MotoGP sponsorship can cost from around €50,000 up to €15 million, with a range of factors depending on marketing benefits, team prestige and performance.
If you want to align your brand with an energetic, much-loved sport and guarantee a huge amount of exposure at the same time, you might’ve realised by now that MotoGP sponsorship is a great route to go down. But how much does it cost to sponsor a MotoGP team or rider? And how can I implement the sponsorship. They are complex questions, that you’ll need the answers to – so we’ve dug into it to give you the info you need. If you want to know more about sponsoring a sports team, you should read Benefits of Sponsoring a Sports Team.
Sponsoring a MotoGP team: price range and factors to consider
MotoGP sponsorship can cost from around €50,000 up to €15 million, and of course, there is a range of factors between these two figures – so some distinctions need to be made. Required budget depends on various things, including (but not limited to):
- The status of the team
- The status of the drivers (a world champion will, of course, cost the most)
- Team performance in recent years (winning teams feature on camera more, meaning the exposure that comes from sponsoring them has great value).
The cost of MotoGP sponsorship
€50,000 – Partnership
This is the entry level when it comes to MotoGP sponsorship. With this amount you can buy some marketing rights and do a certain amount of storytelling – however, you will not be able to realistically expect a real increase in your brand awareness.
Generally, these are packages favoured by B2B companies who want to take advantage of MotoGP hospitality. Sometimes companies with business related to motorbikes work at this level because of the direct endorsement that comes from participating in an activity linked to their core business.
€50,000 – €150,000 – Technical sponsor/official sponsor
This package is very similar to the previous one, but due to some exposure of your logo you’re likely to start to gain a small amount of visibility across traditional and digital media – just think about the 200+ countries that air MotoGP races live on TV. For sponsorship of some teams, you might be able to command some space on motorbikes, riders, box panels, interview backdrops, websites, or trucks or other team vehicles.
€150,000 – €500,000 – Official sponsor
With this amount, you can talk with teams that constantly score points and win races, and you can get decent-sized spaces alongside satellite MotoGP teams or slightly smaller spaces on official teams. In this situation you need to have a clear idea of what you really want – it is a strategic choice, and you also have to take into account the B2B potential of a direct link with an official team.
€500,000 – €3 million – Major sponsor
With this level of budget, you can approach any team and expect good visibility for your brand. You should be aware, however, that a bigger physical space doesn’t necessarily guarantee more visibility on TV – a medium-sized logo on a winning team is certainly more visible than a bigger one positioned on a lesser performing team. Having said that, the visibility it is not everything. You also need to consider the services (level, quantity and flexibility) that the team can offer to you.
€3 million – €5 million – Main sponsor
With this increased budget, you can build a MotoGP sponsorship program that’s full of chances to plan different activities at the track and elsewhere. Extensive exposure of your logo on MotoGP bikes will lead to an immediate increase in brand awareness, but there are much more opportunities available too: use of the showbike at trade fairs and product launches or during promotional activities, visits to the team headquarters, having the possibility to organise events with the team’s personnel and with the riders, a large number of Paddock passes, and so much more. In this position, you are amongst the most relevant sponsors of the MotoGP World Championship.
€6 million – €15 million – Title sponsor
As a title sponsor of MotoGP the livery of the bikes is in your colours, you’ve given your name to the team – and because of this you can rest assured that your brand will be seen extensively at each of the 19 races, and be transmitted to over 200 countries across five continents in nine months. This platform will allow you to host events, run promotions, gain a huge amount of visibility, and be prominent in the press in some of the richest markets in the world. With more than 28,000 hours of TV (Dorna, 2018), you can be guaranteed a spectacular ROI if you decide to make this investment.
This topic is vast, and can change within a matter of months and there are many different types of sponsorship in sports that you should know about before you start. If you have any question or want to talk up to date research, please do get in touch with us at info@rtrsports.com
