For my final year Marketing Communications module, I had to write an essay on sponsorship and branding. As a huge football, rugby, tennis, cycling… well, as a huge sports fan, there were plenty of examples to choose from: Aviva has produced one of the most remarkably successful re-brandings of the last few years- helped in no short course by their extensive sponsorship within rugby. And, of course Evian’s involvement in Wimbledon has given them a platform on which to create some wonderfully creative experiential campaigns and headline-grabbing stunts.

Despite those two fine examples, I pitched for Santander and their sponsorship of the McLaren Mercedes team. It was the perfect subject. The message was clear, the use of Jenson, Lewis and the British team perfectly reflected their own brand values of stability and teamwork. (Not to mention establishing the British-ness of the company, in light of their recent takeovers and re-branding of Abbey and Bradford & Bingley).

The further I drilled down into the subject, the more I came to realise that even the smallest detail within their adverts, or semantic in the campaign, was a reflection of their brand values. I could have written my dissertation on the subject, but unfortunately, I was limited to 1,500 words.. and sadly, despite the best of intentions, a week visiting the girlfriend in Limerick got the better of me and I bashed out the essay on the Limerick to Dublin train, sat next to two lovely old ladies from Cork who were trying to feed me with Southern Comfort at the end of each paragraph. I got a 2:1. I am actually quite proud, considering.

But I digress.

Since then, Santander have, in this author’s humble opinion, gone on to become industry leaders in sports sponsorship, due - simply - to their willingness to actively engage with the public. Their latest campaign, brought to my attention earlier this week, uses Rory McIlroy - and once again fan participation and engagement is at the heart of the campaign, and once again, it’s a winner.