Brand Sponsorships

Some events, like the Olympics, Formula One and the FIFA World Cup, attract huge audiences. If you’re a smaller brand looking to change how you are perceived, is it a responsible action to bet everything you have on being seen there?

Somewhere inside the Istanbul headquarters of Turkish Airlines there must be a very large wall. And on that wall are plastered random images of people and organizations that all have two things in common. First, they have absolutely no association with Turkey or its national airline.

What is the link between financially strapped companies and expensive sporting sponsorships?

It all started with a flash of American superiority and a bruised royal ego. In 1851, a yacht owned by the New York Yacht Club easily beat 15 of the fastest British yachts in a race around the Isle of Wight. Surprised at the result, Queen Victoria was reported to have asked who had come second and was politely informed: ‘There is no second, your Majesty.’ The America’s Cup had begun.

More and more today, we see sports stadiums and arenas, theaters and other buildings being named after the companies whose sponsorship dollars allow them to put their names on those buildings.