This is a great look: bringing a short-term sponsor on board for a specific race. In this case, it’s what looks like the Italian division of a forklift company sponsoring Saunier Duval-Scott for the Giro d’Italia. As the press release points out, it’s a good sales strategy to help a sponsor get their feet wet.

But it’s also interesting conceptually - thinking of the team as a series of geo-targeted sponsorships instead of one big sponsorship. Focusing on this kind of short-term package might work well for teams that are taking that “we’re going to build our own brand without a title sponsor” approach, especially domestic teams. Since there’s no consistent national coverage (or promotion, for that matter), the attention that a team receives from outside the cycling community is clustered around specific events. So, for the weekend that cycling is a big deal in Tulsa, selling a mini-sponsorship to a local business wouldn’t be a bad idea.

via press release

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 6th, 2008 at 2:44 pm and is filed under Advertising, Bike Racing, Sports Business.