Sidepodcast

The usual process of including guest posts on a blog is for the owner to ask some of their favourite writers to come up with a piece or two to be featured. As you well know, Sidepodcast likes to do things a different way. The Facebook Group has plenty of fascinating discussions going on, and we want to bring those to the main site. The idea is for you guys to write your opinions and entries over on the group, and then we pick the best ones for feature over here on Sidepodcast. Sort of self-selecting guest bloggers, if you will. If you want to get your name in bright lights, just join the group and get writing. We read everything and everyone will be considered.

The first blog entry comes courtosy of Dan Brunell, our guest blogger guinea pig, and focuses on the plight of Super Aguri and what it means for the future of F1.

As “me” and Christine have so eloquently pointed out, Super Aguri is in serious trouble. If they last the year it will be an achievement. If they get someone to buy them it would be a miracle. However, is their slow demise a sign of things to come in F1?

It’s an understatement to say that F1 is an expensive sport. Advertising arrangements with some teams are in the tens of millions of pounds. Manufacturers themselves pour in hundreds of millions of pounds. The strong economy of the last few years have allowed many auto manufacturers and companies to spend their efforts in F1. However, as the economy goes from bull to bear and wallets get tightened; their hefty spending on F1 might be one of the first things to go from the ledger sheet.

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Margaux Matrix is a new name to me, but apparently they are a leading “brand exposure agency”. I’m not entirely sure what one does at an agency like that, but if it involves getting paid to watch F1, I’m exceedingly jealous. They have released a report going into details about F1 sponsorship and there are a few snippets I’d like to share with you.

Firstly, we have the top ten list of brands with the most TV exposure through the 2007 season. There’s a total of just under 20 hours available and Vodafone has topped the list with almost 4 of those hours. This is a vast improvement from when they were lost in the midst of a red Ferrari. Considering every team uses them, Bridgestone are a middle of the range 5^th, with just under 2 hours exposure. I find this surprising, but then again, the name is pretty small across the tyre. Maybe they need to put those white marker pens to better use.

Aside from Bridgestone, there are only two names that do not belong to either Ferrari or McLaren, and that’s Red Bull and ING.

This is fascinating to me. If I sit back, close my eyes so I don’t look at any pictures, and try to think of an F1 sponsor – the first names that spring to mind are Lenovo, Kingfisher and Kenwood. Kenwood is always up there, because I think it’s amusing how small their name is on the car.

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According to the marketing website Brand Republic, ITV are having to drop the price of their proposed 2008 Formula 1 sponsorship package due to insufficient interest.

The company recently lost 2007 sponsors Honda, after it was claimed the asking price would increase from £2.5m up to £4m for the coming season. It now looks as though this years price will be roughly similar to last years, despite the increased interest the channel received due to some bloke from Stevenage.

Recently, ITV’s head of sport Mark Sharman, stated that:

What sport does, and Formula One in particular, is deliver an ABC1 male audience, and that’s priceless for us.

One might suggest that there is a price, and that £4m is a bit too steep.

Last year the Brazilian Grand Prix, which witnessed the climax of the driver’s championship, managed to net an average of 7.3m viewers, compared to just 4.9m the previous year. So there may well be a valid argument for a price increase, but it would appear that so far, ITV haven’t found anyone willing to cough up as much as they’d like.

You can read the full story on Brand Republic, although be warned that it’s a subscription site and you’ll have to log in to view the whole article.