sponsorship

[TornTech]

Hi All,

On a purely Battlebots/Robot Wars/General Combat robot fan point of view, do UK teams tend to be sponsored? I only ask this as on BattleBots it seems quite common for a robot/Robot Team to have 2-3 sponsors. with some of them having 5-6, and some big names like Autodesk!

I am presuming sponsorship is harder in the UK with robot wars, considering how branding is handled/regulated within the BBC shows?

Just curious

Tom.

[Flag Captured]

It's a lot more common in the US than the UK for reasons you mentioned there, though I'm led to believe some teams do still have sponsors - they just naturally won't be allowed to advertise those on the show!

[joey_picus]

From what I've observed there's nowhere near the amount of sponsorship in the sport in America - even aside from the BBC not allowing visual advertising, it just doesn't seem to be in the culture here. When sponsorship does happen it tends to be in the form of free parts and free services on a local level rather than anything formal with logos on a big banner in the pits. Battlebots have gone in a slightly bizarre F1/NASCAR sort of direction in that regard - everyone had those big banners in the pits with a space for sponsors, and I wonder what would happen if you'd entered with none...

There are exceptions - the old Team Storm sponsors page is still up and shows that it is possible to get quite a lot, if you're Ed Hoppitt at least - but generally I wouldn't count on it.

[R9000]

I'm probably terribly biased, but I honestly prefer it this way. I know sponsorship obviously helps sports grow and teams get better, but I really don't want to see massive banners for companies I don't care about everywhere, or even pasted all over the robot like an F1 car. Nor do I want to break halfway through the fight to see an advert for Monster Energy or something equally cheesy and annoying. I want to see combat robotics become a big, international sport, but if that means making a sacrifice like that, I think I'd rather it just stay the way it is now, more of a passion project really. Plus it's no fun if nobody even has to economise and use slightly less-than-new components to get by, rather than just having everything purpose-built straight away - it takes half the ingenuity away for me. Maybe I'm wrong or being unrealistic, that's just my view on it.

[Ellis]

I had a number of great sponsors for Pulsar. The robot would have been completely impossible without their support. I will be promoting them online when the time comes, and not as a sell-out, but genuinely because they deserve it. You often form a personal relationship with folks at the company, and whilst yes they are doing it for exposure, they are still giving away time/items for free. Heavyweights are mighty expensive - I think it's healthy for all involved to get some official support.

I expect to see an increase in sponsorship for Robot Wars teams in (fingers crossed they happen!) future series as energy and destruction gets crazy. I certainly know my pockets aren't deep enough to do this on the regular!

[R9000]

Yeah, just to clarify I'm not condemning sponsorship, it's good to an extent, I just don't want it all over the place like in F1 or other major sports. A la "Robot Wars, brought to you by Coca Cola".