In general, there is still a lot of education and work to be done in Spain so that many marketing departments in our country will value the benefits of sports sponsorship compared to other tools in the marketing mix. Unfortunately, it is common to see that when things go wrong, the first thing to be cut is sponsorship, a clear example of underestimating what this promotional tool can bring not only when money is flowing in, but especially when things go wrong or when there are ambitious plans for the future.
One of the presidents of large national companies who understood this philosophy perfectly was Alfredo Sáenz, who in 1994 presided over the bank Banesto when it was rescued from bankruptcy. The majority opinion of his directors was that with so much anxiety at that time, an expense such as the agreement with the cycling team should be cancelled, despite being at the height of the Miguel Induráin phenomenon. But the Bilbao executive realised that that iconic sponsorship was the bank's biggest asset to send peace of mind to its customers. If cancelled, it could be the death knell for the bank.
Explain this in United States or in countries with very sophisticated marketing such as the UK or Germany, it is redundant, because they understand that a sponsorship should always be a tailor-made suit to the needs of each company. Therefore, it is not possible to compare, as we often do in our country, to translate the level of investment with brand visibility on a car or a sportsman. Every company needs a project in line with its strategy and to prove it, there is the example of the Phillip Morris tobacco company, which has decided to resume the link with Ferrari despite not displaying a single logo related to the company, such as its famous 'Mission Winnow' emblem.
Quality versus quantity
In the specific case of Mapfre, Santander o Estrella GaliciaThe three Spanish companies currently with the largest presence in Formula 1, their presence has nothing to do, for example, with that of the cryptocurrency companies that have entered the sport this year in a big way. While our companies all have a long history and a long presence in the market, cryptos are a very new phenomenon in the market and urgently need to create global brand recognition as quickly as possible. Companies in this sector that do not consolidate their leadership position within one or two years will become irrelevant, and hence these companies will be forced to become a global player in the crypto market. sudden exorbitant investments.
For reasons such as these, for some companies brand visibility is of vital importance, while for others the power of association with a big name in the sport, be it a team or a driver, is much more important. It is similar to what The same happened with the dot coms, or later with the Middle East airlines. such as Qatar Airways or Fly Emirates. All were companies that, in order to sustain their aggressive global expansion plan, needed high visibility first and foremost, with activation being a secondary factor.
Banco Santander itself now has less visibility in the car than in its first stage at Ferrari and this is because, unlike 15 years ago, the Cantabrian bank now enjoys spectacular global brand recognition built up during those years. Now, visibility is less of a priority and what is needed is to to enhance the benefits of the partnership with such a powerful brand as Ferrari. However, if there is a paradigmatic example of activating this type of spring in a partnership beyond brand visibilitynone clearer than that of the Estrella Galicia brewery.
When the Galician brand first teamed up with Carlos Sainz, even before he reached Formula 1 back in 2012, the company's president himself, Ignacio Rivera, declared: "We want to share the dream of one day reaching Formula 1 together, we are now laying the foundations of our international expansion project". It was certainly a gamble in every sense of the word, because Carlos had not yet secured anything to fulfil the joint dream of driver and company to reach the pinnacle of motorsport. But the company's audacity confirms another of the keys to successful sponsorship: The consistency and coherence over time with the plan drawn up together with the sponsored party.
According to José Cabanas, its Global Marketing Director, "There is a perhaps intangible but very powerful magnetism with the association of our brand with Ferrari and with Carlos. Our quality brand attributes fit perfectly with the brand perception that comes from our presence in Formula 1, and it is also an excellent business card to open up new markets, which is key in our current moment of internationalisation of the company.
Estrella Galicia, according to the space it occupies in Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc's cars and personal equipment, must be investing between five and six million euros. Its presence is clearly much more qualitative than quantitative, because although in terms of space it is very small, in terms of perception it is very powerful as it is focused on the visibility provided by on-board cameras.
To give a comparative example, the Italian brewery Peroni, for a similar investment, has a much higher visibility in the Aston Martins, but regardless of the sporting results of the teams, the ROI (Return on Investment) is being much higher in the case of the Galician brewery, due to the potential that Ferrari allows to build its 'storytelling'. Even more evident is the comparison with the Heineken brewery, which, faithful to its position as one of the global leaders in the sector, its massive visibility as official sponsor of the championship responds much more to reinforcing its position in the market, than to building a project for growth and positioning in the Spanish and international market, as is currently the case with Estrella Galicia. In shortthe aforementioned tailor-made suit that sponsorship can (and should) provide..
The importance of perceptions
In fact, the head of sponsorship for the Galician brand, José Villanueva, recalls an anecdote which both exemplifies and reminds us of the power of association to a brand such as Ferrari. It happened in Brazil last season, coinciding with the announcement of the future construction of its brewery in the American country (a milestone for the Spanish company), when Glenda Kozlowski, a very famous presenter in the country, surprisingly brought out an interview with Charles Leclerc at a promotional event for Estrella Galicia.
It was something totally unexpected," explains Villanueva, "we didn't count on having a presence in a programme sponsored by another company in the sector, but since it was Ferrari and a driver like Leclerc, who shares very similar values to Sainz in terms of familiarity and simplicity, they had no qualms about the visibility of our brand being very noticeable. This is something that obviously suited us very well at such a historic moment for us as our landing in Brazil, but it is not the first time this has happened to us, because we have had similar experiences with McLaren and this is clearly because we are perceived in the way we like the brand to be perceived: friendly, made with love and not thinking so much about quantity but about quality".
When Bernie Ecclestone asked for very significant amounts of money for very small spaces, he often argued with an example that said: "What would you prefer, a small presence in the centre of London or a giant one in any suburb? The British tycoon admitted that depending on the interests of the company, one option may be as valid as the other, but when it comes to brand perceptions his famous 'less is more' is clearly the model to follow.
Our Director of Sports Sponsorship, Pablo de VillotaThe text is published in the newspaper El Confidencial. Access here