage a sponsor to tell us who their audiences are and how they are reached through the media they use, so that we can take advantage of the opportunity to freely target them, before the event date, to come along as part of the audience and see the barges, not to mention the opportunity for profiling.
Then after the event, we follow up with what happened and how the event went, again through editorials to these same media outlets, including any that a sponsor may point us to, to ensure there is a roll-on media coverage.
We do this to bolster the coverage that would organically be generated by in the media to get the most out of this wonderful opportunity for our sponsors and for the Thames Sailing Barge Parade and its charity themselves.
We want our sponsor to impart to us what they do so we can see how to truly amalgamate your story with our event. Perhaps your industry was supplied by river at one stage or you are thinking of using the waterways for some aspects of your business (a logistic that is on the rise in some areas of commerce).
You may even be connected with waterway delivery today or some such and that would be great to speak of.
In advertising terms, the publicity would run into hundreds of thousands of column space pounds for a fraction of what you will invest in funding our event.
We implore you to get in involved, this is an event we don't want you to miss. It's a first and firsts are always famed because they are historically documented, as well as easier to get into the media sphere.
You want to be a part of that, of course. Then join us on our journey back through our past and into the future.
This is not an opportunity to miss. We'll cover how we can accommodate your specific requirements and in doing so, we’ll fathom-out what’s best for both parties.
Kind Regards
Jonathan Fleming (Founding Organiser)
Email: jf@thamessailingbargeparade.com
Telephone: 01273 202138
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