Tag: Sponsorship

Checking-In to Sponsorship with Maps & Social Media 4th July, 2012

With branding and exposure only being part of the modern day sponsorship picture, the focus for brands now lies on new and innovative ways to interact and engage with consumers. Via the use of social media and mapping applications, brands are increasing audience engagement by tapping into their key interests whilst providing the opportunity to play a role and effect change within a campaign.

How are maps and social media being utilised?

Competitions and promotions offer a return for the audience with consumers being tasked with finding clues and unlocking codes in order to be in with a chance to win a reward. The key reason for engagement here, along with the resulting success of the campaign is that this is much more than being entered into a prize draw and getting lucky. Here, consumers are given a platform to compete and earn prizes, rather than simply win them.

Alternatively, games and applications are being used to task the key demographic with using a campaign in order to gain access to exclusive content. Different forms of digital entertainment are generally the ‘bait’ with consumers having the chance to unlock content including videos, music and games.

Example: Competitions

Consumers are now constantly being encouraged to compete with one another in order to win prizes; a great example of this being Evian’s recent campaign surrounding their 2012 Wimbledon Championships sponsorship. The public were given the opportunity to win tickets to this year’s tournament via hunting down a Wimbledon ball boy at large and checking-in via their social media accounts once finding him and receiving a numbered tennis ball.

Clues were posted on Evian’s Facebook and Twitter pages as to the ball boy’s whereabouts with a number being announced as the winner of VIP tickets at the end of each day.

Example: Social Gaming

Thanks to social media, marketers are simply able to launch a campaign and communicate the idea to those closest to the brand, with consumers then doing the leg-work to increase both exposure and engagement.

A perfect example of this would be a campaign mentioned before on the Slingshot blog but a perfect case study all the same: “Decode Jay-Z (Powered by Bing)”.

With Microsoft’s Bing search engine looking to increase their relevance with a younger audience, this campaign consisted of taking pages and scenarios from Jay-Z’s soon-to-be-released autobiography and bringing them to life at the range of locations documented in the book. This included a page printed on the bottom of a Miami swimming pool, plates from Jay-Z’s favourite restaurants and even custom-made Gucci jackets.

With clues being released daily via Facebook, Twitter and Radio, users were then encouraged to find real-life images of each page in each location using Bing’s Search and Maps tools and piece together the story on a dedicated micro-site for the campaign.

By using a relevant subject relating to the target demographic (Jay-Z), Bing were able to truly engage the audience with play time averaging eleven minutes. With Jay-Z’s Facebook ‘Likes’ increasing by over one million and his Decoded autobiography featuring on the Best Sellers List for nineteen straight weeks, Bing witnessed a visit increase of 11.7% in one month.

Why are such campaigns so successful?

Social media and maps are allowing for a whole new category of marketing in which communication of brand messaging is delegated to key brand fans. The most loyal consumers are now working on behalf of the brand in order to spread the word and pull others into the campaign, whilst encouraging these new ‘recruits’ to go out and do the same.

Unbeknown to the consumer, both brand awareness and credibility are being increased and improved via the use of location tagging, posts and tweets, reviews, image and video uploads and more. This in turn creates a buzz among the target demographic, initiating a mass shift in both brand perception and buying behaviour.

By using a relevant point of interest and in turn heavily engaging the audience, a consumer feels that a brand understands their preferences and will therefore cater to these needs and wants upon using their product or service. Trust, and in turn loyalty, are therefore instilled as the brand builds a reputation for giving the people what they want.

Given the effectiveness of digital marketing campaigns and their increasing role within today’s sponsorship model, consumers can be sure to look forward to more engaging competitions, rewards and exclusive content from their favourite brands in campaigns to come.

Warranty Direct Announced as the Headline Sponsor of What Car? Awards 2013 28th June, 2012

What Car? has announced that Warranty Direct will be headline sponsor of the What Car? Car of the Year Awards 2013, which will be held on January 9. Warranty Direct will also sponsor the City Car category.

Andrew Golby, What Car? publishing director said: “We are delighted to be working with Warranty Direct, which is the industry’s leading provider of direct consumer warranties.”

The What Car? Car of the Year Awards are the most coveted accolades in the automotive industry. The Awards are presented to cars that set the highest standards in their sector after being put through the toughest, most rigorous tests by the most experienced team in the business.

The benefits of the sponsorship deal includes the alignment with the most authoritative and trusted brand in motoring, brand positioning and awareness, extensive PR opportunities, networking and brand association to the awards via a multi-channel promotional campaign.

Duncan McClure Fisher, managing director of Warranty Direct Ltd, said: “We are looking forward to working with What Car? to help deliver the best ever What Car? Awards. A What Car? Award is essentially a huge stamp of approval that car buyers can trust. Hopefully they will be so pleased with their new car they will want to keep it and care for it with a Warranty Direct warranty when the original warranty expires.”

Andrew Golby continued: “Winning a What Car? Award is good for a car maker’s business. The authority of the What Car? brand sells cars, plain and simple. It adds power to advertising and marketing campaigns and is a huge draw for customers.”

The What Car? Car of the Year Awards event is attended by more than 1000 leading industry figureheads alongside the most influential motoring correspondents from the wider media.

The event is to be held at the Grosvenor House Hotel in London on January 9, 2013 with top-class entertainment yet to be announced. Previous headline acts have included Jonathan Ross, Jimmy Carr, Al Murray and Jo Brand.

PREVIOUS WHAT CAR? CAR OF THE YEAR WINNERS

2012 Volkswagen Up 1994 Peugeot 306

2011 Audi A1 1993 Ford Mondeo

2010 Peugeot 3008 1992 Volkswagen Golf

2009 Ford Fiesta 1.25i 82 Zetec 5dr 1991 Rover Metro

2008 Jaguar XF 2.7D V6 Luxury 1990 Rover 214 Si

2007 Vauxhall Corsa 1989 Ford Fiesta

2006 BMW 320d 1988 BMW 735i

2005 Land Rover Discovery 1987 Renault 21 Savannah

2004 Volkswagen Golf 1986 Saab 9000 Turbo 16

2003 Seat Ibiza 1985 Volkswagen Golf

2002 Toyota Corolla 1984 Peugeot 205

2001 Ford Mondeo 1983 MG Metro

2000 Skoda Fabia 1982 Mercedes 200T

1999 Rover 75 1981 Volkswagen Golf

1998 Land Rover Freelander 1980 Vauxhall Astra

1997 Renault Mégane Scénic 1979 Peugeot 305

1996 Peugeot 406 1978 Renault 20

1995 VW Polo

The Origins of Sponsorship: Financing Scott's Expedition 27th June, 2012

For those of you who don’t know the history of Captain Robert Falcon Scott’s ‘Terra Nova’ expedition of 1910 to the South Pole, it is a fascinating story of exploration and the endurance of the human spirit. The expedition was so groundbreaking for its day the only recent comparison to be drawn of what his team overcame would be that of the space race to the moon. The objectives of this expedition were to charter new territory and to pioneer scientific research in polar wildlife and in doing so hoping to answer polemical questions surrounding evolution. Captain Scott, a former naval officer gathered together a team of leading scientists and explorers to accompany him. However, the major obstacle to this expedition was finance. To make this expedition possible, the ever resourceful Scott understood that the power of sponsorship was the key.

In order to reach the South Pole, Scott needed a ship, men and resources for the round trip past Australia and New Zealand which took them a total of eight months each way. This privately funded expedition cost an estimated amount of £40,000 or the equivalent of over £3 million of today’s value. Scott didn’t have the luxury of time either to raise the money, with competition from Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen striving to reach the South Pole first. Scott recognised that the booming newspaper industry of 1910 could be his opportunity and a powerful tool to raise the capital required for the expedition. Scott needed supplies from a range of different brands and suppliers from Heinz to Burberry. He knew that photography on the expedition would not only serve to catalogue the team’s journey and discoveries, however allow for brands to finance and endorse the trip and feature in the burgeoning newspaper industry in support of the mission.

Scott understood the theory of sponsorship, and the opportunities for brand association. Brands such as Bovril, Oxo and Shell petrol not only gained large amounts of exposure in newspaper advertising; however they are credited for making this unprecedented expedition possible. Sponsorship of the expedition supported key messages for the brands, such as patriotism, advances in scientific research, the importance of home comforts, adventure and survival. Furthermore, what better brand ambassadors than the brave team of explorers of Scott and his team.

Lessons from the past

Although these photos now appear at such odds to present day expeditions of its kind and current marketing messages, the theory and the ingenuity of Scott’s use of sponsorship is still very pertinent in the 21^st century. Using an innovative platform to capture the attention of the public with the most engaging medium at your disposal is exactly what Scott achieved. The emergence of the press in Scott’s day has many parallels to the emergence of the digital age in which we live in, and those able to utilise this resource to the best of its ability have been able to reap the rewards.

In this sense the theory of sponsorship at its essence remains very much frozen in time, much like Scott’s hut which has been near perfectly preserved due to the extreme temperatures of the South Pole and which serves as a reminder of the incredible feat Scott and his team achieved.

The Age of Digital Sponsorship 26th June, 2012

Media platforms are becoming increasingly fragmented and consumers are able now more than ever to control how they get their information and how they engage with brands. This has led to digital media becoming the driving force in the implementation of many of the most successful sponsorship campaigns. Digital media provides a means for brands to reach out to the widest possible audience whilst engaging with them across new levels not previously available.

IBM brings digital to Wimbledon

IBM through their partnership with the Wimbledon Tennis Championships have created an augmented reality phone application. The app acts as an onsite guide and interactive map for Wimbledon, allowing users to simply point their phone to navigate around the Wimbledon site as well as allowing users to stream live feeds. The IBM Seer Aggregator enables fans to receive Wimbledon tweets to their phones from sources including players, commentators and a team of IBM scouts. Fans can also keep up-to-date with live feeds and information about matches played on any court transforming how fans can keep up with the action as it happens and enriching their experience of Wimbledon.

Johnnie Walker invites fans to ‘Step Inside the Circuit’

Johnnie Walker joined forces with McLaren in 2005 and have since created the innovative ‘Step Inside the Circuit’ campaign via Facebook. The campaign invites consumers to go behind the scenes and follow the progress of Lewis and Jenson on the track as well as their lives away from it. The campaign includes an online video ‘Drive of a Lifetime’ on the company’s Facebook page. The video puts users in the shoes of the drivers taking them from pre-race activities to stepping into the car before the start of the race. The Facebook connect function then personalises the film using photos and details from the user’s Facebook account, together with text-to-speech technology and video input from the user’s webcam transporting fans into the glamorous world of F1.

Digital media has become the most successful means with which to make sponsorship campaigns more interactive and to create a deeper relationship with consumers. With so many innovative digital campaigns already paving the way within sponsorship, it is inevitable that campaigns will continue to become more exciting and interactive as brands strive to stand apart from their competitors.

Big Brands Do Small Sponsorship 11th June, 2012

Brands become involved with sponsorship for a variety of reasons – to create awareness, to raise credibility, or to improve people’s perceptions of the brand as a whole. The most notable sponsorship deals grace the front covers of our national papers providing the appearance that global brands only sponsor large properties such as the Olympics, UEFA, and Premier League Football. However, this is not always the case.

Brands such as Adidas and Orange supplement their larger sponsorship properties with community partnerships helping them solidify their positioning and also strengthening the potential for advocacy through closer engagement.

Adidas Women’s 5K Challenge

The Adidas Women’s 5K challenge although still a relatively large event with 20,000 participants is a great example of a smaller partnership intended to raise perceptions of the brand through focusing on the female consumer. Although unisex, Adidas as a sports brand is more readily associated with a male audience particularly because of its association with male-orientated events highly publicised in the news such as UEFA.

For this reason, Adidas’s sponsorship of the Women’s 5K Challenge was a successful sponsorship strategy for the brand for a number of reasons:

The focus on a solely female audience helped position the importance of women as consumers
It created an emotion tie-in, touching on the heart strings of the female audience through the event’s charity support of Breakthrough Breast Cancer
Exclusive naming rights ensured that Adidas stood out from its competitors

Orange Sponsors Swanswell’s Football Kit

Swanswell is a charity that works to help people overcome drug and alcohol addiction. Quite different from sponsoring one of the days a week – Orange Wednesdays – Orange supported the Swanswell five-a-side tournament by sponsoring their football kit for the season.

Trevor Bedford operations manager for Swanswell in Birmingham said:

We’re delighted that Orange has been able to sponsor our new kit, giving people an added incentive to do well and feel well.

Orange’s support for a charity such as Swanswell is beneficial to the brand for various reasons:

Small gesture, but creates association with Orange as a brand that cares about the individual as well as community
Larger issues that are important and relevant to society as a whole through affiliation with the national charity Swanswell
Orange becomes a more approachable brand from a consumer’s perspective – not just focused on targeting a mass audience
Brand differentiation and a change from their typical film sponsorship

Orange and Adidas are a few of many examples of big brands doing small sponsorship well. We hope to see more of it!

More than Cold Hard Cash: How to Get More From Your Brand Sponsors 7th June, 2012

What Else Should Sponsoring Organisations Be Getting Out Of Their Sponsors?

This blog actually comes from a question I received on Twitter last week – always a great source of inspiration for posts. Although I’ve alluded to the answers throughout our blog, I have never written a blog about what the property rights owner should be getting out of their sponsorship. The reason being, the most obvious answer is money. However, a sponsor’s investment should not end there – there’s so much more they can offer to benefit the rights owner.

Brand Awareness

As a rights owner, you tend to focus on issues that are of the most immediate concern. Once all sponsors are on board you’ve then got to focus on ticket sales and the invites (and let’s not forget the small matters of sorting out catering, setting up the venue etc.). Before you know it the event has finished and you are back to square one of renewing the event’s sponsors and the cycle starts again. Time is needed to integrate departments and partners and typically with the urgency of sales and action during a slow economy, there is little time to do much else.

By integrating the objectives of the sales and marketing departments you can make the cycle much smoother for everyone involved and add value to the sponsors of your events.

Brand sponsors tend to have significantly larger customer databases than the rights owners they sponsor. As such, it can be a cheaper way to bring brand awareness of the event in question through effective marketing campaigns. These campaigns can then drive ticket sales without the added costs of advertisements and new creative. Furthermore sending communications to the sponsor’s database helps the sponsor as they want to bring awareness to their customers of the events that they are involved with – that is why they have got involved in the first place.

Joint communication is just a starting block, but once you start thinking more integrated you can come up with a range of communications that benefit all parties, saving you time and money.

Physical Space

One of the things we have started to really push with our sponsors and rights owners is physical space. For larger brands, they tend to have an abundance of space with the presence of roof top terraces overlooking the Thames that are rarely used to whole floors that no one is working in. This presents a fantastic opportunity to integrate the brand and the rights owner.

Venue costs are typically the area where most events fall down on – especially charities. Charities tend to be very rich in terms of content – with celebrity brand ambassadors and a meaningful cause; however, tend not to be able to put on the events they wish they could based on up-front costs such as venue hire. We have started working with our sponsors more directly and have hosted a number of events within sponsor buildings instead. This not only saves the charity (or rights owner) money, but also shows a truly integrated approach to brand partnerships. Furthermore, this provides the brand an opportunity to showcase their own building, their culture and their internal teams.

People

Another benefit that sponsors can bring to rights owners is actual people. In terms of staff engagement, this tends to work best in charities and is often a key reason that brands get involved with national causes – to get their teams working together on something greater than the 9 to 5. It also helps create a team environment even with their staff are based all over the country. Staff engagement or volunteering for the sponsored charity is a key benefit that charities should try and incorporate within their sponsorship proposal whenever possible. This not only provides additional volunteers for the charity which is always needed, but also can go a long way in terms of securing internal buy in from the brand itself – future proofing the financial investment.

These are just some of the benefits that sponsors can bring to organisations apart from cold hard cash, but there are many more. The key is to find the synergies between the rights owner and the brand sponsor – understanding every party’s objective and collaborating with each other to help achieve something that is greater than the sum of its parts is what a true partnership is all about.

London 2012 and the cost of Ambush Marketing 29th May, 2012

With just under two months before the long awaited London 2012 Olympic Games begin, the media spotlight is certainly on Britain. Companies across the country are expecting the Olympic Games to have a positive effect on business with the influx of tourists creating a rare opportunity for an expansive global audience. Some companies in the UK simply want their marketing messages to support the Olympic Games as a matter of British pride, however other companies have less than honest intentions and want to trade off the ‘goodwill’ of the Olympic Games. This exists in the form of ambush marketing where one brand hopes to eclipse the marketing of an existing event sponsor through a publicity stunt to gain exposure, or where a brand attempts to simply ride on the coattails of the Olympic Games hoping the public will perceive an official association.

The truth is that there are some important commercial barriers in place restricting marketing and advertising around the Olympics. Whether your intentions as a business are honest or not, any advertisement from a ‘non-authorised user’ that would lead a member of the public to presume an association to the Olympic Games will result in infringement of the London Olympic Association Right (LOAR) 2006.

Listed Expressions

The London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games (LOCOG) has highlighted the statutory rights for marketing around the Olympics. Companies using the listed expressions in the course of trade, categorised below, will need to do so with care to avoid: removal of their merchandise, unlimited fines, or even a criminal conviction for flagrant abuse of the law.

LIST A

LIST B

‘Games’

‘Two Thousand and Twelve’

‘2012’

‘twenty twelve’

‘Gold’

‘Silver’

‘Bronze’

‘London’

‘medals’

‘sponsors’

‘summer’

The court will take into consideration the following:

Any two of the words in List A such as: “Backing the 2012 Games”

Any word in List A with one or more words in List B such as: “Supporting the London Games”

Ricoh Arena

This legislation has been received both positively and negatively by brands and the public. Some argue that the law is extremely restrictive and the rights assumed by LOCOG are out of their remit. An example where this legislation has been regarded as particularly impractical occurred at the Ricoh Arena, home to Coventry Football Club. This stadium which is hosting football matches during the Olympics were informed that every non-official Olympic sponsor brand within the stadium, right down to the design of the hand-dryers must be covered up due to a conflict with existing sponsors. According to the facilities manager Antony Mundy, this has left them with a “mammoth task”.

Nike vs Reebok

What LOCOG are trying to protect is ambush marketing and publicity stunts that seem to be common place at competitions such as the Olympic Games. They are right to do so; brands such as Nike have been guilty of ambush marketing with their pop-up ‘Nike Town’ which appeared on the doorstep of the Olympic Park during the Atlanta 1996 Olympic Games. In this instance the result was that 36% of the public believed that Nike, not Reebok were the official sponsors.

2010 FIFA World Cup

The Olympics and the FIFA World Cup have been the prime targets for ambush marketing over recent years. As each competition comes to a close the law has become progressively more robust to prevent those seeking to associate themselves as official sponsors or partners. Some may argue that current measures in the light of ambush marketing are now too protective of the existing sponsors and that marketing around the Olympic Games is trying to negotiate around a minefield. This degree of protection was comically mocked during the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa. South African budget airline Kulula decided on the marketing slogan ‘The Unofficial Carrier of the You-know What’ in the lead-up of the World Cup. Ironically this still became censored by the FIFA committee.

Does the legislation strike the right balance?

Coming from a professional sponsorship agency, we are well aware of the level of sponsorship that goes into the Olympic Games and the strategy behind the investment from brands. In tough economic times companies are investing large sums of money into the Olympic Games. Brand exposure and exclusivity in your industry is undoubtedly the primary reasons behind sponsorship. To a certain degree it could also be argued that in the spirit of competition, one-upmanship in being the headline sponsor between global brands such Nike and Adidas is just as fierce as the competing that will be seen in the Olympic Park this summer. What we need to remember however is that, money raised from sponsorship amounts to nearly half of the capital required to stage the Olympic Games in the first place. If these brands don’t feel that their investment has been appropriately protected, then the level of support into the Olympic Games is severely jeopardised for future competitions.

We all want the London Olympic Games to run at the best of its ability, for the sake of both the public and the athletes. Furthermore, despite arguments that too much power is afforded to LOCOG, and the level of protection given to official sponsors, London 2012 will undoubtedly undergo some degree of ambush marketing this summer. Whether you agree with the legislation surrounding the Olympic Games or not, it is important to not get caught out unawares of the restrictions in place.

So if in doubt check the legislation:

http://www.london2012.com/documents/brand-guidelines/statutory-marketing-rights.pdf

Slingshot's Top Ten Sponsorship Blogs You Should Read 2012 9th May, 2012

I wrote a Top Ten Sponsorship Blogs You Should Read article last year (to view the last list click here) and thought I’d revise the list for 2012. There are some old favourites that have remained on our list, but also some new blogs that have launched which are fantastic reads and definitely worth subscribing to.

As the sponsorship industry changes so much and encompasses so many disciplines and mediums, blogs are just one of the ways that the Slingshot team continues to learn from others. Here are our Top Ten (not in a particular order!):

Synergy Sponsorship Blog: Great overall sponsorship blog from both a sponsorship and brand perspective. There are many different bloggers and so it provides a good perspective from different angles and the content is always excellent.
Mike Walsh/Tomorrow Blog: although not technically sponsorship, we discovered Mike at our client’s event the BBC Showcase. Truly inspirational, we’ve been following his blog ever since. A forward thinker in terms of brand innovation, partnerships and the future of marketing.
Generate Sponsorship Blog: Regularly updated and always worth a read. It is great for sport sponsorship activations and opinions in the sponsorship industry.
Unofficial Partner – Richard Gillis provides insight on a variety of sponsorship related topics, not to mention he’s a great blogger so it always makes for a great read.
Ben Wells Blog: This is a fantastic blog – Ben thinks very much in line with us at Slingshot and so we wait with anticipation to receive his insight in our inbox. His experience in the sponsorship industry makes him uniquely placed to provide great opinions into today’s sponsorship marketplace.
Power Sponsorship: Well known in the industry, Kim Skildum-Reid provides practical sponsorship knowledge and best practice tips.
Sponsor Park: A good blog, but more helpful in terms of what sponsorship rights are being purchased, where and by whom. Sponsor Park highlight the sponsorship deals signed via Twitter so I’d recommend following them @SponsorPark if that’s a key thing you are interested in.
IEG Blog: Provides international insight on the brands that IEG works with – namely in reference to analysis and best practice.
Sports Marketing Frontiers: Another good blog to track newly signed sponsorship deals as well as new sponsorship opportunities that have recently become available.
Slingshot Sponsorship Blog: And of course, we couldn’t miss out our own blog featuring sponsorship insight, top sponsorship tips, and general sponsorship and brand partnership developments. If you haven’t yet, you can sign up to receive our newsletter here.

Enjoy!

An Unlikely Alliance? Sauber F1 announce brand partnership with Chelsea FC. 1st May, 2012

Swiss Formula 1 team Sauber announced yesterday 30/4/2012 a collaboration with Chelsea FC, which was hinted at with elusive messages ‘Out of the Blue’ and ‘True Blue’ that began to appear on the Sauber engine covers during the Bahrain and Chinese Grand Prix. In many ways such an innovative relationship between both sports has been long overdue.

It’s all about timing

Sauber, being a racing team, clearly know the importance of good timing. This agreement has been in the pipeline for at very least a fortnight now, before Chelsea bravely overcame Champions League favourites Barcelona last week. To further infuriate fans of both football and F1 in Barcelona, Sauber will be featuring the Chelsea FC logo (the same week of the Champions league final) for the first time at the Spanish Grand Prix which heralds the beginning of the European Leg of the Formula 1 season. Sauber’s logo will also feature at Chelsea FC on interview walls and advertisement boards at Stamford Bridge.

Some observers may argue that such a partnership endorsing two different teams in very different sports serves no real function, especially when coverage of both sports tend to overlap. West London football club Queens Park Rangers also has an affiliation to F1 in the form of club ownership. Malaysian entrepreneur and owner of Caterham F1 Tony Fernandes purchased his majority shares in the football club from Bernie Eccelstone’s who in turn purchased his shares from former managing director of Renault F1 Flavio Briatore; however no direct aesthetic associations between the sports exist in such a form until now. So what are the reasons behind such a move? Sauber CEO Monisha Kaltenborn maintains that “the Sauber F1 Team and Chelsea FC are dealing with many of the same sporting and commercial topics and we want to strengthen each other in these areas. We are looking forward to exploiting these opportunities.” In addition Chelsea mark their twentieth year in the premiership, as Sauber have made a promising start to this Formula One season, also their twentieth consecutive year as an F1team.

The Incentives

There are clear benefits to be found in striking a deal between these two European sporting institutions and by sharing notes on two of the world’s most lucrative sports. Firstly the science behind sports success is becoming increasingly sophisticated, where the importance of synergy between the backroom staff and the sportsmen in both sports is increasingly noticeable be it in the shape of a pitch-side physio, or a pit-stop mechanic. Secondly, from a commercial standpoint, the coming together of both these sports brands opens great marketing, merchandising and sponsorship opportunities. Both Chelsea and Sauber teams boast an international presence and know the importance of broadening a loyal support base. F1 much like football draws great support and sponsorship from the Middle East and Asia; Chelsea will therefore be looking to further engage with this market.

So in essence the fact that the Grand Prix will not return east until Japan in the middle of September means that the timing of this deal is a move to strengthen the global following of both sports and to increase general dissemination of both sporting brands as the European leg of the F1 season is about to get underway.

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