• by Karl Greenberg , April 15, 2015

Soccer grabs the biggest automotive sponsorship purse worldwide, with General Motors the top spender in non-autosports sports sponsorship, thanks to Chevrolet's huge deal with Manchester United that made it the fifth shirt sponsor of the team, replacing AON. 

A new report shows the car industry spends $1.28 billion on sports sponsorships, exclusive of motorsports. Sponsorship Today's report, analyzing 503 deals across the world, pegs GM’s spend at $235 million, followed by Toyota at $207 million. Hyundai and Volkswagen take third and fourth spots, respectively.

The study said that after soccer, which got $487 million in auto manufacturers’ cash, the Olympics and golf were the next recipients, with the Olympics accounting for $142 million and golf $109 million worldwide. American Football and basketball each pulled in more than $80 million, per the study, and tennis was sixth at $62 million. The biggest single deals, besides with Chevrolet's $80 million-per-year spend with Manny U, are Toyota’s just-announced $93 million deal with the International Olympic Committee, and Nissan's $66 million-per-year UEFA Champions League partnership.

A report on the study says data shows that luxury brands like Audi, BMW, Cadillac, Lexus and Mercedes-Benz have the clearest sponsorship strategies around sports like golf, sailing, and tennis. Report editor Simon Rines says competition in the luxury field could put upward pressure on fees. “With more marques, such as Ford, Alfa Romeo and Citroën, looking to occupy the luxury space, alongside the likes of Jaguar, Land Rover and Volvo, it suggests that there could be growth in rights fees for prestigious events in golf.”

Audi, a sponsor of the FIFA World Cup, is moving more sponsorship cash into soccer in the U.S., having this year become an official parter of MLS.  Rines points out in the report that BMW, Land Rover and Audi all are active in sailing as well. Not mentioned here is Volvo, which is probably as strongly associated with ocean racing as is Oracle Team U.S.A., of which BMW was a partner until 2010. 

The study argues that many brands, signing with different sports in different nations, on different tiers, lack a “coherent global sponsorship strategy.” Said Rines, “It would certainly appear that some major groups have a clearly defined strategy, whereas others appear to acquire rights in an ad hoc fashion.” He names Kia as an example of a brand that has a big global portfolio of sports deals, but that its focus in the U.S. on the NBA, of which it is official vehicle, and with which it sponsors 14 teams and has spokesperson relationships, is effective. “Kia has effectively taken car industry ownership of basketball in the country, which arguably gives it much more strength than spending the same amount on a sprinkling of rights across all of America's major sporting codes where the brand would just get lost in the clutter.”

On a national level, the U.S. leads in spend, with automakers committing about $333 million per year here. In China, the spend is $86 million, led by Ford, Mercedes, Volvo and BMW, as well as local brands FAW-Volkswagen and Dongfeng.