FAQ for Campbell’s Challenge

by Campbell's Staff

It’s as simple as looking over an upcoming Challenge schedule and finding an event you’re interested in. If there are openings in that event, simply pay the entry fee and before long, your team is competing on national television.

There isn’t a screening process. If a Challenge has openings available, the team who signs up first gets to compete, regardless of age or experience level. It is just that simple.

No. The Campbell Outdoor Challenge is not a reality show at all, it is a sport. “The Sport of Filming Hunts” is complete with rules, records and umpires or judges. Sports endure and grow with popularity. Reality shows are gimmicks and fads, producing short term entertainment with no sustenance.

We wish we were being paid to put this on television. What most people don’t realize is that, with the exception of network sponsored shows, the vast majority of shows seen on television are actually produced by independent production companies that PAY THE NETWORK to air their shows. We are one of those independent companies. The only way for us to cover the costs of the ”air time”, editing expenses, staff salaries, outfitter fees for teams, production and travel expenses is by selling advertising time on The Campbell Outdoor Challenge TV Show. This is where the entry fees help. The entry fees are basically an advertising charge based upon a value for “air time” your team receives on our show.

Entry fees cover the outfitting hunt cost (if the Challenge is held at an outfitting facility) for both team members. In certain events, the fees cover all food and lodging and are also used to help offset television expenses. Entry fees may also help to provide prizes for the winning teams.

This is where the Campbell Outdoor Challenge actually begins to work for you. It is designed so that a participant or team pays the entry fee through sponsors. It provides an advertising format or opportunity whereby you can sell promotional advertising of sponsor’s products in exchange for money and/or product. The money obtained from sponsors can then be used to cover your entry fees, travel expenses, etc.

The amount of sponsor dollars you get is commensurate with your dedication to presenting this advertising opportunity to sponsors. For instance, we have had teams raise over $12000.00 in sponsorship money and product for a Challenge with an entry fee of only $2900.00.

No. Many teams are self-sponsored. They paid the entry fees themselves because this is something they wanted to do for fun. There are several incentives for self sponsorship such as, getting to video and hunt at some of the very finest outfitting facilities across the Country, meeting a high quality of sportsmen in camp, sharing hunting stories and experiences, and preserving those experiences on camera.

Any company wishing to have its name mentioned or products seen in use on national television is a potential sponsor. The possibilities are not limited to companies with hunting related products.

You should approach potential sponsors with consideration and respect. It’s best if you could start with someone you know who has advertising responsibilities within a company. Remember, these companies don’t necessarily need to be hunting or camera related companies. Set-up an appointment and always be prompt, precise and informative. Start the meeting by explaining the Challenge concept and the potential promotional benefits it offers over conventional advertising options.

Yes, we have put together a professional membership package in addition to our amateur package. The professional membership is for those interested in obtaining sponsors to participate in our sanctioned Challenge events and possibly our entire Campbell Outdoor Challenge Circuit. The professional membership package is also for an individual or team that is looking to become a professional in “The Sport of Filming Hunts” such as professional baseball, basketball or football players do for their sport or professional fishermen, golfers, rodeo riders, and race car drivers do for their circuits.

In addition to what the amateur kit provides, the professional package includes a professionally prepared media kit explaining the Challenge concept and advertising benefits companies would receive by sponsoring your team. It also includes an explanatory DVD with clickable options to provide audio-visual examples of these advertising options. This package also includes a professional Challenge shirt and hat, Challenge decals and television network decals for your vehicle. Instructions complete with methods on how to apply these tools to aid you in pursuing professional sponsorship.

The amateur kit provides a hat, informative DVD and challenge decal. This membership also allows individuals to submit Film-Your-Own-Hunt entries into our national amateur categories.

This allows members to film hunts in their own areas throughout the course of the hunting season and then submit those filmed hunts to us for scoring. It’s designed to give members an easy, low pressure outlet to experiment with videoing hunts in order to determine if it’s something they enjoy. Teams compete in several categories. There are no restrictions on the cameras used.

Cameras required are a minimum of a 3CCD Chip. We prefer teams use a camera with a digital format. CLICK FOR COMPLETE CAMERA SPECS

They range in price from $2300.00 on up for the cameras. CLICK FOR CAMERA PRICING

There aren’t any restrictions on the cameras or equipment that you use in an amateur film-you-own hunt entry. We encourage people to try filming a hunt to see if it is something they enjoy. Any home video camera will work.

The Challenge circuit is a team’s cumulative videoing point total from every professional Challenge event a team participates in during a calendar year. The more Challenge events a team enters the better chance it has of accumulating points toward the Circuit Championship. Whether a team enters one Challenge or all of them their point total is accumulated for point standings.

As in all sports success should be rewarded. Benefit from your success depends in part on how well you promote yourself to your sponsors and more importantly how well you promoted them on television.

HOW MANY SHOWS DOES A CHALLENGE MAKE SO I CAN TELL MY SPONSORS HOW OFTEN THEY WILL BE PROMOTED?

The number of shows is determined by the quality and quantity of the video footage obtained by the teams. It usually takes from one to six shows to showcase each Challenge event. These shows are aired multiple times each week on multiple networks. Shows may be re-run 2 to 3 times.

There are potential advantages to both. A larger Challenge event will produce more shows and get more air-time, but have more teams being featured. A smaller Challenge event will produce fewer shows, but allow more individual team coverage, hence advetising exposure in the show. Ultimately, teams that provide the most innovative video footage will get the most air-time and sponsor exposure.

Not necessarily. A team could win one or more of our Challenges and get a lot of air-time but, another team that is creative and entertaining may end up with as much or more exposure. This particular scenario is relative in any sport. The finest combination, and the combination that sponsors are looking for, are personably, highly skilled, competitive representatives that give their team a reasonable chance at success while professionally promoting the sponsor. Please keep all of this in mind as you talk to sponsors and compete.

We track our challenge participating teams through membership numbers and entry fees. Any team that is entered in a Challenge should be able to provide the sponsor with a Challenge contract of participation. If a member is seeking sponsorship before they enter a Challenge event, as many teams do, they should state that fact.

If, as a team, you have solid connections that you wish to contact to determine their potential interest in your sponsorship then it would be wise to discuss this first before entering. Also, if you don’t have any specific connections you may need to choose self-sponsorship. Here’s why: It’s easier to approach potential sponsors with concrete facts than speculation. Saying to a potential sponsor that you want to get into a Challenge and you might be participating isn’t going to be nearly as enticing for them to sponsor as facts. “We will be participating, we will be competing at this Challenge event is much more enticing for sponsors.

Not really. You must look upon that as an investment in yourself and your team’s skills in filming hunts and promoting products. Just because you pay the initial entry fee doesn’t mean that you won’t raise the money, and possible more, before the Challenge takes place. Often times a potential sponsor takes the stance that if your team doesn’t have enough confidence to invest in yourselves, then why should he invest in your team.

Someday sponsors will seek you out, which is one of the many goals of the Campbell Outdoor Challenge. “The Sport of Filming Hunts” is a new sport. We copyrighted our Challenge rules in July of 2003 and began our first professional Challenge in October of 2003. Those original Challenges aired on Fox Sports South and Fox Sports Midwest in January thru June of 2004. This is a golden opportunity for our members to take pride in building “The Sport of Filming Hunts”. As in any endeavor, those on the ground floor have the most to benefit as the sport grows.

The top finishing teams in the individual Challenges and the top point teams in the final circuit standings will get the first options to re-enter those Challenge events.

Some Challenges already have qualifying rounds because there are more teams wanting to enter than we have spots for. This is why it is so important for teams to form and begin competing while they can get in on the ground floor of an up and coming sport.

The individual or company that pays the entry fee for your team owns the rights to the challenge entry spots. For example, if a company directly pays an entry fee to us and your team is that companies chosen representatives and your team qualifies, then the Company owns the rights to that spot. They can choose to continue to use your team to represent them or they may substitute another team member or team in your place. If your team raises money for entry fees in exchange for promotional advertising and your team pays us the entry fee then your team, not your sponsors, own the rights to re-participate in the next Challenge. Owning the rights to participate will someday be highly valued as those will be the teams that can negotiate for sponsorship dollars much like a free agent in baseball, football or basketball.

This is your sport because the sport will only grow if the members want it to grow and are willing to help it grow. Because it is a sport, it not only needs participants, but it also needs a fan base.

There are an estimated 21 million licensed hunters in America and another 21 million hunter friendly and supportive Americans. Videoing hunting activities has never had an organized competitive format complete with rules that determines through competition who is the elite of the sport, until now.

Because it is a very new sport it will only grow in popularity by members spreading the news on how fun and exciting it really is. The Campbell Outdoor Challenge is for any hunter or cameraman that has ever dreamed of becoming a professional and making a living by doing what they love. This sport is for anyone who has had dreams of being able to match their outdoor videoing skills and abilities against others, or dreamed of being able to EARN their way to the top of the hunting or videoing industry based upon skills and ability. If you have any of these same dreams then you can help the Challenge grow by telling others.

By helping the Challenge idea grow you are directly helping yourself and your team. To help make your professional career dreams come true, the Campbell Outdoor Challenge must have financial backing and the blessing of advertisers in Corporate America. Those same advertisers will be your team sponsors. Those are the ones that pay you! They will be the ones to provide the means for you to be a professional in this sport. In addition the sponsors will be putting up the prizes that your team is trying to win. That will only happen if “The Sport of Filming Hunts” gains a strong fan base from which advertisers will take notice. You can only become a professional in “The Sport of Filming Hunts” if there is enough money to support you and your family. In much the same manner we can only continue to present and promote this sport if we can find financial support. You can’t really be a professional in a sport if it doesn’t exist.

There is the sport of hunting. There is the challenge of outdoor videography. If you combine the two you have a completely unique sport. The satisfaction that teams feel as they successfully coordinate their efforts in videoing a hunt can only be described by those who have accomplished it. I know of no outdoor activity that more successfully tests a person’s or team’s hunting skills and abilities more than successfully filming a hunt for wild, free-ranging game. Anyone who has ever tried it will agree.

Yes. Challenges are open to anyone of any age or experience level. If you have confidence in your abilities to successfully film a hunt in a competitive event, then the Challenge is the best format under which to showcase that talent.

We don’t claim exclusive rights to our teams’ video footage. We have teams sign a media release to allow us to use the footage. We air each Challenge sporting event by combing the different teams’ footage. Individual teams retain the rights to use their acquired video for whatever purposes they see fit. These may include the production of another TV show, commercials, promotional DVDs, etc. Often your sponsors will want to use your video. That’s something you need to negotiate with your sponsors.

Yes. We can match Challenge hunting members with cameramen members and vice-versa.

Yes

ARE CHALLENGES ALWAYS HELD AT OUTFITTING FACILITIES?

No, but the majority are.

As a company you can choose your own team members to compete or choose to sponsor established teams. You can contact our staff to put you in contact with teams needing sponsors.

We offer numerous options including 15 second commercial spots, 30 second commercial spots, billboard ads, prize providing sponsors, Challenge naming rights sponsors, Circuit naming rights sponsors. In addition we can tailor an advertising package to fit your needs. Call 877-384-3337 for more info.

Hunter and Cameraman team competitions in the sport of filming hunts.

Challenges are posted on our website after we have notified our members through e-mail and a quarterly newsletter.

Most Challenges offer prizes. Some have cash and prizes. Some are charity fund-raisers.

Some of the prizes come from entry fees. Companies often donate prizes in exchange for promotional consideration.

As we mentioned before each team participating in a Challenge is like a mini-TV Show that is airing inside the Challenge format. This gives participants a chance to experiment with video production at a fraction of the cost associated with producing an outdoor hunting show. The very things necessary for your own TV Show production; obtaining sponsors, videoing hunts, talking on camera are a part of the Challenge show format. The Campbell Outdoor Challenge is a great way to obtain television exposure and experience to supplement your resume and jump start your video production company.