Volksarma's Garage

This proposal is not a small commitment. Neither is the amount of exposure you will get. This is a full time, year round program, that will get your name, logo, and brand in many forms of media and in the face of potential customers. Please look at this with an open mind. This campaign will be in effect all year, and will be attending events nearly every weekend.

I have built a 1966 VW Bus that has been modified to double as both a race vehicle and a show car. I want to take this vehicle on tour to as many car shows, cruise ins, drag races, and land speed racing events as possible. There are hundreds of automotive events that take place throughout each month. Some are one day events, some are two, three, or four day events. The majority of events take place in California, but the are events in Nevada, Arizona, and Utah.  Some events are VW only events with both shows and races. Some are nostalgia races that include all types of vintage race cars on both the drag strip and land speed racing venues. Still others are huge custom car shows that have all types and styles of custom vehicles. My proposal will offer you a huge return on your investment throughout the year. What I can offer you is both National and International exposure for your company and brand. There are numerous ways in which I will bring attention to your product and/or services.

The vehicle itself is what makes this such a tremendous marketing tool. Everybody loves VWs. Everybody has a great story during their life about a VW. Their family owned one, their friends owned them, or they had one themselves. You watch people as they interact with VWs and as you talk to them they always open up a smile and tell you a funny or treasured memory of a VW in their life. You don't have the same reaction to any other type of car. Also, the fact that this vehicle could barely do 65mph downhill with a tailwind makes it so unusual for race car. That is what makes it stand out in a crowd. Isn’t that what marketing is all about? I have another custom bus that we take out to car shows. It easily draws the biggest crowd. It can be parked next to a $100k hot rod, and people will always notice and gravitate to the bus. Also being that it is a vehicle that can be taken to all sorts of events makes it a diverse tool as well. How many vehicles could you take to a hot rod, import, VW, custom truck, vintage drags, regular drags, and land speed racing? It appeals to all automotive fans, and your brand will be in there face and at their event. Several companies have used VW busses in their advertising campaigns. Sunny Delight vinyl wrapped an old bus and took it on tour around the nation. It was, from what I read, and incredibly successful campaign with TV commercails and live appearances. The Speed Channel recently included a VW Bus in their latest season of the Bullrun and was a viewer favorite. Music pop group Panic at the Disco featured a VW bus throughout one of their entire music videos. 

Below is a list of different ways which your company and brand will be exposed to potential
customers.

1. Your logo on all sides of the vehicle.
The sides is where you will see the biggest logo. There is a space roughly 5 – 6 feet long and about 2 – 3 feet wide to place your company logo. There is also room on the front nose and the roof is HUGE. You could choose to just place large decals over the painted surface or you could wrap the whole vehicle in vinyl with a custom design. I would be willing to paint or wrap the vehicle any color you want. I do have several smaller parts sponsors that would need to be on the bus too. Their logos are much smaller and will be placed along the bottom edge, on the windows, or near the rear corners. They obviously helped to make this project possible and need to be included in a small way. There are not many other vehicles out there that would allow for such a large logo plus the benefit of having so much vertical surface makes it a marketing dream.
2. The vehicle will be featured in a number of national and international automotive magazines when finished.
I currently have four VW magazines that have committed to fully featuring the bus when it is finished. One is the only US based VW magazine, the next is the UK magazine “Volksworld”, next is the French magazine “Super VW”, and the last is the Japanese magazine “Lets Play VWs”. There are always other magazines that attend various events and serve different segments that include hot rod, import, VW, nostalgia drags, land speed racing, and custom culture enthusiasts. There will surely be more magazines that will feature the bus as we get out to the events.
3. Direct exposure at any event the bus attends.
There will be hundreds of thousands of attendees that attend all these events we have planned to attend. All of the attendees will obviously see your name and logo displayed at the show itself, but many of the people will be taking photos and videos to post up on auto related websites and social networking sites. The images of this vehicle will proliferate throughout untold number of websites, photo galleries, blogs, and discussion boards. Your logo will be easily readable, no matter what size the image is.
4. This vehicle will be on the road throughout the year, logging tens of thousands of miles on the back of the trailer.
Everywhere is goes, your company name and logo will be there for everyone to see. Once again, I figure there is an opportunity to expose your brand to hundreds of thousands of people.
5. Inclusion of the vehicle in the largest automotive aftermarket industry convention, the SEMA show in Las Vegas.
This is the place to be seen by all the other industry professionals. It would be a great way to expose your brand to potential retailers to sell your products. Once again there are somewhere in the area of 100,000 attendees from all around the globe that would see and photograph the vehicle. Excellent opportunity for international exposure, as those attendees go home and post pics, and video on website in their own country.
6. You could use the vehicle for your own advertising and marketing ideas.
If you have a special event you would like the vehicle to attend, We could bring it to your event. If you want to use the image of the vehicle within any of your own media for advertising, you would have that opportunity. From online website images, to images in your catalogs or magazine adds. You would have one of the most unique vehicles out there to use as a promotion tool.
7. We could set up a way to distribute flyers, coupons, or literature from the bus.
If there was a way to set up a stand or something to distribute any of your literature, company information, samples, etc, I would be open for your ideas to get something into the attendees hands.

I will tell you what I am looking to get out of this partnership

First, we need to have all of our traveling expenses paid to get the bus out to as many events as possible. I have compiled a complete list of events throughout the year I propose to attend. We are looking at around 45+ events, and most of those events are multiple day events. You are looking at easily over 100 days of events the vehicle would attend. We have the actual mileage calculated, the estimated fuel expenses, estimated hotel expenses, and estimated entry fees.  We are contacting event promoters to try to nail down exact dates and fees for each event for next year.

The next thing I need is to be paid an annual salary. There is no way I could commit to a regular job and be able to make commitments to attend all these events throughout the year. This will be a full time job. Some of these events I would have to leave on Thursday or Friday and may not make it home till Monday. Some weekends will only be a one day event, but most will be multiple day events. In addition when I do come home there will be a lot of work to do, updating the website and putting all the latest action on all of the forum board and blogs I follow and contribute to. There will be many hours spent per week behind the computer, updating and promoting. Also there will surely be hours spent maintaining, cleaning, and updating the vehicle during the week to get ready for the next event. 

For me, this is an opportunity to make a living doing something I truly love. For you, you gain an incredible marketing tool without the expense of building the promo vehicle, trailer or tow vehicle.  Your return on your investment will be outstanding. Your risk and initial investment is very low since you don’t have to come up with an initial large investment to buy and build the bus, trailer, and tow vehicle.

Let me assure you I am a very straight up person. There are no angles here. It's all exactly as it sounds with no ulterior motives. I simply want to enjoy my vehicle and promote your product throughout the year. I am a father a two younger kids, a husband of 13 years, and a very upstanding person. I don't drink, smoke, or do drugs. I was bellman for 17 years before quitting my job to open my own VW shop which unfortunately had to close recently because of the weak economy. Being a bellman at a high profile hotel and Las Vegas, customer service comes naturally. I know how a company wants to be represented at all times. I would be a spokesperson and an example of your brand. Treating people right, always smiling, never losing your cool, and always having your company in mind. You always have to be "on" because you never know when someone is watching you. These are the things I have learned and honed as a front line employee in a customer service orientated business. It comes naturally.

I understand most companies budget out for these kinds of expenses for the whole year several months before the beginning of the year. One of the biggest promo opportunities for the year is the SEMA show. This show is at the beginning of November and would benefit you greatly to have the bus there with your huge logo all over it. I would like to start our relationship with the SEMA show and follow thru till the end of October 2010. You let me know what we have to do to come to an agreement and start this awesome marketing campaign. I don't have all of the figures yet, but I will soon. Some shows or races don't have their date set for next year yet, so it difficult to exactly plan out the specific shows because sometimes shows overlap from year to year. I have a pretty complete list that will be available soon. As soon as I can come up with the locations and dates, I can figure out the mileage for fuel and number of days needed for lodging. l am so excited about this, I have a hard time sleeping at night. I will put my heart into this and would be a dream come true. I appreciate any and all consideration for your support. Please call me if you have any questions with anything outlined here or if you want to commit to the campaign.

My contact info is as follows
Derek Campbell
504 Palegold st
Henderson, NV 89012
702-491-5146
derek@volksarama.com
www.volksarama.com

Take 10 minutes and go to my website to see what I have put together. There are pictures and videos of the bus and it’s current progress. There are also professional renditions (drawings) of the finished vehicle. Picture your logo across 6 feet of that rolling billboard. With a logo that large, any image, no matter how small, will be highly visible in any photos and videos taken. I believe in it 100% as a marketing tool. . Let me know what you think ASAP.
Thanks,
Derek Campbell