The sponsorship world has gotten more and more scrutinized while competition within sports has never been more fierce. This has created a necessary dynamic for teams, series, and venues to be extremely diligent in spending their time and money.
Often that plays out to a service-heavy sales and acquisition process for new sponsorship where you may feel very well looked after, followed by a sometimes tricky “stage 2” where you want to start building and activating.
Rightsholders are under the same amount of pressure to raise money as you are to deliver ROI on behalf of your marketing team. It is critical to understand that they ultimately have a primary function and that it might not be your program. Whether that be to compete, deliver entertainment or update their streaming technology, they cannot be expected to manage details of each sponsor’s needs surrounding a particular event. It is unrealistic, and the expectations with sponsorship shouldn’t be that activation will be taken care of by the property.
The realities of having many sponsors involved with a particular team are that the most popular assets can get crowded, and it is not always straightforward or fair how they get assigned. You are still the customer in this relationship, as you are purchasing the right to access all of the assets. It is, however, your responsibility to ensure you are using all that you paid for.
The ROI you are looking for in motorsport marketing will require strategy, attention, consistency, activation and accurate scope of work.
These behind-the-scenes necessities are why we highly recommend retaining support to help you manage your new sponsorship and maximize the value. It's not because we are an activation agency. We want you to find the success you are looking for in your marketing work.
We will be the first to tell you if we don't have what you need, but if you are performance-minded, looking for a specialized relationship, and only want to deal with senior people, then we might be the ones for you.
Where you go from here
We believe that sponsorship is one of the most value-rich marketing platforms available to brands today. Integrating a mix of sponsorship assets into your marketing strategy can produce a formula that will strengthen other creative campaigns, tactics, and promotions you have going on.
Have a look at some different ways that this has played out for our clients recently.
Updated for added value.
