Online binary options broker IQ Option, a brand operating under its CySEC regulated entity IQ Option Europe limited, has announced a sponsorship deal with Aston Martin Racing, according to the car manufacturer's website.
In a move to build brand awareness and attract interest from car and racing enthusiasts, the broker has become an official partner, and its logo will be sported by Aston Martin's racing vehicles.
The trend of financial services companies - amongst other consumer-driven retailers - associating themselves with high-end luxury goods, sports teams and racing events can bring numerous benefits, achieved via various sponsorships, partnerships, or endorsements. One such benefit is to help build brand perception for existing and potential customers.
For example, IQ Option said it wanted to associated itself with speed and reliability, equating the qualities of its platform with the speedy and reliable Aston Martin race car. The news follows Finance Magnates previous coverage of one of the broker's trading platforms being upgraded at the end of last year.
their branding will feature prominently on all AMR race cars throughout the season
Sponsorships and the common goals of customer Acquisition
While some brokers aim to find returns on investments from low or no cost initiatives (such as via IB partnerships, or ranking higher generically on search engines), others spend money the right way on marketing and advertising, which can create the results that everyone is aiming towards - new clients to deposit and trade. Most companies focus on both of these contrary business tactics.
Regarding sponsorships, it may be difficult sometimes to track related metrics in order to measure the results and overall campaign effectiveness. Nonetheless, there are almost always intangible benefits, that cannot be measured yet impact the bottom-line.
However, in recent years brands have been gathering meaningful and trackable data and/or tools in order to entice sponsors, whether it's for sponsoring a football team, or a luxury watch brand. The process of sponsoring is aimed as a marketing product to help achieve some target goal, even if it's called 'brand awareness' or some other label.
The U.S. Superbowl commercials are a great example of fierce competition between the marketing companies and how leveraging sporting events can provide an opportunity to sell a product or idea.
IQ Option's prior experience with race car sponsorships
This isn't IQ Option's first race car sponsorship, as it previously sponsored a Formula one team, and so it must have some benchmark and experience against which to gauge the new Aston Martin racing deal.
There's always a risk to some degree whether you are doing a Google Adwords campaign, a sponsorship, or T.V. commercial, but typically the quantitative approach is what marketing budgets look for - just as traders look for a track-record of performance - marketers expect high ROI on their dollars spent and need encouraging numbers.
Finally, some brands take to Hollywood to associate a familiar face with their brand, such as ADS Securities did recently with David Hasselhoff.
WEC Ultra-Endurance event, and additional demographics
For IQ Option, the combination of a high-end car and a sporting event means that it gains exposure to fans from both segments. The races include a number of events taking place under the World Endurance Championship (WEC) each year in 9 countries and across 4 continents.
The races use Grand Turismo (GT) cars, which are popular not only with fans of real life but for gamers behind their PCs and PlayStations too.
Thus gaming is an additional demographic that the broker may be incidentally gaining exposure to with the racing sponsorship. In addition, the WEC space brings competition from other high-end car makers, and attracts their fans and audiences as well, including the following competitors in this year’s races: Porsche 911 RSR, Ferrari 458 Italia, Ford GT, Chevrolet Corvette, among others.
Aston Martin Racing announced the partnership on its website as well, citing the full 2016 season and how the IQ Option logos will be featured on its cars racing in top-tier GT competitions.
John Gaw, Managing Director of Aston Martin Racing, said in its press release: “We warmly welcome IQ Option to the Aston Martin Racing family and we particularly look forward to including them in our wider 2016 plans. While their branding will feature prominently on all AMR race cars throughout the season, there’ll be an exciting new IQ Option livery cloaking one of our entries later in the year.”