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Motorsports Marketing and Sponsorship Activation Blog




What Even is Sponsorship Activation?

Posted by Austin Schneider on 3/14/23 9:41 AM

Sponsorship activation is what you do with what you own. Simple as that.

This can take many forms, but activation is all about bringing your brand to life from things as simple as booth spaces at an event to more sophisticated programs like employee engagement initiatives, virtual engagements, sales contests, once-in-a-lifetime experiences, and customer celebrations.

Topics: Sponsorship Activation

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Topics: Sponsorship Activation

When Heritage, Storytelling and Activation Come Together

Posted by Team SD on 2/28/23 10:16 AM

A few years ago, the great minds at NASCAR and Darlington Raceway created the now hyper-popular “Throwback Weekend” to celebrate the dynamic heritage found in every corner of motorsports. In years past, our clients at Shell have used iconic paint schemes from the past from NASCAR and the other series they are involved to tell a story and participate in a way only they can.

We are in the middle of planning our latest throwback celebration for 2023, and we thought it would be fun to look back on some of our favorite throwback work over the last couple of years.

Topics: Sponsorship Activation

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Topics: Sponsorship Activation

Buying a Sponsorship and Not Activating It

Posted by Austin Schneider on 7/19/22 8:40 AM

Buying a sponsorship and not activating it is like...

Topics: Sponsorship Activation

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Topics: Sponsorship Activation

Build Business Value With Your Showcar Program

Posted by Austin Schneider on 7/5/22 8:54 AM

An effective and sustainable way to activate your motorsports sponsorship and engage with your audience is through a strategic showcar program. No longer are the teams people who transport a car to an event, set up some chairs, and endure the day. We have expanded this more traditional program for our clients by integrating them into a larger marketing mix, now leveraging them as Experiential Marketing & Merchandising Teams (EMTs).

Topics: Sponsorship Activation

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Topics: Sponsorship Activation

Activating a Strategic Mix of Assets

Posted by Austin Schneider on 4/12/22 10:18 AM

You are in the increasingly familiar position of doing more with less, but what do you do when you step into a new role, have a whole bunch of assets that seem unrelatable, and are not sure as to what to do with them?

Topics: Sponsorship Activation

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Topics: Sponsorship Activation

Sponsorship Rights vs. Sponsorship Activation

Posted by Austin Schneider on 1/25/22 3:26 PM

What sounds like a simple difference in wording turns out to be the most important distinction in sports business. As digital media continues to command more of our attention and marketing dollars, there have been some important changes to traditional approaches to sports and entertainment. To maximize value for your brand, the key is finding the balance of investment between sponsorship rights and activation programs. 

Topics: Sponsorship Activation

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Topics: Sponsorship Activation

Marketing on Big Stages and Small

Posted by Todd Stonis on 1/11/22 11:07 AM

It is refreshing to see brands grow their involvement in a sport from a small promotion all the way to the point where they are owning and operating their own teams and unlocking unique brand building opportunities.

To understand what works exactly right for your brand, we encourage you to start small with your investment, experiment with different activation strategies, analyze results, and continually align investment to where you are seeing the results. This will help prevent expensive and high profile pitfalls that often are seen in sports marketing.

Topics: Sponsorship Activation

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Topics: Sponsorship Activation

What Comes After a Major Event You Sponsor

Posted by Austin Schneider on 8/3/21 10:42 AM

A lot of the work we do revolves some of the world's most well-attended and watched events from the Formula 1 Canadian Grand Prix in Montreal to IndyCar's Indianapolis 500. All eyes are on during the event, and you have heard us chat about what the lead up to an event is like, but what about what happens right after a major event that your brand is sponsoring?

Topics: Sponsorship Activation

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Topics: Sponsorship Activation

Sponsorship Activation Spotlight: Asset Integration

Posted by Team SD on 7/6/21 10:19 AM

We have long been fans of the somewhat cliché idea of 2+2=5. This is what happens when you put together two seemingly similar categories of things and end up with more than the sum of their parts. This strategy becomes available to brands that have assets in multiple different categories, sports, or media types.

Your brand likely falls in that category even if you have to think about things a bit differently. Some partnerships make more sense than others to integrate, like the one we are going to spotlight here, but this concept works across a variety of ways.

Topics: Sponsorship Activation

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Topics: Sponsorship Activation

Why You Should Focus on Sponsorship Activation

Posted by Team SD on 6/1/21 2:57 PM

Our area of focus in the sports business world might be pretty specific to most, and that's how we like it. We were poking around some broader trends in the sponsorship world and what we found was pretty remarkable. 70% of sponsorship spending is directed at sports. The next bucket of sponsorship investment? 10% on entertainment properties such as the Academy Awards and Grammys. These figures point to the idea that an investment in sponsorship is rich with opportunities for brands to showcase their story authentically.

Topics: Sponsorship Activation, Foundations

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Topics: Sponsorship Activation, Foundations