Sportscar sponsership?

[pirenzo]

I've noticed that Sportscar racing doesn't really seem to attract many major sponsership. You look at the top teams, and their cars (the bentley in particular) appear almost entirely devoid of any major sponsership.
You don't see big names plastered all over the cars, most seem to be pretty minimal. How are these teams paying for all this? Obviously there are exceptions, Pescarolo has plenty of sponsership, but then AudiUK doesn't really have any, and they're a private team aren't they?

[JAG]

Bentley and Audi UK are factory/Audi UK sponsored/funded. Just look at most factory cars in the WRC/BTCC etc. its just the same.

[Garrett]

Some of my favorite sponsers at Le Mans was the cigarette battle between the "Rothmans Porsche" and "Silk Cut Jaguar". I loved the colors of the Rothmans Porsches and the Silk Cut Jags. Some of the prettiest ever. If Porsche is to come back in 2005, it would be great to see a Rothmans sponsership on their cars, same with Silk Cut and Jag, if Jag is ever to return. But due to the ban of any tobacco sponsership on racing cars at Le Mans, its not likley we will see this happen. Though, I would also love to see Martini or even Gulf sponser big name factories at Le Mans in the future with their beautiful paint jobs, eh!

[JAG]

I liked the 1988 Shell/Dunlop Works 962C and the blue Blaupunkt Joest 962Cs.

The Leyton House 1990 962C and Pink Joest 962C were also pretty cool.

[Aysedasi]

Originally posted by JAG
I liked the 1988 Shell/Dunlop Works 962C...

Best looking 962 at Le Mans ever, IMHO.

[rdjones]

Originally posted by Garrett
[B] If Porsche is to come back in 2005, it would be great to see a Rothmans sponsership on their cars, same with Silk Cut and Jag, if Jag is ever to return.But due to the ban of any tobacco sponsership on racing cars at Le Mans, its not likley we will see this happen. Though, I would also love to see Martini or even Gulf sponser big name factories at Le Mans in the future with their beautiful paint jobs, eh!B

Sadly that will not be happening as to tobacco sponsership laws as you have said. I would also love to see the Gulf colours back, the Audi from two years ago looked spot on.

[kdr]

this one ayse?

[courage]

There are less and less sponsors for
-the economic situation
-the lows about tobaco
-Less and less people go to the track and for sports car the TV isn't already perfect
I've read that Pescarolo had many sponsors but have you notice the size of the snickers? He mustn't earn so money with the little sponsors!!!!

[Aysedasi]

Originally posted by kdr
this one ayse?

That's the one. Another great pic, kdr - but then I would expect no less by now......

[kdr]

not one of mine(late 80's i was doing something else)...but at least when you write the definitive history of le mans you'll know where to start for pictures!

[BSchneiderFan]

Porsche - Martini
Jaguar - Castrol
Audi - Infineon
Mercedes-Benz - Vodafone
Toyota - Esso

Come on, lads, how hard can it be?

[pirenzo]

I'm talking about recently.

Audi-Infineon (who are they?)
Bentley-No one
Panoz-No one

[FIRE]

Originally posted by pirenzo
Audi-Infineon (who are they?)

Infineon makes (computer) chips.

[BSchneiderFan]

My fault - my "Come on, lads, how hard can it be?" was directed at the aforementioned companies who had sponsored sportscar racing and could/should again.

[Aysedasi]

Originally posted by kdr
not one of mine....

Oooh, that's a bit of a giveaway......

Whose is it and why can you post it?

[pirenzo]

hehe.... I hope someone didn't neglect to read a certain announcement

[gfm]

One of my all-time gripes is that major sponsors get syphoned off into Formula One.
Of course, factory teams don't really want to 'disappear' and be recognised as a 200 mph fag-packets and have their presence diluted. Thank heaven for Audi and Bentley (and all the rest).

[kdr]

Originally posted by Aysedasi
Oooh, that's a bit of a giveaway......

Whose is it and why can you post it?

taken by a very good friend of mine...and i can post it because i run the department.

[Smokey 6 litre]

Originally posted by Garrett
I would also love to see Martini or even Gulf sponser big name factories at Le Mans in the future with their beautiful paint jobs, eh!

i love the Martini and Gulf colours, but it only take imagination to make a good livery not sponsorship.

[Nordic]

Could Martini sponsor a car a LM, I thought the French had laws to prevent drinks sponsorship. Hence the daft no champers rule a few years back.

It does seem that the major sponsors have left sportscars, few if any seem to have a big name attached, this is also true of most other forms of motorsport outside F1. This is dispite good TV/mag coverage, Maybe companys have come the the conclusion that it does not work.
Lets face it how many of us support those companys & buy there goods over a non sponsoring company?

[BSchneiderFan]

The obvious area of industry for sportscar teams to target is technology/electronics. Infineon and Canon sponsor Audi, Visteon sponsored Panoz a couple of years back. So what about:

Pioneer
Siemens
Vodafone
Hewlett-Packard
Kodak
Bosch
Philips
Motorola

And yes, I know some of these companies sponsor other forms of motorsport, but they'd look great on prototypes.

[Tim Northcutt]

To add to that list....

Cingular (wireless phones -- nice looking scheme)
Valvoline (some of the best looking liveries in racing)
Delphi
STP (one of my all-time favorites)
Pennzoil
Havoline
DuPont
Sunoco

Sponsorship is a matter of marketing, establishing a sound argument for mutually beneficial results for both entities and making sure that the prospect you're pitching has within it's marketing plan the various demographics and geographics that your form of racing attracts....

I work for a major orchestra in marketing & pr here in America...we play 52 weeks a year for audiences of about 500,000 people... we have very lucrative sponsorships for various series we perform (worth hundreds of thousands of $$$ annually)....

It's a matter of targeting your prospects well, making the pitch and sealing the deal...

We do well with it, and sportcar racing is one hell of a lot more attactive as an investment than classical music...

However, Europeans don't seem to be as dialed into this, whether it is in my field or in racing, like Americans are....

That I don't understand....especially for the companies, who would get great visibility and could effectively target certain audiences to reach via racing...