benefits of sponsorship
The REAL Benefits of Motorsport Sponsorship as a Marketing Tool.
In this article I am going to try and dive deep into the advantages of sponsorship as a powerful marketing tool, highlighting the true benefits to the sponsor.
For busy Marketing directors and company owners seeking a quick overview, here are the key benefits presented in a concise list.
Get more bang for the marketing spend.
Increase brand loyalty.
Increase marketing promotions efficiency.
Increase marketing promotions effectiveness.
Increase employee productivity.
Reduce marketing expenditures.
Gain/protect market share.
Acquire incremental sales.
Increase ROI
I doubt there is a company / marketing director on the planet who would not desire the benefits mentioned above!
Interested in learning more? Feel free to read the complete article or click here, and we'll reach out to schedule a discussion on how you and your company can begin enjoying these benefits.
“Sponsorship is at the core of racing for all of us and is often more competitive than the racing itself”
This article enters the multifaceted benefits of sponsorship, emphasizing its role as a potent marketing tool for companies. Although I will try to focus on how sponsorship is beneficial to the sponsor, if you are a rider or Team Manager looking to improve how you reach out for sponsorship, keep reading, as the benefits of sponsorship outlined are the selling points you should be using.
Benefits Of Sponsorship
Comprehensive Marketing Coverage
Motorsport Sponsorship uniquely covers the entire marketing funnel, distinguishing itself from conventional channels. Unlike traditional methods, such as advertising and social media, sponsorship engages audiences at every funnel stage, extending beyond typical promotional strategies to impact critical business areas like CSR, HR, and product development.
This versatility fosters a profound connection with the target audience, initiating from brand awareness and progressing to consideration and conversion. Sponsorship, supporting loyalty initiatives, ensures a lasting relationship with existing customers and the cultivation of brand advocates.
Yet, its impact goes beyond marketing, influencing CSR, enhancing employer branding, and affecting product development. This holistic approach yields a nuanced return on investment well beyond the initial sponsorship fee.
In essence, sponsorship's comprehensive coverage of the marketing funnel, coupled with its influence on various business facets, positions it as a powerful tool for companies pursuing multifaceted success. Its expansive reach and impact underscore its potential for substantial and enduring returns across the entire spectrum of business operations.
Features, advantages, and benefits of motorsports sponsorships
FAB - Feature-Advantage-Benefit approach is a well-established technique, commonly found in various sales textbooks. In this method, a feature refers to a tangible characteristic of a product, such as the size and positioning of a logo on a the race bike.
The advantage lies in how this feature can be utilized and the ways it benefits the sponsor. The benefit, which is what we are focusing on, is the sought-after outcome resulting from the product's use, often resulting as enhanced brand image and increased sales in the context of motorsports sponsorships.
Unfortunately, in many motorsport sponsorship presentations, the team or rider often list the features as the “benefits.” How many times have you proudly stated in your communication how the company gets one of the following “Features” as this being the benefit to the sponsor?
Motorsports sponsorship features
Fan characteristics
Demographics
Product usage
Loyalty to sponsors
Driver characteristics
Success
Appearances
Endorsements
Hometown
Logo placement
Hospitality events
Mobile marketing
FAN PROFILE
The inclusion of fan demographics is a common feature in sponsorship proposals, whether related to motorsports or other fields. Frequently, these demographic details are presented in proposals as self-explanatory indicators. While fan demographics serve as a valuable starting point, for them to evolve into effective marketing targets, they must meet criteria of being reachable, substantial, and actionable.
Beyond demographic data, understanding fan behaviors, including media consumption, merchandise buying patterns, and event attendance, provides sponsors with actionable insights on how to connect effectively with their target consumer base.
Lets go back to the FAB formula and visualize how this should work;
Your New Ambassador – the Rider!
Sponsoring a rider cultivates a brand ambassador who actively endorse the company's products or services. These ambassadors extend the company's reach through social media and interviews, enhancing both credibility and exposure to new customers. This, in turn, contributes to heightened sales.
Most companies make the mistake of primarily focusing on results. While there's undoubtedly a positive sentiment associated with affiliating with a champion, the success achieved on the track needs to be strategically linked to a marketing advantage. It is just as important your new “ambassador” understands what benefits you, the sponsor needs.
Let’s make some comparisons:
First, lets take a top rider who is regularly on the podium, but does not understand his marketing commitments off the track.
Leading the pack - but can you see his sponsors?
Although this success will increase media attention and reduce support spending, there is an additional cost. The more successful a rider is, the more the initial cost of he sponsorship.
Now lets compare the above with a rider who may not always be at the front winning, but high performance in all the sponsor duties.
It is extremely obvious that a rider who performs his sponsorship duties provides far increased benefits to the sponsor than his achievements on track. Obviously the ideal is a rider who can do both, but from a sponsors perspective, focus should not be on track results.
Always ready for the camera, sponsors logos are very clear.
Marketing Assets
Sponsorships in motorsports commonly involve various marketing assets, including logo placement on the car, hospitality events, mobile marketing opportunities at the track, and licensing. Typically, these marketing assets from motorsports properties necessitate sponsor activation.
Simply put, putting a logo on the bike or rider helmet is an asset the team or rider has to offer, but they need to explain to the sponsor what is the real benefit. Just like Fan Profiles or Rider above, we can use the FAB model to find the true benefits to the sponsor.
LOGO PLACEMENT
In all forms of motorsport, logo placement on bikes, helmets, leathers and team clothing is a main marketing asset. Size and placement determine the cost to the sponsor, but the value does not lie in these factors.
The true value - Benefit, is increased brand awareness = increased marketing effectiveness = increased ROI.
Fans cannot feel favourably toward sponsors if they do not know who they are!
Business-to-Business Opportunities - HOSPITALITY EVENTS
The significance of business-to-business (B2B) markets, often overshadowed by their consumer counterparts, holds immense potential within the motorsport’s sponsorship landscape. While motorsports sponsorships frequently incorporate corporate hospitality components, their value is commonly measured in terms of ticket and food costs. However, the true advantage of corporate hospitality, whether at the track or another location with a rider present, lies in its capacity to establish, build, maintain, and fortify essential business relationships.
I once spoke to a marketing manager at ROKIT, when they took title sponsorship of the Williams F1 team and I asked him why they had done it? How had they measured the spend? He explained that the main reason was access to the sponsors enclosure at Monaco. They knew the person they needed to make contact with would be attending. The connection made resulted in a contract for Rokit which far exceeded the sponsorship spend. Rokit has since gone onto sponsor WSBK and BSB BMW teams!
Mobile Marketing
Many motorsports sponsorships offer on-site marketing opportunities at various venues, providing a platform for these efforts.
Mobile marketing's unique advantage lies in creating memorable brand experiences unmediated by television, radio, or the internet.
Motorsports sponsors, setting a high standard, often create carnival-like setups at races. These experiences, featuring sampling opportunities and sales promotions, foster brand loyalty, reducing price sensitivity and enhancing sponsors' profitability.
Marketing Assets FABs
Brand Exposure:
Sponsorship offers potent brand exposure, connecting companies with global audiences through live events and televised broadcasts. This visibility enhances brand awareness, cultivates consumer preference, and fosters lasting customer loyalty. Sponsoring a race car, rider, or team provides substantial visibility across diverse platforms, from major networks to renowned publications, at a fraction of traditional advertising costs. Beyond exposure, sponsorship generates media coverage through motorsport press and televised broadcasts, amplifying a company's visibility. Additionally, race hospitality creates unique experiences that enhance customer loyalty and brand advocacy, driving business growth.
Brand Objectives:
Brand objectives are pivotal in sponsorship, with sponsors recognizing the correlation between a prominent brand and increased revenues. Beyond visibility, brand awareness is a focal point, especially when tied to sponsorships, aligning with heightened brand favorability. Sponsorship becomes a dynamic tool for conveying brand messages effectively, as exemplified by Gatorade leveraging NASCAR sponsorships to communicate product efficacy through strategic advertising. In essence, brand objectives in sponsorship extend beyond visibility, encompassing a strategic interplay of awareness, favourability, and effective communication of brand messages, ultimately shaping consumer engagement and influencing purchasing decisions.
In conclusion
Although I have dived deep and detailed into the benefits of motorsport sponsorship, I hope I have been able to show you how powerful a marketing tool it is.
As listed right at the beginning (for those who didn’t want to read all the details), the presented key benefits are.
Get more bang for the marketing spend.
Increase brand loyalty.
Increase marketing promotions efficiency.
Increase marketing promotions effectiveness.
Increase employee productivity.
Reduce marketing expenditures.
Gain/protect market share.
Acquire incremental sales.
Increase ROI
We have proved the above by covering the unique coverage of the entire marketing funnel and emphasizing sponsorship's impact on critical business areas. I have introduced the Feature-Advantage-Benefit approach, highlighting the need to distinguish features from benefits and dissects fan profiles, the role of riders as brand ambassadors, and the real benefits of marketing assets like logo placement and hospitality events.
Overall, the article positions motorsport sponsorship as a dynamic tool for achieving multifaceted success in marketing and business objectives.
On the final note, if you are a company owner, or marketing manager and you have read this article and are now ready to add sponsorship to your marketing campaign, please click here and we will reach out to make an appointment to discuss further.
If you are a rider, driver or team manager and you would like help applying the above benefits to your presentations, then this is the link for you.