The Australian View (page 1 of 4)
We are grateful to the authors for allowing us to reproduce this article. It clearly illustrates how a business can benefit from involvement in motorcycle sport. It was written in Australia and, although it is therefore taken from that country's point of view, the arguments are equally valid in the UK.
The study is long and detailed so we have split it across four pages. However, we felt that it was worth including as any business would need to be given a decent argument before it could consider getting involved in sponsorship. The original article can be found here.
The Benefits of Sponsoring Success: An Analysis of the Relationship Between Television Exposure and the Position of the Motorcycle Rider.
(Copyright @ Dave Arthur, Garry Dolan and Michael Cole, Southern Cross University, Lismore, Australia)
Introduction.
Sport sponsorship has become an integral part of the marketing mix of the corporate world with corporations devoting large amounts of money to associate themselves with sport and/or its particular identity. This seemingly ever-increasing use of sport as an entertainment medium by television and the increasing amounts of money tied up in the upper echelons of professional sport has made it hard to imagine professional sport without corporate sponsorship.
However, sponsors are increasingly prudent with their sponsorship dollar. Getting a 'tingly feeling' of association is not enough to justify the amounts of money required to become a sponsor of top level sport. Corporations thus utilise methods of monitoring sponsorship effectiveness ensuring that they receive maximum return on their investment.
One sport inextricably related to corporate sponsorship is motor racing. It is virtually impossible to watch a motor race of any type or level, on television or trackside without being swamped with images of sponsor logos and signage.
This study attempted to determine if there was a relationship between the amount of television exposure a sponsor could expect a sponsored motorcycle involved in road racing to receive and the position of that motorcycle during a race. The study also determined what percentage of race telecast time can be approximated to each race position during a broadcast with a hope that this percentage could be utilised by sponsors and teams alike to determine an approximate dollar value of the exposure when applied to the relevant race broadcasters advertising rates.
Sponsorship has become a worldwide phenomenon with many corporations devoting large sums of money to it ( Abratt & Grobler, 1989; Brooks, 1989; Meenaghan, 1991; Sandler & Shani, 1993; Scott & Suchard, 1992). "One only has to look at a professional automobile race, tennis match, or basketball game and count the numerous corporate names and logos appearing on the participants and signs in the stadiums to agree that the use of sponsor visibility in sport is prevalent" (Mullin, Hardy & Sutton, 1993).
Motorsport in general has not been immune from this phenomena and "has a history of heavy sponsorship which pre-dates most other sports. Its wide appeal is matched by its global popularity. Sponsors have potential to reach the world's richest markets simultaneously via one method of communication" (Wilkins, p. 22, 1996). Indeed motorsport sponsorship apparently performs its part in the marketing mix very well with the most recent RSL Sponsortest figures on motorsport showing that 57% of adults nationally (U.K.) were able to spontaneously name a brand associated with the sport. In Australia, 63% of people claimed to be aware of a motorsport sponsor, which is a higher percentage than both Rugby League and Australian Rules (Sweeney, 1995).
In motorsport, the better the team, the more television exposure, the bigger the budget ensuring the team can make better and faster machines (Eason, p. 22, 1997). For example, the 1997 World Superbike Championship Works Castrol Honda RC45 cost in excess of $1 million and lap the Phillip Island Circuit (Vic) approximately 2 seconds per lap faster than the $100,000 RC45 of the Australian Championship Mobil Honda Team.
If the competitiveness of the machine is to a degree determined by the amount of money invested in that machine, then how does a team attract the extra money needed to make the machine faster? Should a sponsor invest the greater amounts of money needed to sponsor a leading bike when for a lesser amount they can get equal sized signage on a middle or back of the grid bike competing in the same telecast event? This will be of course be determined to some extent by the objectives for entering into the sponsorship in the first place and the evaluation criteria used to determine the sponsorship's effectiveness in meeting those objectives.
In motorsport, the better the team, the more television exposure, the bigger the budget ensuring the team can make better and faster machines (Eason, p. 22, 1997). For example, the 1997 World Superbike Championship Works Castrol Honda RC45 cost in excess of $1 million and lap the Phillip Island Circuit (Vic) approximately 2 seconds per lap faster than the $100,000 RC45 of the Australian Championship Mobil Honda Team.
As well as the constant quest for success, motor racing is an endless quest for money, which is why racing is sometimes regarded as little more than a 320km/h billboard (Eason, p.22, 1997). Although not as expensive as its four wheeled cousin, motorcycle racing is still an enormously expensive sport. A competitive machine can cost between AUD$100,000 for a domestic superbike and several million for Mick Doohan's World Championship winning machine (Whootton, p. 96, 1997).