There is a precise moment when a sponsorship stops being an expense and becomes an asset. It is not when the contract is signed, nor when the logo appears on a motorcycle fairing or a racing car bonnet. It is when the company understands what it can do with those rights — and decides to act on it.

The starting point is a clause found in every sponsorship contract: the image right. In the definition by Mullin and Hardy — authors of the reference volume Sports Marketing — sponsorship is the acquisition of rights derived from affiliation with a product, team, organisation or event, in exchange for monetary compensation or goods and services, with the objective of obtaining an economic, marketing or image benefit.

That word — rights — is the core of everything. Because without their activation, a sponsorship remains what we at RTR call an “empty sticker”: passive visibility, with no leverage. Understanding what advantages a sponsorship can generate is the first step; knowing how to activate it concretely is the second, and the one that makes all the difference.

What image rights include

Concretely, when we talk about image rights in a sponsorship contract, we are referring to the ability to:

• officially define yourself as “Sponsor” or “Partner” of that sports property in your communications, website and company materials;
• use the logo, official colours and graphic materials of the team or event in advertising campaigns, presentations and digital assets;
• employ videos, photographs and footage of the athlete or team in commercial activities, printed materials and digital activations.

It is worth reiterating this, because its legal and economic implications are often underestimated: no company that has not signed a sponsorship contract can legally use images, logos or names of teams, athletes or sporting events in its own communication. It is not possible to produce a commercial with a MotoGP rider, publish a campaign with the logo of a Formula 1 team, or use images from a Grand Prix without having acquired the right. This is intellectual property that is rigorously regulated and protected.

Social media: where image rights deliver the best returns

In today’s media ecosystem, the channel where image rights produce the most immediate return is social media. Top-tier sports properties — MotoGP, Formula 1, WEC — generate extremely high-engagement content that sponsor brands can amplify through their own profiles, reaching audiences that would otherwise be very difficult to intercept through traditional advertising.

Social activation can take many different forms: resharing official team content with brand tags, Reels or Stories built around racing moments, co-branded hashtag campaigns, exclusive “behind the scenes” content reserved for the sponsor’s community. The principle is always the same: the sports property brings the audience, the brand brings the message.

A telling example is Petronas as title sponsor of the Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One Team. Petronas is not simply present on the car’s livery: it produces autonomous content around the partnership, brings journalists and clients into the garages, and tells the story of its lubricants technology through Formula 1. The result is an editorial presence that goes well beyond the logo and builds value association over time — what sponsorship produces when it is truly activated.

PR and advertising: the “official sponsor” signature changes everything

The second major area of activation is institutional and advertising communication. Adding the wording “Official Sponsor of [sports property]” to a press release, an ad or a digital campaign is not a detail: it is an immediate change of status in the eyes of the public and the media.

Writing “Aramco, Global Partner of Formula 1” — as the Saudi group does in its international communication campaigns — is something radically different from simply writing “Aramco”. Collaboration with one of the world’s most-followed sports properties immediately transfers a system of values — precision, innovation, global reach — to the partner brand, conferring a status that would otherwise be difficult and costly to build.

The same principle applies to traditional print media, billboards and POP materials at points of sale. Any reference to the sports partnership in any communication channel creates an effect of associative credibility that ordinary campaigns rarely replicate.

TV advertising and video: athletes and teams on stage

Athletes, racing teams and major events can become the protagonists of commercials that, thanks to digital distribution on YouTube and brand channels, reach audiences well beyond traditional media. A video built around a MotoGP or Formula 1 partnership has a much greater organic reach potential than a generic spot: sports communities are among the most active and loyal in amplifying content.

One fundamental point often missed in initial planning: the image right grants access to the sports property’s materials, but production costs — direction, post-production, distribution — remain the sponsor’s responsibility. These are additional expenses that must be planned from the outset, within the overall activation budget.

Events and hospitality: experience as a commercial lever

Corporate events — from distributor conventions to dinners with strategic clients — change their nature when the sports partnership is introduced. Taking a group of key stakeholders into a Grand Prix paddock, or setting up a hospitality area with the partner team’s colours and materials, creates a memorable experience that no advertising campaign can replicate and that builds business relationships on a much stronger emotional foundation.

Image rights translate here into: use of the property’s logo in event materials, the possibility of ambassador or driver presence, co-branded setups, and exclusive content for guests. It is probably the most effective tool for building deep commercial relationships with a selected circle of B2B interlocutors.

Co-marketing: two brands amplifying each other

Co-marketing is the most sophisticated application of image rights: the sponsor and the sports property build together an initiative that amplifies both. Fan contests can be structured (such as winning tickets to a Grand Prix), physical product co-branding campaigns, or joint awareness initiatives across their respective channels.

Here applies the fundamental rule: no contest titled “Win the Italian Grand Prix” is possible without being a sponsor of the property that organises that event. Exclusive rights are exactly that — exclusive — and their legal protection is stringent on both sides.

The real risk: not activating

The applications of image rights are, potentially, infinite. The real risk — one that agencies specialised in sports sponsorships know very well — is exactly the opposite: not exploiting them. A poorly activated sponsorship, or worse an unactivated one, is a waste of budget and opportunity. The logo is there, but it does not work.

The activation plan must be built before the contract is signed, not after. The rights negotiated today determine the campaigns that can be run tomorrow: knowing already at the negotiation stage which channels you want to cover — social, advertising, events, co-marketing — allows you to acquire the right clauses and avoid ending up with a contractual asset you cannot use.

If you are considering entering the world of sports sponsorships or optimising the plan of an already active sponsorship, the starting point is always a thorough evaluation of the available activation opportunities — not only the visibility obtainable. That is where the real return on investment is built.