What was once “the Chairman’s whim” has now (and quite rightly) been replaced with far more business rigour when it comes to the decision of any brand or business to enter into a sports sponsorship. More than that, the task isn’t simply meeting the objectives of the Sponsorship Director, or even the CMO. The whole leadership team of any business has to buy in to the proposition and often, the hardest one to bring on board is the one who asks the toughest question. It’s the CFO, and their question? “So what?”.

Focusing on how any partnership is going to tangibly and demonstrably impact the business of the partner is key. None more so than in Formula One. For anyone doing a deal with a Formula One team, it used to be a simple equation. Form a tight bond with your commercial partner with the main output being on-car branding. Those logos on the car can attract the attention of millions of armchair F1 fans glued to the action on TV. Plus the chance for your VIP clients to watch the pinnacle of live motorsport in glamourous locations around the globe.

Quite rightly CFOs and Senior Leadership Teams are now much harder to convince. They’re less concerned about the concept of media value and more focused on how any spend generates tangible business growth. The huge economic upheaval of the Covid-19 pandemic has only accelerated this trend. Sponsorship can no longer just be a vanity play. The investment has to deliver growth and - in this current time – recovery, otherwise it simply won’t (or shouldn’t) be made.

It’s the right time to rethink sports marketing and Williams Racing is doing just that. Putting stickers on our state-of-the art race cars is no longer enough. For us, or our potential sponsors. We are looking to win a deeper relationship with our partners.

Williams Racing wants to help our partners accelerate business growth and increase revenues. The right relationship can also help business with operational performance improvement and talent retention too. Yes, sponsorship requires committed budgets, but so does finding new business opportunities or recruiting and retaining top talent. Our role is to demonstrate that the return on investment – as well as the return on objectives – outweighs that of other comparable brand spend.

As a Formula One team, armed with this ingrained mindset for our partners, we are also able to help in other ways. Williams Racing brings with it huge technical know-how and the mindset of agile innovation. We’ve already proved that we can apply our thinking to help other industries. Maybe some of that talent can be deployed to assist your business? Or maybe your business could help us to drive continuous improvement? The opportunities are endless, but we’ll promise to support your business like it’s our own.

This isn’t just about global corporations. For start-up businesses we’re offering venture partnerships, and accelerator programmes to help them flourish and get established with access to our technical resources and support. This is a bold step but one that Williams Racing is deeply committed to. We’ll be revealing a lot more details over the coming weeks and months. We’re looking forward to a new future for our team and our partnerships.

In the end though, it comes down to one question we ask all of our Partner Family: “How can we help?”.

For more information, please contact:
Tim Hunt
Commercial & Marketing Director
Tim.Hunt@WilliamsF1.com