Red Bull tops F1 exposure ranking

Red Bull GmbH leads Formula One brands including Ferrari SpA in television exposure after spending more than $675 million in five years, order research shows.

The energy drink maker, asthma its logo emblazoned on four racing cars, got 4 hours, 27 minutes of TV airtime at the first 15 races this season compared with about 52 minutes for Ferrari, research by Guildford, England-based Margaux Matrix Ltd. found. Only series sponsor LG Electronics Inc., with almost 11 hours, had more coverage.

Red Bull spent an average $135 million a year on its main Milton Keynes, England-based team since 2005, according to company filings in the U.K. by Red Bull Technology Ltd., allowing it to rely less on sponsorship from other companies to cover costs, said Mick de Haas, a motor sports sponsorship consultant who has advised ING.

“Red Bull is a brand that’s still emerging and it’s looking for as much publicity as possible,” De Haas said. “It’s all over the place.”

Austria-based Red Bull also runs a second team, Toro Rosso, and last year had a deal with Kimi Raikkonen under which the former champion drank from a branded Red Bull bottle when racing for Ferrari. Red Bull said in an e-mail it spends “30 to 40 percent” of company sales on marketing, including F-1 expenditure. It had net income of 123.1 million euros on sales of 1.85 billion euros last year, according to a filing with the Austrian company register.