Brand activation in motorsport is everything a sponsor does beyond the logo on the car to bring the partnership to life: official awards and rights, content, hospitality, causes to tell, products and technology on track. Without activation a sponsorship stays what we at RTR Sports call an “empty sticker”: a visible brand that tells nothing and leaves nothing behind.

Updated October 2026.

Since 2007 the driver who sets the most fastest laps in a season receives an award that carries a name that is not a driver’s: DHL. The DHL Fastest Lap Award is a simple brand gesture, and it comes from a right (that of Official Logistics Partner, in F1 since 2004) turned into something the public grasps at once. It is the difference between having a contract and using it. Here you will find what it means to activate a sponsorship in motorsport, five levers with real examples and how to decide where to start.

What activation is, and what it is not

The sponsorship contract buys rights: the logo on the car and on the race suits, use of the team’s name, access to certain events. Activation is the work that turns those rights into results for the company. At RTR we call it “iceberg sponsorship”: the part you can see (the brand on the car) is held up by everything below the waterline, that is content, hospitality, events, customer programmes, data. When there is nothing underneath, what is left is the empty sticker.

The question everyone asks is how much to spend on activation compared with the cost of the rights. The guidance from studies of the sector differs widely, and no rule fits everyone: it depends on the objective, the market and how well known the brand already is. More useful than the percentage is to ask, before signing, what the brand will do with what it buys.

Five levers, five real examples

• Awards and official rights (DHL). DHL has been Official Logistics Partner of F1 since 2004 and since 2007 has given its name to the award for the driver with the most fastest laps of the season, the DHL Fastest Lap Award, alongside the DHL Fastest Pit Stop Award for the team with the quickest stop: two awards tied to the theme of speed, which is also the company’s service. The case is told in DHL logo: why it is yellow and red.
• A colour and a cause (BWT). BWT brought to F1 the pink and the slogan “Change the world, sip by sip”, with the “Bottle Free Zones” and Sebastian Vettel as ambassador in 2021: a message about tap water that a team has carried on track for years. The story is in BWT in Formula 1.
• The product on the protagonist (Monster Energy). After 14 seasons with Mercedes, from 2024 Monster is an official partner of McLaren: the deal, announced on 28 November 2023, puts the brand on the helmets, race suits, caps and bottles of Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri and includes activations and original content for fans. The brand’s path, from MotoGP to F1, is in Monster Energy sponsor.
• Product and technology on track (Aramco and Microsoft). Aramco has been title partner of Aston Martin since 1 January 2024, with a five-year extension, and from 2026, with the Honda engine, supplies the team with advanced fuels and lubricants: the sponsor’s product becomes part of the car. Microsoft, a principal partner of Mercedes since 22 January 2026, brings cloud, artificial intelligence and Microsoft 365 workflows “from factory to circuit”. For Aramco, see Aramco F1.
• Hospitality and meetings. The race weekend is where a company can bring customers, partners and employees together with the team and the drivers. In MotoGP the formula is called the VIP Village: how it works is in what is the MotoGP VIP Village.

How an activation is measured

You measure what you decided to achieve before signing, not what you manage to count afterwards. If the objective is awareness, brand metrics count (spontaneous awareness, sponsor recall) and the reach of the content; if it is leads, what counts is guests who become negotiations and the cost per lead; if it is customer loyalty, what counts is how much those who took part in an event buy again. Social media and impressions tell exposure, not results: that is why they should be paired with an explicit commercial objective. A simple way to start is to write down three numbers before beginning and check them at the end of the season.

Where to start

Three questions, in this order: what the company wants to achieve (not what it wants to show), which idea the brand can “own” in the world of that team or championship (a colour, an award, a cause, a product) and at which moments of the year it will tell it (races, tests, events, content). We work in this order: how an agency works is explained in motorsport agency: what it is and what it does, while for Formula 1 budget thresholds there is the guide to the cost of Formula 1 sponsorship. RTR Sports also works on hospitality and VIP Village (as at Mugello), on events, tours and activations in large-scale retail and on trade fairs such as EICMA.

Sources: DHL, the partnership with Formula 1; DHL Group, press release on Formula 1; Formula 1, the 2007 awards; McLaren, Monster Energy official partner; Sportcal, Monster moves to McLaren; Crash.net, Vettel BWT ambassador; PlanetF1, BWT and Alpine; Aramco, partnership with Aston Martin; Sportcal, Aramco title sponsor until 2028; Mercedes-AMG F1, the partnership with Microsoft; Sportcal, Microsoft principal partner; EASM, the optimal investment in activation.