Sports teams have long been a sponsorship bonanza for marketers, especially financial services companies. Banks have aligned themselves with college football bowl games, car racing, baseball stadiums, football stadiums, minor league baseball stadiums, tennis tournaments, college football athletic departments, and hockey teams just to name a few.
Being the “official” bank or car of a team can be a marketing windfall. It makes me wonder, though, why no team or league has an official auto lending sponsor. Wouldn’t it be a coup for a lender to come in and be a team’s official auto lending sponsor, especially if a competitor is already the team’s official car sponsor? Using the example linked to above, where Toyota became the official sponsor of the Chicago Bears, why shouldn’t one of Toyota’s competitors swoop in and become the official auto lender for da Bears?
I would hazard a guess that whatever contracts exist between a sports team and a sponsor, a certain degree of exclusivity is ensured, within certain parameters. I’m sure that the Bears are not allowed to go out and enter into an agreement with another car company to sponsor the team. But I wonder if the team would be allowed to work with an auto lender to be the team’s official auto lending sponsor.
Of course, this is just a tip-of-the-spear example of how auto lenders could be more proactive in putting their marketing clout to good use. Especially when facing off against their competition.
There are a lot of advantages that come along with being in between the financial services industry and the automotive industry. Those are advantages that should be exploited.
