Auto Assembly 2014 Sponsorship and Advertising Opportunities

First, we’d like to thank you for taking the time to visit this page here on the Auto Assembly website. As someone who is as a current or former dealer who has attended Auto Assembly, Europe’s Largest Transformers Convention in the past, one of our current or past sponsors or advertisers, a company who has provided prizes for competitions for us to give away to our attendees, or someone may simply be interested in supporting the convention, we wanted to provide this page to give all of you details of some of the great sponsorship and advertising opportunities that we have available for this year’s convention.

While we appreciate that many of you reading this many not be based in the UK or Europe, we still believe that promoting your business at Auto Assembly has a lot to offer, expanding your customer base into a new territory as many companies have in previous years with us. And even if your business isn’t directly associated with Transformers, we firmly believe that we may still have a lot to offer you…

So What Exactly IS Auto Assembly?

For those of you who are new to us, Auto Assembly is a non-profit making Transformers convention that takes place every August in Birmingham, England and is the largest of its kind in Europe. First taking place in 2000, it has grown steadily in size and in 2013 we were joined by in excess of 800 Transformers fans from all over the world as we celebrated every aspect of everyone’s favourite Robots In Disguise.

The convention features an array of dealers attending from across the globe, guest talks from comic artists and writers and various voice actors to have worked on the various Transformers series throughout the last 30 years, workshops, competitions, cosplay, autograph sessions and much more spanning three days and you can find out more on our website at www.autoassembly.org.uk  This year we are expecting another record turn out and current projections, based on our already higher-than-usual ticket sales, we are on course to see well over 1,000 fans attend Auto Assembly 2014.

While the activities at the convention are focused on Transformers and that is why our attendees travel from all over the world to attend Auto Assembly, they have a diverse range of interests although focused primarily in the sci-fi, comics, anime and gaming fields which is why I have approached you today.

You And Auto Assembly

Many of you reading this will already be familiar with the convention (and in turn this website), either as a dealer, as a current or former attendee or by reputation having read about us online so you will already know about what we do and what we have offered in the past to our attendees but we want to tell you a bit about what we can offer you as a business and how we would hope you would be interested in becoming a possible sponsor for this year’s convention. We have a wide range of exciting opportunities available to suit all budgets offering different levels of exposure to our attendees which we think will appeal to all of you so without wasting any more time I’ll talk about these in more detail now.

The Goodie Bag

Every year, Auto Assembly is known for providing all of our attendees with a package of complimentary gifts. These have been incredibly diverse ranging from lithographs to postcards, CD-ROMs to comics and everything in between and we have a number of opportunities and items that can be sponsored here.

Some companies have sponsored us in the past by providing items for us to give away to our attendees, but the last few years we have focused opportunities more on our “regular” items where we offer sponsors the chance to be associated with existing convention gifts and it’s these that I’ll focus on.

Postcards

For over a decade we have produced a range of convention exclusive postcards that have been given to all of our attendees. These have been full colour glossy cards with original artwork commissioned from one or more of our comic guests, frequently linked in with the voice actors appearing at the convention. As these have been part of an ongoing numbered series they have been regarded as collectible by our attendees and more importantly – because of the guest connection – many of our attendees use them to get them signed by our guests making them an important part of our pack.

In sponsoring the production of one or more of these cards, we can offer your company logo, name and website address on the rear design of your chosen card which will be included in every attendee pack.

While we have a large amount of artwork currently available for these, these are the current designs we have available:-

Auto Assembly 2014 Postcard 028 Preview Auto Assembly 2014 Postcard 029 Preview Auto Assembly 2014 Postcard 030 Preview Auto Assembly 2014 Postcard 031 Preview Auto Assembly 2014 Postcard 032 Preview 

Each of these can be sponsored for £150 and the cards will be printed in full colour, both sides on high quality 350gm card by our professional printers that we have used here at the convention for well over a decade. Obviously, as we only have one of each of the above designs available, we can only offer the above on a first come, first served basis.

Bookmarks

A new idea for Auto Assembly 2014, these will again be produced for us by our printers and included in the packs for each attendee and will be printed on high-gloss card and will feature double-sided artwork. We currently have three design options available featured below all featuring original art and the Auto Assembly 2014 logo and the rear will feature your name, logo and website address along with additional artwork although the exact design can be discussed to suit your needs. The cost for sponsoring these will be £125.

Rear / Front Options

Auto Assembly 2014 Bookmark Back Preview Auto Assembly 2014 Bookmark Front b Preview Auto Assembly 2014 Bookmark Front c Preview Auto Assembly 2014 Bookmark Front Preview

Other Goodie Bag Items

If you have any other ideas or suggestions for convention related merchandise that you would like to sponsor, or if you have items or products that you can donate for us to give away, please get in touch.

Display Banners

This is something that we are incredibly proud of here at Auto Assembly and we think that this is a superb long-term sponsorship opportunity for anyone on a tight budget but looking for something that will make an impact not only this year but for years to come… The banners are approximately 7 feet tall and feature original artwork created exclusively for the convention. The banners are used throughout the convention weekend as hall decoration, with many being used on stage and throughout the convention hotel.

These have often garnered a great deal of attention from our attendees with many posing for photographs with them and with the positioning of these in key locations, most will end up being seen in photographs online, via social media and other outlets. Because they are made from durable vinyl and we are able to store and re-use these, they are a perfect avenue for sponsorship because we can re-use these for several years so sponsorship of a banner once means that your logo and details could be seen for many years to come.

We have a range of designs available which can be shown on request but here is a sample image of what these look like in use.

Auto Assembly Display Banners

These can be sponsored, to feature your company name, website address and – if the design allows – your logo, for £100.

Convention Magazine And Comic Advertising

Over the years we have produced a magazine and comic to accompany the convention. This year we have changed our plans slightly regarding the design of each of these exciting publications but we have some fantastic advertising opportunities in them for those of you who are interested…

Both publications will be identical in their basic format, but each has it’s own unique appeal. Each is a full colour 32 page A5 format book and will be distributed freely at the convention to all of our attendees, handed out to everyone on arrival alongside their convention passes. The convention magazine, The Cybertronian Times, will focus on original articles and features celebrating 30 years of Transformers written by a range of talented UK writers.

The second publication is our 2014 convention exclusive comic. This is a full colour original comic and as with the magazine is a 32 page A5 comic book and the bulk of this will be taken up with a single story written and illustrated by Ed Pirrie (supported by various guest colourists and artists) but depending on the overall page count, this may be supported by additional content. As with the magazine, this too will be given freely to every attendee of Auto Assembly 2014.

To give you an idea as to what you might expect from being associated with the comic book, below is a sample page from it and as with previous comic stories it will feature a multi-generational story spanning all eras of Transformers. We would strongly recommend that you book your adverts in both titles sooner rather than later. Spaces in both are extremely limited and will be offered on a first come, first served basis and we have already had companies express interest in both. A digital copy of our magazine from 2011 can be downloaded as a PDF by clicking on this link – The Cybertronian Times Issue 11 – Digital Edition.

Auto Assembly 2014 Comic Preview

There are two price points for advertisements in both publications. A full page “interior” advert costs £75 and these will be located at random in the publication of your choice. The premium rear cover for each costs £100 and obviously only one of these is available per title. Should you wish to advertise in both titles, a discount of at least 10% will be offered on the total cost. Please note that the back cover for the comic is now SOLD subject to payment.

Guest Sponsorship

Next, and we feel that this is one of the big ones and certainly may not appeal to all of you or certainly not this year, we are always open to talks with anyone who may be interested in sponsoring the appearance of guests at the convention. Whether it is a comic guest from the UK, from overseas or even a voice actor we have a wide range of opportunities that present themselves to us throughout the year.

For smaller comic-related guests this sponsorship could just be a smaller sum of money covering just a couple of hundred pounds to cover their basic expenses. For international guests, this would be more involved including flights, hotel accommodation and, in some cases, contribution to, or covering appearance fees – but we are eager to work with potential sponsors to offer very appealing rewards packages in return for any such sponsorship deals.

We do want to say in this respect that there is currently an actor who has expressed interest in attending Auto Assembly 2014 and is currently on standby for the convention and is holding the weekend free in their diary. As a one-off, they are willing to waive all their appearance fees for the convention this year if we can make a special appearance happen and cover their flight and hotel accommodation. We do understand that this would involve a significant investment from a sponsor so it isn’t something we would request of anyone lightly but we would be willing to work in creating a full sponsorship promotional package for any interested party although we anticipate the total cost to be approximately £2,000.

Should you wish to support us with assistance towards the cost of some of our other guests, this can also be done from between £150 – £1,000 depending on the guest.

Swerve’s Birthday Bash!

Next up is Swerve’s Birthday Bash! Each year on the Saturday night as part of the convention we have a themed cabaret / party which plays host to our Cosplay Competition, Script Reading, Karaoke and other entertainment. This year we want to make this evening extra special and to run it as a themed party night to link in with the 30th Anniversary of Transformers, “hosted” by Swerve.

This year we want to make the evening special by making it feel as much like a party as we possibly can and we are hoping to gain as much support as we can with this. We want to go the extra mile this time with the party presentation – party decorations, table decorations and more and we’d like to be able to do this with your help, We are looking for cash sponsors here who can help and whether it is a small sum of £10-£20 or a larger amount, everything will make a difference to the party!

Beermats

Every year at Auto Assembly we have a Saturday night party / cabaret evening that plays host to our Cosplay Competition and Script Reading. In 2013 we produced the first ever Auto Assembly beermat which were incredibly well received and this is something that we would like to see the return of again to the convention.

Below is the artwork that we are going to be using for 2014 for the front and the rear will be custom designed featuring your own logo and whatever else you wish within reason. You can see below the artwork that was featured on the rear of the 2013 beermats as an example. Last year these were limited to a production run of just 500 for those who attended our Saturday night show. This time we can offer sponsorship for these as an option for either just the Saturday show (a production run of approximately 600) or for all attendees with your logo / artwork taking up a complete side of the beermat.

Auto Assembly 2014 Beermat Swerve's Birthday Front V2 PreviewAuto Assembly 2013 Beermat Rear

Prices for all of these options on the beermats are available on request. Please note that we do have a potential sponsor for these so anyone interested in these would be added to a waiting list or would be considered for Auto Assembly 2015.

Website Advertising

For those of you who have visited the Auto Assembly website to learn more about the convention, you will have seen banner advertising on the site. We can offer this at bargain prices for any of you who may be interested. While the top two slots near the Auto Assembly logo have been taken, we can offer advertising in the side column at very affordable rates. All adverts here appear – by the nature of our site’s design – on every page of the site and we can offer adverts at a size of 275 pixels wide by a maximum of 300 pixels in height. We can offer two display options here. You can either have a fixed advert for £50 for a year or a “shared” advert for £25 a year. The shared advert would place your banner in a rotating slot along with other advertisers and one advert will be selected from a group randomly each time a page is visited / refreshed.

In-Kind Support

For those of you unable to offer us any form of financial support, or for those of you produce goods or provide services that may be of benefit to our attendees or even Auto Assembly as an event, then perhaps sponsoring Auto Assembly in kind may be also be an option that may be of interest to you. As we have already mentioned, we are interested in donations of items to give away to fans who attend the convention each year, but we are also looking for companies interested in sponsoring different competitions by way of providing prizes for us to give away, no matter how big or small that might be.

Additionally, if you are a company that could offer complimentary printing services that we may be able to use for the event, stationery that would help us reduce our operational costs or anything else that could go towards then general running of the convention which would be of benefit not only to ourselves but have a knock-on effect to all of our attendees then please get in touch.

Special Discounts

After reading all of this, some of you may be tempted by one of these sponsorship or advertising opportunities and some reading this may be tempted by several. For those of you who are, we are able to offer specially reduced rates or package deals for any of you interested in taking advantage of two or more advertising / sponsorship offers. For example, for anyone interested in a regular interior advert in either our convention magazine or comic, along with a banner, we can offer this combined deal for the reduced rate of £150, saving £25!

Please get in touch to discuss these further to see how we can help you get the best value deal for your money.

What We Offer You

Naturally, you want to know what you can get in return for you support for the convention. Apart from the obvious advertising that all of you will receive for associated sponsorship where your logos, adverts would appear, all our sponsors would also be featured in all of our emails sent on behalf of the convention. As a convention, we send several thousand emails a year to all our past and current attendees as well as business partners, giving you greater exposure.

In addition, all our sponsors will be mentioned at the convention itself on stage, throughout the weekend as part of a sponsor promotional video and should you have any video advertisements available, we would be only too happy to feature these on our video screen as well at no extra charge throughout the weekend.

All sponsors are also featured on the Auto Assembly website in our Links section (which appears on every page of the website) and we post dedicated news stories and announcements on the website and our Twitter and Facebook pages announcing each individual sponsorship agreement that is signed giving you further sponsorship and promotion.

Free Adverts!

Finally, we are offering the chance to have free adverts on the Auto Assembly website. If you have sponsored the convention in any way or taken out adverts to the value of at least £200 then we will give you a complimentary “shared” banner advert on the website. Should your sponsorship total £300 or more, then we will provided you with a complimentary stand-alone banner advert, both with a duration of 12 months.

* * *

Anyway, thank you for taking the time to read this and we hope that you are interested in working with us for Auto Assembly 2014 (and in future years as well) to promote your company to our attendees. If you have any questions about anything you have read here today, or would like to take us up on any of the opportunities we have presented to you today, please don’t hesitate to get in touch with us at sponsorship@autoassembly.org.uk

Thanks again for your time,

Simon Plumbe
Committee Head, Auto Assembly

Facebook Comments