The term ‘sponsorship’ refers to any commercial agreement by which a sponsor, for the mutual benefit of the sponsor and sponsored party, contractually provides financing or other support in order to establish an association between the sponsor’s image, brands, or products and a sponsorship property, in return for rights to promote this association and/or for the granting of certain direct or indirect benefits.
2019 Sponsorship global market sizes:
- Global Sponsorship 62,3 bil€
- European Sponsorship 30,1 bil€
- European Sport Sponsorship 20,6 bil€
- Italy Total Sponsorship Market Value 1,94 bil€
“Property is commonly used to describe “any organisation, event to athlete with whom a sponsor formally aligns itself as a vital component of its communication strategy” – Farrelly & Quester 2005 –
At some point after drawing up a sponsorship consideration your company will commence the process of finding the sponsorship relationship to fit its business strategy and help satisfy the marketing objectives.
This journey might take a very short or a very long time. the complication and longevity of the process may depend on the way Motorsports and road racing territory is defined within your strategy.
Matching sponsorship properties against strategic brand needs is a multi faceted process requiring considerable evaluation.
Often at the head of reasons behind a sponsorship choice, despite the many available quantitative and qualitative methodologies, is a measure which simply involves ‘good fit’. This means there is a strong and logical connection between both the sponsor and the property.
Studies have proved that the fit between an event and a sponsoring brand is enhanced where there is connection between the two, either:
Good fit is often and entirely instinctive, emotional reflex taken by an experienced manager in conjunction with considerable knowledge and understanding of his company and brand.
According to Anne-Marie Grey and Kim Skildum-Reid, authors of several studies about sponsorship dynamics and strategies, “Sponsorship is the most inclusive of marketing media (…) the most personal and emotionally relevant of all marketing”. By Sponsor’s toolkit the authors underline that the goal is not to get people to buy the brand, it is to get people to join the brand.
Getting people to join your brand involves more than merely impressions. It requires marketers, or the agency, to create the desire for customers to personally identify with your product and select it among alternatives, again and again.
The job of the professional racer or the Sponsor Square is to help create the desire among the brand’s target market.