Sponsors Then and Now

[Fisha695]

2001:

• 36 races
• 138 different sponsor combinations
• 6 Sponsor Combos that ran 36 races or more (4% of all Sponsor combos)
• 43 Sponsor Combos that ran 15 races or more (31% of all Sponsor combos)
• 68 Sponsor Combos ran for only 1 race (49% of all Sponsor combos)
• 132 Different Companies/Brands

2011:

• 36 races
• 370 different sponsor combinations
• 2 Sponsor Combos that ran 36 races or more (0.54% of all Sponsor combos)
• 34 Sponsor Combos that ran 15 races or more (9% of all Sponsor combos)
• 219 Sponsor Combos that ran for only 1 race (59% of all Sponsor combos)
• 290 Different Companies/Brands

Images:
2001:

{Click first 2 for bigger}

2011:

{Click first 2 for bigger}


35 brands from 2001 also sponsored cars in 2011. However only 11 sponsored more races, 24 brands sponsored the same amount or less races in 2011 then they did in 2001.

 

[Markfan]

Why is Mars (Pedigree, Snickers, Combos and M&M's) split up? It's the same company. Same with General Mills (Cheerios, Hamburger Helper)

The numbers also fail to indicate that sponsors invest less now than they did back then, forcing teams to apply more companies per car in order to stay afloat. It was easier to sit pretty with one company in 2001 than it is now.

An interesting series of charts, though.

 

[Fisha695]

All the companies are based off of the entry list/official results. So it's basically how the car is entered. There are some liberties taken (for example Dodge, Dodge Dealers, UAW Dodge, Dodge "insert promotion here", are all bunched together as Dodge), however despite Cheerios & Hamburger Helper being part of the same overall company (General Mills) they are separate brands with seperate advertising/marketing budgets and stuff like that. For all intents & purposes subsidiaries/brands are separate companies when it comes to how they advertise (well not all companies work that way but most do).

For example Mountain Dew & Pepsi have two separate Advertising budgets/Offices/Workers, but Pepsi & Pepsi Max share that stuff as they're one brand but just different "trim levels".

 

[MattSRD28]

I like how "Power of Pride" is listed as if it was a company & not a joint venture between Lowe's and United Services Organizations, with the sponsor money coming from Lowe's.

If you want accurate horizontal analysis, subsidiaries must be totaled and grouped under their parent company. It's the parent company who is the driving force behind what subsidiary spends what, and all monies spent by subsidiaries cannot total higher than what the parent can afford. Therefore, the only way to really measure companies' spending power is to compare one complete parent/subsidiary entity with another complete parent/subsidiary entity.

But, even if the info was grouped that way, I think all we'd learn is the shocking news that fewer companies are able to afford the ever-rising costs of sponsorship and/or are choosing to spend their marketing dollars in other ways in the tougher economic climate than there was 10 years ago.