A sponsorship match made in heaven

What is the goal of sponsorship? To increase brand awareness? Promote products and services to your target audience? Enhance brand perception? All true but very rarely do you see a sponsorship match that ticks every box quite as comprehensively as Crypto.com’s partnership with Formula 1.

Crypto.com is one of the fastest-growing cryptocurrency exchanges globally, with an ambitious strategy that includes a large-scale brand awareness campaign. A finite number of teams and events can deliver the awareness boost Crypto.com hopes to achieve. So, what is it that Formula 1 offers that the Olympics or the World Cup cannot?

Audience

Sponsorship proposals tend to focus on that big cumulative audience number as the be-all and end-all. With a TV audience of 1.5bn watching from every developed economy globally and a growing social following of 49 million, Formula 1 holds its own with the largest events going. However, similar-sized events such as the Olympics or the World Cup deliver this awareness in one lump sum. Formula 1, on the other hand, provides a steady drumbeat of exposure. Race weekends throughout the year keep Crypto.com top of mind regardless of the ups and downs of digital currency markets.

Everyone is a customer of Coca-Cola, old and young, male and female, rich and poor. The sponsorship goal of the American soft drinks giant is awareness above all else. The same cannot be said for cryptocurrency traders. A client base consisting predominantly of males between 30 and 50, educated, wealthy, and with a risk appetite. In 2021 Nielsen Sports conducted the largest Formula 1 fan survey ever. The results showed the average fan is 32 years old, male and from the ABC1 socio-economic group. Tick, tick, tick.

Reputation

Audience alignment between brand and sponsor is an essential first step in ensuring the success of any sponsorship. What turns a good partnership into a great one is when brand attributes are enhanced by the inherent characteristic of the team or event being sponsored.

Digital asset currency traders are looking for exchanges that offer speed, high performance, cutting-edge technology and the latest data and innovation to gain a competitive advantage. Racing at 200mph with a world of engineering and data-driven innovations under the bonnet, there is no better example of these attributes than a Formula 1 car.

However, the reputational alignment for Crypto.com goes deeper than the specific attributes of the individual car. It includes the very culture of the sport itself. Wealth is inherent within Formula 1. Whether it comes from the Ferrari and McLaren in the pits or the billionaires on the back of the yachts in Monaco. Sponsorship enhances the perception of Crypto.com as a route to wealth and fortune for its users. The partnership is, in fact, so well aligned that both parties even share the same negative risk attributes. A crash in the crypto markets can be just as devastating as a crash on the track.

Performance

We often talk of sponsorship as a journey. To achieve a perfect sponsorship match, it’s essential you and your partner are not only aligned audience and reputation-wise but that you are both heading in the same direction. Crypto.com is the fastest growing digital currency exchange in the world. Formula 1 audience numbers are increasing in nearly every market, especially in China and the US.

The challenge now for Crypto.com’s marketing activation team is how to keep the campaign fresh year after year.

To help achieve the perfect sponsorship match for your brand, you may wish to consider our articles, Measuring sponsorship impact on brand value and business value and Why you should always say no to the proposal that lands on your desk.