Last year, I got a lesson in sponsorships from my work outside of radio, where I coach executives at big companies like Mastercard, Google, and Darktrace. All three just happen to be big sponsors in my favorite sport, Formula 1 racing.
I thought, maybe I could get a hookup for free race tickets! (I was wrong.)
A Google executive in Madrid showed me photos (on his Android phone, of course) of him touring the McLaren F1 factory and posing next to Lando Norris’s $40 million world-championship-winning car – with the Chrome brand on the side and wheel covers painted to look like the Chrome logo. When I mentioned tickets, my Google friend shook his head at me like I had asked to drive the race car.
When I was invited to coach leaders at Darktrace, my heart leapt. Darktrace was the highly visible name on McLaren’s giant rear wing (probably a $100 million-plus sponsorship). Surely, they had tickets? “Well, when McLaren started winning, the sponsorship skyrocketed, and we had to exit.” Drat.
But replacing Darktrace was Mastercard, and I happened to be speaking at Mastercard headquarters in New York, where large lobby video screens looped footage of Oscar Piastri, the other McLaren driver, surprising a fan. Mastercard execs showed me cool Mastercard logoed McLaren team swag displayed in glass cases – but no tickets.
Alas, I failed at scoring tickets, shirts, or even a hat. But I began thinking of radio sponsorships as an imperfect parallel to sports sponsorships.
I regularly hear missed opportunities for sponsor inclusion on talent-forward radio shows. And unlike the explosive growth of Formula 1 since Netflix’s Drive to Survive and Brad Pitt’s Oscar-nominated film, F1, radio is not growing revenue these days. If we want our medium to survive, let’s think of a radio show as a vehicle and on-air hosts as charismatic, daring drivers.
- Team Prestige: Top teams (McLaren Mercedes, Red Bull) command much higher fees, and so should your top-rated talent. When a show that we coach hits #1 in multiple demographics, it may feel uncomfortable to ask clients to pay more. Do it. They probably love the show and will sign willingly.
- Visibility: Just as sponsors pay for more prominent placements on a race car, reserve sponsorships on the most popular show features for your high-revenue, long-term advertisers.
- Exclusivity: Being the sole sponsor in a category (e.g., “Official Podcast Partner, Official Concert Ticket Partner”) should be more expensive. Exclusivity also means putting sponsorships on many things, but not everything. Be careful not to oversaturate the show with sponsors.
- Package Inclusions: Formula 1 sponsors buy a bundle that includes car placement, logos on gear and clothing, digital placement, exclusive invitations, and meeting the team. When is the last time your top advertisers toured your station, were gifted a station logo shirt, attended a cool station event, or had a beer with your on-air talent?
- Sponsorship tier ideas:
- Entry-Level: for small budget advertisers, name mention only.
- Mid-Tier: highlighted with name mention and a short tag line.
- High-End: for the biggest of the big, host-read ads, front page website placement, prominent banners at events, product samples distributed by your stars at events, etc.
- Sponsorship placement ideas:
- Benchmark features (Good News, War of the Roses, etc.)
- Hourly sponsors (this hour of the show brought to you by..)
- Games: sponsor name and prize mentioned at the end.
- Text/phone line reminders: (text us on the Toyota text line at ___)
- Show promos
- Podcasts
- Podcast promos
- Social media and website video
- Traffic reports
- Weather reports
- News
- Sports
- Charity/good community cause events
Remember, entertainment first, sponsorship second. Even multi-million-dollar F1 sponsors do not get to drive the car. We still must win listeners. Save advertiser copy for the end of segments, the end of promos, and for the last position in commercial sets.
