Formula 1 CEO: “Sponsorship Arenas Are Tougher Than A Few Years Ago”
December 10, 2019
Chief Executive of Formula One, Chase Carey, has admitted it has been more difficult than he has imagined to sell sponsorships for the sport since taking over in 2017.
Speaking to Motorsport.com Carey spoke about the challenges of trying to add to F1’s main sponsorship group: “Our cupboard was pretty bare, because we didn’t really have a sponsor group. We hadn’t created any tools. We hadn’t created capabilities to tell the story of F1, to create some excitement.
“We have some momentum today. We’ve had attendance up, we’ve had viewership up, we’ve got a good story, we’ve got new dimensions to the sport.
“And I think you need to tell that story, and you need to develop tools. Sponsors want partnerships that are more tailored uniquely to them. In the past signs on a wall worked fine, that doesn’t work now.”
However, Carey feels that F1 is on the right track going forward. He added: “Certainly, I’d say we feel we have gotten progressively better, as we’ve gone along. So while it’s been slower and harder than I would have planned it to be a couple of years ago, I think that in many ways is the nature of where we started, and we started really from ground zero.
“I think this is a sport sells well, it’s a unique sport with passionate fans, attractive fans, the sport differentiates from other sports, given it’s marriage to technology, given the nature of the sport, the global aspect of the sport.
“And at a point in time where events in a world that is increasingly commoditised and fragmented, events that rise above are reasonably valued. So I think the interest and engagement we have has been on a steady rise.
“I think in general for almost anybody in the ad market that isn’t Facebook or Google, the broadly defined advertising market, whether you’re television or God forbid, print, radio, even other digital players – certainly sponsorship arenas I think are tougher than it was a few years ago.”
