The sponsor’s perspective

‘Instantaneous success’

Brother UK managing director Phil Jones knows a thing or two about sponsorship in cycling as the backer of multiple teams, races and the provider of neutral service in the UK. He told CW he sees a great opportunity in Team Sky for a sponsor to go straight to the top of the sport.

“I think if money were no object you’d look at that and say there is a real sense that you could put your logo on the shirt and have instantaneous success. You’ve got a winning formula and a strong team of riders. If you’ve got £25m free you’d definitely do it,” he told CW.

However, Jones added that any sponsor would need to find around £75m-£100m worth of value per year from a sponsorship like that to justify it.

He added that any sponsor coming in would need to commit more than the headline £25m a year to realise that kind of value. “Once you’re looking at the stakes of an investment of $25-30m it’s how you activate that sponsorship beyond having the logo on the shirt,” he said, referring to advertising campaigns or other activities that leverage the sponsorship of the team.

“In all the sponsorships we’ve done, like when we sponsored teams like Jordan and Williams in Formula 1, when you spend that sort of money they think you [the sponsor] should be spending around 10 per cent of that on top in activation activity. It’s almost not included.”