This year's Abu Dhabi Grand Prix is the climax to one of the most open and unpredictable Formula 1 championships in years. And as interest intensifies, the coterie of brands that surround the F1 event, each of which have paid millions of dollars for the privilege, are jockeying for position.
Because in the blink-and-you'll-miss-it world of F1 sponsorship, it's not just your partnership, but what you do with it, that counts.
Now don't get me wrong. I like sport, but motorsport and football tend to leave me cold. Some recent World Cup sponsorships and associations stretched credibility to snapping point. Branded cars and beverages I can understand. But football-themed potato crisps and doughnuts were, for me, the point at which rationality left the building and bandwagon-jumping took over.
Formula 1 is different. Despite being exclusively a spectator sport, it retains an almost mythically aspirational quality. In return, it seems to apply different rules, with a rather more focused set of sponsors.
But whereas both the Olympic Games and World Cup offer an intensive blast of activity four years apart, F1's clever extension of its season and the globalisation of its reach have opened up vast new audiences far beyond its romantic European origins. And with it come commercial opportunities.
200 million eyeballs
F1 promises an average of 200 million eyeballs on your brand, race in, race out. And, next year, with the addition of the inaugural Indian Grand Prix, some 20 races (plus qualifying) stretch out from March to November in some of the world's most exotic locations. Even when your brand's travelling at up to 220mph, that's a lot of eyeballs.
From petrochemical giants, telecoms providers and energy drinks to regional banks and fast food giants, there's no shortage of moths attracted to the F1 flame.
Few events offer quite the same opportunity to catapult well motivated regional brands to planet and showcase emerging markets in the same breath.
Keeping it real
Today, the watchword in sponsorship is ‘leverage'. Having your logo on Lewis Hamilton's visor (Johnnie Walker), or your watch on his wrist (Tag Heuer), or your brand on his F1 car (Vodafone and others) is one thing. But bringing it to life and making it all tangible at human level is an altogether different challenge that relies on an army of web and experiential marketing experts to help brands ‘keep it real'.
After Abu Dhabi, the multi-billion dollar F1 cavalcade shuts down for winter as teams return to their James Bond-esque headquarters to build ever more extravagant machines. See you — and a blur of logos — in Bahrain on March 13 2011. I'm not sure I'll be watching ...
The writer is the CEO of the brand and digital agency Rufus Leonard, based in London and Dubai.
