ING Loves Renault
Maybe ING saw our posting and saw the benefit of a sponsorship with the Renault Formula 1 team. Maybe they are just making too much money and need to “make an investment.” Either way the Dutch Banking and Insurance giant has signed a 3-year deal with team Renault for some prime ad space, and name sponsorship, on the next series of cars.
It is quite clear that Formula One reaches far more people than NASCAR in the US or GT racing in Europe. Despite running 2007 sans Fernando Alonso (two-time F1 champion), Renault has a full-sponsorship. ING CEO Michel Tilmant is right to think that F1 is an opportunity to build the ING brand globally in a quick way. The Shell-Ferrari relationship is a similar example.
Lessons in brand management that when you spend marketing dollars, they should be spent to gain positive exposure for the brand. The idea is to associate the brand with a winning concept. Renault has certainly proven itself a winner the last two years. It is estimated that the contract was equivalent to 5% of ING’s global marketing budget. We estimate that such a deal is worth over $85 million per annum.
One final note: our earlier analysis stated that sponsorship opportunities would come as a result of big tobacco being forced out of F1 racing in most countries. That foresight has proven correct as ING will replace a number of previous Renault sponsors, including Japanese Tobacco.