Taken from Marussia F1
Budget: £51m
Income: £51m (of which £30m comes from Marussia, £15m from other sponsors, and £6m from FOM earnings)
Profit: Even
Income: £51m (of which £30m comes from Marussia, £15m from other sponsors, and £6m from FOM earnings)
Profit: Even
Let’s start with the large chunk, £30m comes from Marussia Motors, while many of us haven’t heard of Marussia Motors before they entered the Formula 1, partly because they have only been founded in 2007, it completely makes sense for a luxury car manufacturer to sponsor a Formula 1 team, the similarities in fan-base and clientele are obvious. Marussia Motors currently have 3 models, the B1, B2 and the F2, the first two being sports cars based on the same chassis with different body shapes (each sold for 250,000 euros) and the F2 being a military grade SUV. Oddly enough when you go on Marussia Motors webpage they only present the B1 and the B2 on their “cars” site, while it does not mention that they are looking for increased brand recognition from sponsoring an F1 team, I am assuming that this is the goal as it is the most likely reason for a car company with no engine manufacture to sponsor/ own a F1 team
With that out of the way, where are the other £15m coming from?
Let’s go through the list:
A-Gas which is a company which focuses on refrigerants for air conditionings, performance chemicals such as blowing chemicals for insulating foams etc, you get the picture. So how does this brand fit into the Formula 1 circus, the only way I can think of is that they are supplying some sort of gas to Marussia to cool/run the can and as a result a deal has resulted, I can’t imagine there being another link between the brand and motorsport, they do say that they share a common goal using new technologies, however that sounds like marketing talk rather than anything tangible.
Armin Storm, now here is something you see quite often a luxury watch brand sponsoring a Formula 1 team, completely makes sense, as you are alluding to the glamour of the sport, and you are selling a lifestyle rather than just a watch. Armin Strom aims to create a bespoke collection of exclusive timepieces, inspired by the technology and material synergies between Formula 1 and the art and craft of watch making, how much they are really inspired by the technology and material of Formula 1 is debatable, however there is a clear alignment between the brand and the carrier.
Avelo, a financial services technology solutions to the financial services industry across the UK. Again not the most obvious solution, however there is a fit in clientele, a) the target market is probably spot on, especially with a british driver (albeit a slow one) driving for them, but F1 is huge in the UK so why not advertise based on your target market.
Bifold group, which makes a range of of switching instruments, piping valves and pumps in the oil and gas, upstream and downstream sectors. Again more of an industrial B2B based sponsorship, but there does seem to be alignment in the sense of precision fitting, as well as the oil and gas industry.
Freeradio, an independent radio broadcaster in the UK midlands, while the target area might be spot on, I am not sure how much traffic they would be getting from sponsoring Marussia, I am also unsure of how much a free radio station would be able to contribute in terms of $$, however I am probably a bit of a hater in that regard. However it could a charity sponsor, in which case, the good publicity for Marussia would be all that Freeradio would need to contribute in order to make this worthwhile in a marketing sense.
LDC, private equity investment in the UK, again as with Avelo, this seems to make sense. They were also there for Virgin from the start, so it makes sense that they stayed on when the name changed and now sponsor Marussia.
LIGA STAVOC, the first Russian International betting site, here we go, I was waiting for something juicy, definitely a B2C marketing effort, according to their site The sponsorship of the Marussia F1 Team corresponds with one of the main missions of BC Liga Stavok: to support Russian teams in the most interesting sports. Just as with football teams being sponsored, this makes perfect sense, a russian audience watches as Marussia is a Russian team (duh) and there is a slight change of a 2014 Russian GP, so why not sponsor right there and entice them to bet.
QNet, here is an interesting one, a leading direct selling company with a strong portfolio of exclusive lifestyle products. Sounds odd right, well it gets better the reason for the partnership is stated as a long-term alliance of fuelling dreams, say what? However when you dwell a little further it seems to start making a little more sense, their primary market is a young target group of Asian TV audience, so Formula 1 pretty much hits home on all accounts there. Also just as with LDC they already sponsored virgin so simply stayed on.
RBC is a leading Russian multimedia holding company, simply put there is the obvious Russian connection, as well as the media connection, with a 2014 Russian GP being a possibility, RBC would have prime access to the “home” team, which is sure to pay dividends handsomely.
Rotortrade, a exclusive helicopter brokerage company, anyone who is familiar with Formula 1 would know how many helicopters fly around on race weekend, so it seems they have met the right clientele and captured a target audience for these luxury goods in a luxury sport.
Royals FC, a football club, one can only presume that the owners share some sort of interest, they are affiliated sports teams, whether financially or not is unclear.
Sage ERP X3 a business management and service supplier, they actually provide the business management software for Marussia, so this is more of a professional win-win link.
So there is that, hopefully that gave you a better insight on Marussia F1’s sponsors and partners and shows you where their money is coming from and how their sponsorship deals tie in from a marketing perspective.
Question: what do you as the readers think would be good brands to sponsor Marussia? Are any brands that are currently sponsoring them doing this well or would they be better alligned with another team.
