Getting Reel - Fishing News

Are “WRAP Jobs” Out of Control?

by Don Zaegel on November 13th, 2007

     A couple of years ago ESPN/BASS made it mandatory for their pros to wrap their boats with sponsorship logos in an attempt to draw in more companies vying for sponsorship. Something that, in many ways has worked with out in conjunction with the Elite Series.

     As soon as the anglers started unveiling their newly designed and customized wrapped boats, we the audience immediatley began to take notice. The looked tapped into our excitment mugs like the showing of a Nascar driver’s new paint scheme on his car or a new uniform design for our favorite baseball team. Even so, for most of us we began to think of how cool our very own boat would look with such a design. Maybe fire breathing down the length of our hull as it scorched all the names of our sponsors. If fire doesn’t suit you, maybe a big eagle soring the sides with it’s claws locked tightly around the name of your favorite bait company. Regardless, our imagination began to work and for some it became real.

     Here’s the part were you might start to interpret me as inderectly telling you to not do it, but that’s not what I am doing. What I am doing is trying to make everyone reading this aware of the benifit and value of wrapping your boat.

     We all tow our boat many miles down the road to get to our fishing destination. Some drive up and down the entire coast, and others drive cross country. For a company looking to advertise, this can hold great potential for their name to be presented to a vast majority of on lookers. Marketers can have you plaster their name all over your boat, truck, windows, etc. in an attempt to grab the attention of passer by’s. A mobile billboard. Investors in this are slowly beging to realize the impact that advertisement on a vehicle and boat that drives all over the place can have over the traditional billboard. One that sits still among many others or a radio channel that rapidly talks through the dialogue for your air time you paid for. All waisted if the listener doesn’t happen to have a pen in their hand at that exact moment in time

     Since ESPN/BASS has made it mandatory for all anglers to run wrapped designs on their boat, it has been up to the anglers themselves to try and find marketers willing to pay the price to have this done. For most this could come at a cost of $20,000-$50,000 to have a nationaly televised anglers splatter your name across everything he owns. The problem that they are now facing is that the weekend anglers are wanting to do the same thing in an attempt to build their own ego. This is putting an increasing stress on the touring pro’s. The marketers that they are approaching are beginning to realize that it is much more cost effective to take advantage of the weekend anglers who want to feel and look just like the pros. Marketers can get multiple regional advertisements out of the weekend guys who drive in and around their boardering states by paying for the wrap and throwing a couple of baits their way. All of this while the touring pro is still caught trying to find someone to help out with the wrap demand placed on him by ESPN/BASS along with his $55,000 in entry fees, plus gas, hotel, etc costs.  The effect of this will eventually begin to decrease the true value that this type of exposure holds.

     I am sure that the trend we are seeing will continue to grow, especially as the major affiliations continue to put additional stresses on top of their anglers. Regardless, this all begs the question, “Are wrap jobs out of control”?

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POSTED IN: BASS, Miscellaneous