UBS and Formula 1™ announce Global Partnership
Most of the companies of the world consider it to be a big regard to get attached to Formula One, let it be a tyre’s manufacturer or a health insurance company or even some beverage server, all the companies keep striving to shake their hands with the sport. Much of this is due to its global appeal and the vast range of audience that they had been able to pull all through the life of the sport.
This time it is UBS that had been able to tie up with the sport. The final agreement was signed today and was announced in a press release by Formula 1™ which claims UBS to become a Global Partner of Formula 1™. However, the formal launching of the partnership is scheduled to take place at the 2010 FORMULA 1 SingTel Singapore Grand Prix, which is to be held from 24 to 26 September, 2010.
UBS, which was originally an abbreviation for the Union Bank of Switzerland, is a diversified financial company giving its services all around the globe, while it’s main headquarters are in Basel and Zürich. The company is considered to be the world's second largest manager of private wealth assets in addition to being the second-largest bank in Europe, both in terms of market capitalization as well as profitability.
The agreement signed by two leaders of their field follows a comprehensive evaluation by UBS including the commercial benefits of all properties regarding global sponsorship.
Formula 1™ is one of the sports of the world that include the largest sums of money and the most influential names of the world. It is a year round sport with huge number of followers. Though it is popular in all the continents, yet its popularity is significantly higher in UBS’s key growth markets like Asia, Middle East as well as Latin America. The two plan to hold a long-term partnership, which will provide excellent branding and hospitality opportunities, which is a key indicator of UBS’s global footprint in addition to its business strategy.
Some of the major benefits of the partnership include its global reach, as currently nineteen events take place in one season’s calendar of Formula One, in eighteen countries on four different continents.
Secondly, Formula 1™ is either already present and or is growing widely in almost all the strategically major markets for UBS, such as Asia, Middle East and Latin America. Furthermore, the sport has a huge global media appeal, an estimated television viewers in the year 2009 was above 520 million across 187 countries, making it the most-watched annual sporting event of the world. Above all what makes Formula 1™ a BIG THING is its presence all across the year, as it lasts eight months around the calendar.
During the initial announcement of agreement, Oswald Grübel, the Group Chief Executive of UBS, said, “UBS has been searching for a global sponsorship platform that has appeal to our clients, promotes our brand globally and makes good commercial sense. Our new partnership with one of the largest and most popular sporting organizations in the world will fulfil all these criteria, and it constitutes a key element of our newly launched branding activities. The global reach of F1™ complements the many local activities we support."
Moreover, the Group CEO of Formula 1, Bernie Ecclestone exclaimed, “UBS is a global company where performance, teamwork and superior execution are integral to their clients’ success. These values complement those of Formula 1™ and I’m delighted to welcome UBS to Formula 1™.”
However, the financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed by UBS or Formula 1™ as is the case of all commercial contracts.
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