How does motorsport sponsorship work in the UK (for brands)
Discussion
As has been said before, its been tried before, and not really worked, most uk drivers find a majority of the sponsership themselves, and apart from driving, its a full time job really, the teams find some, but its mostly the drivers, and like alot of things its normaly from people they already know, finding new sponsers isnt easy, but this isnt due to lack of access, and that seems to be the point of your idea.
Also when you go up a level the drivers tend to have agents who do this for them.
And again its mostly about contacts.
That said good luck, try aproching some teams and drivers, see what they say.
Get to some events, and get known, again not an easy thing, as people in racing are very weary of sharks, most have been bitten once at least.
Also when you go up a level the drivers tend to have agents who do this for them.
And again its mostly about contacts.
That said good luck, try aproching some teams and drivers, see what they say.
Get to some events, and get known, again not an easy thing, as people in racing are very weary of sharks, most have been bitten once at least.
If I was looking to do something with the OPs idea I’d probably change it to building a list of people who you could get to a BTCC event (for example) that are buyers of various services. If I had a list of these people and could guarantee that they would be at the event, then I could market that list to prospective sponsors. That is pay 10k, get a name on the car and spend the day face to face with your target prospects. A bit like a trade show or networking event.
Th BMW BTCC team would be an interesting one as occasionally some big wigs from BMW turn up to the event, so a business operating in the motor industry might pay good money to be at the same event.
Th BMW BTCC team would be an interesting one as occasionally some big wigs from BMW turn up to the event, so a business operating in the motor industry might pay good money to be at the same event.
Sebring440 said:
The problem that the OP has, is (put simply), he has no experience of motorsport; he has no idea of how motorsport sponsorship works; he appears to have no idea of how to contact businesses to pitch his idea.
But yet, he still expects to earn money from this.
You are correct, I don't have any of this experience - this is the very reason why I am asking these questions. After all, you've got to start somewhere! But yet, he still expects to earn money from this.
I'm a recent university graduate with an interest in this area and this is why in my original post I said that any help would be greatly appreciated as I begin to explore different avenues. Is that not one of the reasons why these forums exist?
Do you have any advice to add to the discussion?
The friend of a friend I know who does this has extensive experience in commercial operations in F1 teams, so had the knowledge and contacts in place, as I understand it he can make good money if he puts the right deal together at F1/WEC level, but that involves spending plenty up front on travel and wining and dining with no guarantees that anything will come of it.
The OP mentioned GT Cup, that’s wealthy amateur racing, any sponsorship will be the drivers own businesses, or mates or suppliers.
The OP mentioned GT Cup, that’s wealthy amateur racing, any sponsorship will be the drivers own businesses, or mates or suppliers.
Many people look at sponsorship as merely being a sticker on a car in return for some discounted goods/services or possibly some cash and then complain when they don't get much response.
Others recognise that its actually a two way street. In return for X, as well as displaying some stickers on my car, I will also bring myself and my car to your company open day or trade forum, I'll come to your local dealership and a meet and greeet, I'll come and give a talk at your evening function. We'll give you tickets and get you to the races and we'll be involved with your companies team building exercises, we'll take you on a track day and do some driver tuitiion. That company can then invite the boss of another company along, and do a deal relevent to their businesses in the hospitality suite of a motor racing circuit.
How you turn that into an website platform - I don't know.
Others recognise that its actually a two way street. In return for X, as well as displaying some stickers on my car, I will also bring myself and my car to your company open day or trade forum, I'll come to your local dealership and a meet and greeet, I'll come and give a talk at your evening function. We'll give you tickets and get you to the races and we'll be involved with your companies team building exercises, we'll take you on a track day and do some driver tuitiion. That company can then invite the boss of another company along, and do a deal relevent to their businesses in the hospitality suite of a motor racing circuit.
How you turn that into an website platform - I don't know.
owen1 said:
Sebring440 said:
The problem that the OP has, is (put simply), he has no experience of motorsport; he has no idea of how motorsport sponsorship works; he appears to have no idea of how to contact businesses to pitch his idea.
But yet, he still expects to earn money from this.
You are correct, I don't have any of this experience - this is the very reason why I am asking these questions. After all, you've got to start somewhere! But yet, he still expects to earn money from this.
I'm a recent university graduate with an interest in this area and this is why in my original post I said that any help would be greatly appreciated as I begin to explore different avenues. Is that not one of the reasons why these forums exist?
Do you have any advice to add to the discussion?
A simple approach is Drivers/Teams list the car, series, driver details, location, championships, previous results etc then what they are willing to offer, track days, appearances, hospitality etc and what they expect in return, cash, stickers etc. Potential sponsors log in and see what’s available for their budget.
Then there is a drivers log in where they can see potential sponsors who have stated what they are willing to offer, cash, stickers etc and what they want in return. With some basic web skills, you could automate this so if Bobs Plumbing want to sponsor a British GT car, want some hospitality and have £50k to throw at it, and a BGT team just happen to need a £50k boost and have a big awning….
But as many have said, sponsorship is more often than not about relationships and whether the client and team get on. For years I was mystified as to why Beechdean ice cream sponsor a BGT car, what’s really in it for them? Do GT drivers eat a lot of ice cream? Oh, wait, has the founder of Beechdean, Andrew Howard, always been a fan of endurance racing….. and that’s how it happens.
IMHO, I think Your idea is good but it’s going to need to be ultra slick and the website needs to be clear and easy to use. After all Collecting Cars is just a platform for buyers to meet sellers, they don’t handle any of the money transaction elements, that’s all this needs to be really.
Edited to add how you choose to monetise it is your call, do drivers/teams pay to list ? Do potential sponsors pay to view drivers/teams ? Do both have to pay?…
Edited by anonymous-user on Thursday 24th August 21:00
pablo said:
A simple approach is Drivers/Teams list the car, series, driver details, location, championships, previous results etc then what they are willing to offer, track days, appearances, hospitality etc and what they expect in return, cash, stickers etc. Potential sponsors log in and see what’s available for their budget.
Then there is a drivers log in where they can see potential sponsors who have stated what they are willing to offer, cash, stickers etc and what they want in return. With some basic web skills, you could automate this so if Bobs Plumbing want to sponsor a British GT car, want some hospitality and have £50k to throw at it, and a BGT team just happen to need a £50k boost and have a big awning….
But as many have said, sponsorship is more often than not about relationships and whether the client and team get on. For years I was mystified as to why Beechdean ice cream sponsor a BGT car, what’s really in it for them? Do GT drivers eat a lot of ice cream? Oh, wait, has the founder of Beechdean, Andrew Howard, always been a fan of endurance racing….. and that’s how it happens.
IMHO, I think Your idea is good but it’s going to need to be ultra slick and the website needs to be clear and easy to use. After all Collecting Cars is just a platform for buyers to meet sellers, they don’t handle any of the money transaction elements, that’s all this needs to be really.
Edited to add how you choose to monetise it is your call, do drivers/teams pay to list ? Do potential sponsors pay to view drivers/teams ? Do both have to pay?…
In essence this is the idea yes. Then there is a drivers log in where they can see potential sponsors who have stated what they are willing to offer, cash, stickers etc and what they want in return. With some basic web skills, you could automate this so if Bobs Plumbing want to sponsor a British GT car, want some hospitality and have £50k to throw at it, and a BGT team just happen to need a £50k boost and have a big awning….
But as many have said, sponsorship is more often than not about relationships and whether the client and team get on. For years I was mystified as to why Beechdean ice cream sponsor a BGT car, what’s really in it for them? Do GT drivers eat a lot of ice cream? Oh, wait, has the founder of Beechdean, Andrew Howard, always been a fan of endurance racing….. and that’s how it happens.
IMHO, I think Your idea is good but it’s going to need to be ultra slick and the website needs to be clear and easy to use. After all Collecting Cars is just a platform for buyers to meet sellers, they don’t handle any of the money transaction elements, that’s all this needs to be really.
Edited to add how you choose to monetise it is your call, do drivers/teams pay to list ? Do potential sponsors pay to view drivers/teams ? Do both have to pay?…
Edited by pablo on Thursday 24th August 21:00
However I think instead of instead of drivers/teams listing what they can do for the brand and waiting for a match that way, it is rather brands listing their budget and what they expect out of sponsorship. Given how important ROI is to motorsport sponsorship, I feel that if brands listed these expectations and different teams/drivers submit how they can achieve these expectations(or submit a counter offer)which can be accepted/rejected by the brand then it is more productive for both sides.
brands can therefore also see all the different offerings from various drivers and see the differentiations in what these drivers can do with the budget/expectations of the brand that has been advertised
at the very best sponsorship deals can be sorted on the site (a formal contract can be drafted after terms have been agreed), and at the very least it is a tool for drivers/teams to see the current state of what sponsors expect at different price points, and brands can see if their expectations are too hopeful.
Thus i think a subscription to the site would be the best way to monetise this idea. As an example, maybe 'base' members can have access to the core features of the site, and 'premium' subscribers can promote their sponsorship offerings more prominently on the site.
I am aware that a fair few responses have mentioned that these things take time. I want to shorten the time it takes to achieve these deals. I'm also aware that higher up the ladder drivers hire agents to do this for them, but I feel that something of this nature is far cheaper.
It seems to me that the main challenge of this is the relationship aspect of all of this, and it is probably very wishful thinking to assume drivers might want to go with an unknown personality as their sponsor and vice versa, I just feel that even just having more options on the table for both sides of the platform is always viable. It goes back to the point of at the very least, it can be a research tool
let me know your thoughts!
Sadly you'll never have a database of potential sponsors stating their budgets , it doesn't work like that . It's all about building a relationship and taking it further . Most companies will get SFA back apart from a few hospitality days and more importantly product awareness . Out of touch with motorsport nowadays and the million pound contracts etc but it always used to be the case in rallying where the manufacturer would cough up a car and running costs then it would be down to the driver to find sponsorship to cover his own wages . Hard work ,but unless you had family backing or connections ,Russel Brookes/ John Andrews for example , it was a slog . I was fortunate with a few local places that liked seeing their names in the press plus a dollop from major oil company who asked for nothing other than exposure , but it was only a hobby for me .
Edited by fttm on Friday 25th August 02:48
owen1 said:
I am aware that a fair few responses have mentioned that these things take time. I want to shorten the time it takes to achieve these deals. I'm also aware that higher up the ladder drivers hire agents to do this for them, but I feel that something of this nature is far cheaper.
The problem is these deals don’t take time because of the process, that bit is usually very straightforward and these sort of deals are often quite light on paperwork anyway. They take time because of the relationship building, in fact that relationship is often built before sponsorship is even thought about.As for agents, there are a plenty of them in the market who will take a significant retainer and never actually convert any deals. The only ones that have any success aren’t the ones phoning round brands e-mailing driver CVs to corporate marketing divisions, they’re the ones who already have good relationships in those marketing divisions or even exec level and are effectively selecting the driver who thinks fits the bill best so they can take their slice and maintain the relationship.
Usually these agents have a high profile themselves too
andrewcliffe said:
...Others recognise that its actually a two way street....
And drivers/teams have to realise that the sponsor needs to budget for 'activating' the sponsorship - ie. letting their customers know they are sponsoring the car, running promotiions linked to the sponsorship, putting on hospitality etc.As Beechdean has been mentioned, I've seen their branding on racing cars for a good 20 years now and I don't think I've ever seen a tub of their ice cream in the shops in all that time. Perhaps I shop in all the wrong places.
Sorry I thought you meant “brands” as in companies not the circuit….
That kind of changes it as you’re restricting the market massively. There is some TV/YouTube coverage but it’s not great and the prime spots will be negotiated well into the future already.
Surely they have people doing this already, eg Advertising at Clearways is £100k pa etc, Brands will either be going out and building on existing relationships or probably have outsourced it to marketing specialists.
brands, the circuit, don’t really care about the drivers and team’s sponsorship deals or how they can help the circuit, most are only there once or twice a year.
That kind of changes it as you’re restricting the market massively. There is some TV/YouTube coverage but it’s not great and the prime spots will be negotiated well into the future already.
Surely they have people doing this already, eg Advertising at Clearways is £100k pa etc, Brands will either be going out and building on existing relationships or probably have outsourced it to marketing specialists.
brands, the circuit, don’t really care about the drivers and team’s sponsorship deals or how they can help the circuit, most are only there once or twice a year.
Edited by anonymous-user on Friday 25th August 08:58
Truckosaurus said:
As Beechdean has been mentioned, I've seen their branding on racing cars for a good 20 years now and I don't think I've ever seen a tub of their ice cream in the shops in all that time. Perhaps I shop in all the wrong places.
https://www.beechdean.co.uk/store-finderLooks quite limited to south/southeast.
Not to pour cold water on the idea but I work for a big brand that does a lot of sponsorship, some motorsport, some TV etc and the service you are proposing isn’t really needed.
We’re inundated with pitch videos from minor racing drivers/sportspeople all the time and it’s usually a “WIIFY” one pager with a video. As I say, we’re quite large so don’t have a great deal of interest in these.
The bad news for you is that bigger sponsorship opportunities will already have a sales team who will be directly reaching out to potential sponsors and working them. Synergy becomes crucially important too, so again a targeted approach for the opportunity is likely to yield them a better result than just chucking their deets on a website.
As such, I’m afraid I just don’t see what value an online middleman can add.
We wouldn’t have the time to browse listings of opportunities. A good sales person gets through, a chat sparks an idea and you go from there. I don’t think I’ve ever heard our CEO say “I want to sponsor a race team - find me one” sadly.
Hope that helps a bit.
We’re inundated with pitch videos from minor racing drivers/sportspeople all the time and it’s usually a “WIIFY” one pager with a video. As I say, we’re quite large so don’t have a great deal of interest in these.
The bad news for you is that bigger sponsorship opportunities will already have a sales team who will be directly reaching out to potential sponsors and working them. Synergy becomes crucially important too, so again a targeted approach for the opportunity is likely to yield them a better result than just chucking their deets on a website.
As such, I’m afraid I just don’t see what value an online middleman can add.
We wouldn’t have the time to browse listings of opportunities. A good sales person gets through, a chat sparks an idea and you go from there. I don’t think I’ve ever heard our CEO say “I want to sponsor a race team - find me one” sadly.
Hope that helps a bit.
Perhaps the opportunity the OP's idea could morph into would be to run a hospitality tent where you get 'high quality' guests to come and watch the racing for free (or heavily discounted) and then get become the product that companies would pay to be put in front of, or give out branded tat to etc.
vaud said:
Too northern for me 
Although ASDA Farnborough is on the list which is close enough, but you have to pay to park so I never go there, hence having a good excuse for not knowing it was in there.
Disastrous said:
Not to pour cold water on the idea but I work for a big brand that does a lot of sponsorship, some motorsport, some TV etc and the service you are proposing isn’t really needed.
We’re inundated with pitch videos from minor racing drivers/sportspeople all the time and it’s usually a “WIIFY” one pager with a video. As I say, we’re quite large so don’t have a great deal of interest in these.
The bad news for you is that bigger sponsorship opportunities will already have a sales team who will be directly reaching out to potential sponsors and working them. Synergy becomes crucially important too, so again a targeted approach for the opportunity is likely to yield them a better result than just chucking their deets on a website.
As such, I’m afraid I just don’t see what value an online middleman can add.
We wouldn’t have the time to browse listings of opportunities. A good sales person gets through, a chat sparks an idea and you go from there. I don’t think I’ve ever heard our CEO say “I want to sponsor a race team - find me one” sadly.
Hope that helps a bit.
do you think this would work at all with smaller teams/companies? I.e. a local garage and a club racerWe’re inundated with pitch videos from minor racing drivers/sportspeople all the time and it’s usually a “WIIFY” one pager with a video. As I say, we’re quite large so don’t have a great deal of interest in these.
The bad news for you is that bigger sponsorship opportunities will already have a sales team who will be directly reaching out to potential sponsors and working them. Synergy becomes crucially important too, so again a targeted approach for the opportunity is likely to yield them a better result than just chucking their deets on a website.
As such, I’m afraid I just don’t see what value an online middleman can add.
We wouldn’t have the time to browse listings of opportunities. A good sales person gets through, a chat sparks an idea and you go from there. I don’t think I’ve ever heard our CEO say “I want to sponsor a race team - find me one” sadly.
Hope that helps a bit.
Truckosaurus said:
Perhaps the opportunity the OP's idea could morph into would be to run a hospitality tent where you get 'high quality' guests to come and watch the racing for free (or heavily discounted) and then get become the product that companies would pay to be put in front of, or give out branded tat to etc.
By high quality guests do you mean people high up in the motorsport industry or anyone important? i.e. A real estate tycoon isnt necessarily going to be bothered about being handed merch from an oil companyDynion Araf Uchaf said:
If I was looking to do something with the OPs idea I’d probably change it to building a list of people who you could get to a BTCC event (for example) that are buyers of various services. If I had a list of these people and could guarantee that they would be at the event, then I could market that list to prospective sponsors. That is pay 10k, get a name on the car and spend the day face to face with your target prospects. A bit like a trade show or networking event.
Th BMW BTCC team would be an interesting one as occasionally some big wigs from BMW turn up to the event, so a business operating in the motor industry might pay good money to be at the same event.
How would you go about finding the right sort of people (not only on the buyers side, but also the prospective sponsor side?) The amount of people who would pay that 10k would highly depend on the contents of the list no? Th BMW BTCC team would be an interesting one as occasionally some big wigs from BMW turn up to the event, so a business operating in the motor industry might pay good money to be at the same event.
what do you mean a name on 'the' car? do you mean all cars in the race?
Edited by owen1 on Friday 25th August 13:13
owen1 said:
Disastrous said:
Not to pour cold water on the idea but I work for a big brand that does a lot of sponsorship, some motorsport, some TV etc and the service you are proposing isn’t really needed.
We’re inundated with pitch videos from minor racing drivers/sportspeople all the time and it’s usually a “WIIFY” one pager with a video. As I say, we’re quite large so don’t have a great deal of interest in these.
The bad news for you is that bigger sponsorship opportunities will already have a sales team who will be directly reaching out to potential sponsors and working them. Synergy becomes crucially important too, so again a targeted approach for the opportunity is likely to yield them a better result than just chucking their deets on a website.
As such, I’m afraid I just don’t see what value an online middleman can add.
We wouldn’t have the time to browse listings of opportunities. A good sales person gets through, a chat sparks an idea and you go from there. I don’t think I’ve ever heard our CEO say “I want to sponsor a race team - find me one” sadly.
Hope that helps a bit.
do you think this would work at all with smaller teams/companies? I.e. a local garage and a club racerWe’re inundated with pitch videos from minor racing drivers/sportspeople all the time and it’s usually a “WIIFY” one pager with a video. As I say, we’re quite large so don’t have a great deal of interest in these.
The bad news for you is that bigger sponsorship opportunities will already have a sales team who will be directly reaching out to potential sponsors and working them. Synergy becomes crucially important too, so again a targeted approach for the opportunity is likely to yield them a better result than just chucking their deets on a website.
As such, I’m afraid I just don’t see what value an online middleman can add.
We wouldn’t have the time to browse listings of opportunities. A good sales person gets through, a chat sparks an idea and you go from there. I don’t think I’ve ever heard our CEO say “I want to sponsor a race team - find me one” sadly.
Hope that helps a bit.
Someone mentioned it earlier but a sponsorship without activation is useless. And how does a local garage activate that sponsorship?
Fwiw, most club racers tend to be sponsored by friends of their dad, or by business that are relevant to the paddock, more than the general public.
Also, it makes sense for a local business to advertise locally (Fife Motorcycle tuner might advertise at Knockhill) but there’s zero return for him to be on the side of a hoarding at Brands Hatch as none of his customers are there.
So IMO you cut your potential market down to ‘suppliers who have an interest in accessing the paddock of that race series’ and the likelihood is they already have a route in or would rather sponsor the series.
It’s no mystery why international events are only sponsored by multinational businesses.
Even when we took on a big tv sponsorship package, our COO was more focussed on whether we could handle the activation capacity-wise, than the cost of the deal.
Does that help at all?
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