How am I supposed to sell this?

How am I supposed to sell this?

Years ago, I worked at a multicultural agency.

I sold sponsorships to our Latin music tours.

These were the biggest names in Latin music.

Marco Antonio Solis

Mark Anthony

Juan Gabriel

Romeo Santos

But I had two big roadblocks.

1) I had never heard of these artists.

2) I don’t speak Spanish.

How can I convince a company to sponsor a tour when I don’t even understand what the artist is singing about?

Thus, I struggled to break through to sponsors.

But then I had an idea.

What if we knew the categories and brands popular among the artists’ fans?

We could use this data to show why the tour is a platform for a brand to connect with these consumers.

I asked my boss for fan data.

Their age.

Their gender.

Brands they buy.

However, nothing like that existed (and I was told we had no budget).

So I took matters into my hands.

If the data didn’t exist, I’d create it.

I started by researching the process.

I needed a survey.

A way to get it in front of the artists’ fans.

And an incentive to encourage participation.

I created the survey myself.

I got ahold of the email addresses of ticket buyers from our past tours.

I convinced my boss to give VIP artist meet & greet passes as an incentive.

With everything in place, I sent out the survey.

Hundreds of fans responded.

Soon insights emerged.

One was that Marc Anthony’s fans over-index in wine consumption.

Armed with this data, I reached out to the major wine companies.

I caught the attention of Constellation Brands.

They were launching a new wine called Rosatello.

Convinced by the data, they saw Marc Anthony’s tour as a platform for the launch.

Soon after, they signed on as a sponsor.

$500,000 in fees!

Over my career, I am proudest of this deal.

No knowledge of the artists.

No data about their fans.

No problem.

It’s not your resources; it’s your resourcefulness.