The experiential level in sponsorship: why it is important to touch to believe

One of the peculiarities of sports sponsorship is the central role of multisensoriality in sports and the sports event.

It is 3:02 p.m. on Saturday when the scream of the nearly 300hp MotoGP prototypes rises to the sky and the twenty-two bolids hurtle toward the gaping jaws of the first corner.

Luke, who has never seen a racing motorcycle up close before, plugs his ears with the palm of his hands as he tries to follow the bikes whizzing past him from the pit wall.

A smile is painted on his face, a mixture of adrenaline, excitement and disbelief.

As soon as the riders take the first right turn and disappear into the horizon of the kinks, the sound of exhausts also becomes more distant.

It is only then that Luke turns and looks around: the blue sky, the hundreds of thousands of spectators with bated breath, the flags being caressed by the wind, the iridescent colours of the pits and the starched uniforms of the staff now following the action on the screens inside the garages. “

All of this is absolutely incredible,” he says.

If Luke’s is a fictional name, everything else in this little story is not, and he is here to testify to the decisive importance of the experiential aspect of sports sponsorship.

Touching is believing

One of the peculiarities of sports sponsorship is the central role of multisensoriality in sports and the sports event.

There are numerous studies that show the emotional and cognitive power of the 5 senses to contribute to the communicative power of sports and thus to the effectiveness of sports marketing.

In his“Multisensory impact of sport events” (Schriftenreihe der HHL Leipzig Graduate School of Management, 2016), Thorsten Tham writes:

“The multisensory and holistic approach of the senses that can be successfully realised with the help of live communication tools facilitates the personal, direct and interactive union of the sport property with visitors during an event and allows for storing unique and sustainable experiences. Based on this fact, experts in theoretical and practical disciplines are convinced that multisensory approaches will continue to gain importance in the area of brand management.”

Sports consumer has always known that there is a difference between watching on television and going to the stadium.

And the difference, not surprisingly, lies precisely in the involvement of all those senses that the television screen fails to convey.

There is the coolness on the skin of an autumn evening, the taste of a beer consumed in the stands with friends, the inexplicable feeling when the audience sings and jumps in unison.

But that’s not all: there’s the journey to the stadium or the track, there’s the walk among the stands of merchandise vendors, there’s the ever-present queue at the bar to get something to put under your teeth.

All of this, the literature tells us today, helps to cognitively cement the experience, and to make the memory and the emotion generated by it more powerful.

Emotional components that add up, in essence, to cognitive ones.

The future of sponsorship today

Simply put, it’s not enough to have brand visibility; to truly make an impact, sponsors need to activate experiences that allow fans to “touch, feel, and be part of” the event.

By prioritising live, tangible interactions—like hospitality experiences, meet-and-greets, and onsite brand activations—sponsors can foster deeper loyalty and more effective consumer behaviour.

As social media’s effectiveness wanes due to oversaturation, integrating in-person and digital experiences will become essential to keep brand engagement meaningful and memorable.

Since 1994 we are a leader in tier-one motorsport marketing and we will be happy to help you become a proud sponsor in motorsport.

Just drop us a line or contact our Associate Director Silvia Schweiger

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