When reviewing sponsorship proposals for professional sailors, I am often struck by the emphasis made on brand exposure, as though it were the sole prism through which returning and measuring value to sponsors was possible. There are some valid reasons for this as the two notions of advertising and sponsoring are strongly correlated. As best evidence for this, the first element flagged by the owners of a successful sports property to appeal corporate sponsors is the ‘united business media’ value of their event. This number refers to the equivalent spending that would have had to be made in buying advertising spaces across media (TV, Press, etc) to obtain a similar exposure. Three points at this stage…
Firstly, how big a slice of this total visibility will be directed at a specific team sponsor will result from the combinations of many factors including, to name all but a few, the performance on the racecourse, the level of activation, etc.
Secondly, some sponsors may get an outstanding return with sailing sports properties that may not have the media clout of events such as the Vendee Globe or the Route du Rhum. Those two events stand as the very few exceptions in the sailing world as those benefiting from a level of mainstream follow up and media coverage (in France) in the league of the most popular sports such as Formula One or Soccer.
Thirdly, and this is the main point of this post, sponsorship works at a much more subtle than advertising… (to be continued)
