Seen from the outside, a sports sponsorship looks like a decision taken on instinct: a passionate CEO, a handshake in the paddock, a logo on the fairing. Seen from the inside, it is a process with precise stages, data, negotiations and checks. The difference between the two pictures is the same as the difference between a sponsorship that lasts one season and one that lasts ten years.

Updated September 2026.

We call “method” the sequence of steps an agency follows to build a sponsorship programme, from the first conversation to the measurement of results. It is not bureaucracy: it is the way to turn enthusiasm, which is never in short supply in sport, into an investment that stands up to a board’s scrutiny.

What a sponsorship really is

The definition most widely used in the industry is IEG’s, the institute that studied the sponsorship market for decades: a fee, in cash or in kind, paid to a property, that is, a team, an event or an organisation, in return for access to the exploitable commercial potential associated with that property. The key word is “exploitable”. A sponsorship is never an end in itself, it is always a means: it buys a potential, and value is only created when that potential is exploited. Every stage of the process follows from this.

1. The first conversation

A good programme always begins with a good conversation. Understanding the company’s real needs, beyond the wish of the moment, is the agency’s first job: what it wants to achieve, for which audience, in which markets, with what budget and in what timeframe. Often the objective stated at the outset, more visibility, hides a more precise one, entering a market, supporting the sales network, retaining the best customers, and the conversation is there to bring it to the surface.

2. Data and research

The second stage is the least visible. The audiences of the different championships are analysed, along with their geographical and TV distribution, the values the public associates with each sport, the product categories already present and those still open, and market costs. Motorsport has a vast amount of data, from the figures published by rights holders to independent research, and the agency’s job is to separate the useful from the promotional.

3. Choosing the property

With objectives and data on the table, it is time to choose: which championship, which team, which rider or driver, which event. This is the stage where experience counts most, because what matters is knowing not only the standings, but also the people, the habits, the financial solidity of the teams and their willingness to build a tailor-made package. For companies entering for the first time we have gathered the five decisions to start from.

4. The proposal and the negotiation

The proposal defines the rights: where and how visible the brand will be, what hospitality access, what image rights, what category exclusivities, what activities with the riders or drivers. The negotiation turns the proposal into a contract, and this is where details matter: duration, exit clauses, what happens in the event of unforeseen events or a change of rider. Before relying on an agency it is worth asking the ten right questions, and weighing carefully the difference between working through an agency or dealing directly with the team.

5. Approval and timing

A sponsorship almost always goes through several levels of internal approval, from marketing to finance, and deadlines must be respected. In motorsport the calendar is rigid: a MotoGP season starts at the end of February, and a deal signed once the season has begun loses precious weeks of activation. The best time to sign depends on the championship, and we have analysed it in our guide on when to sign a sponsorship contract.

6. Activation

This is the stage in which the sponsorship stops being a contract and becomes marketing. Client hospitality, advertising campaigns with the team’s images, social media content, events with the riders or drivers, point-of-sale promotions, incentives for the sales network. Activation has a cost that is not included in the rights, and it is the item most often underestimated. We have covered it in our guide to sponsorship activation.

7. Fine-tuning

No programme works perfectly the first time. During the season you observe what works and what does not, move resources from one activity to another, and seize unexpected opportunities, a surprise podium, a story the public loves. It is continuous work that requires constant dialogue between company, team and agency.

8. Measurement

The last stage closes the circle and prepares the following season. Results are measured against the objectives set at the start: awareness, contacts generated, sales, employee engagement. The 2025 version of the Barcelona Principles, the international standard for communication measurement, classifies advertising value equivalency, the old media value count, among invalid measures and advises against its use. In industry practice it survives at most as a way of comparing different packages, never as proof of commercial return. For the complete method we refer you to our guide on how ROI is really measured. Finally, the results are the basis for deciding whether to renew, renegotiate or change.

The good, the bad and the ugly

The process does not eliminate risk, it makes it manageable. The good is that a well-built sponsorship multiplies the value of every other marketing tool. The bad is that it takes time, commitment and a budget that goes beyond the contract. The ugly is the shortcut: skipping the first stages, choosing out of passion, signing without knowing how success will be measured. Almost every programme that fails has taken that shortcut, and almost every programme that lasts has followed, one way or another, a method.

Sources: TicketManager, the IEG definition of sponsorship; IEG, Activation Ratios Are Dead; AMEC, Barcelona Principles 4.0; MotoGP, the 2026 calendar.