JANUARY 6, 2005

More bankers in F1

As we reported back in October, Williams has concluded a new sponsorship deal with the Royal Bank of Scotland Group. The deal is believed to be worth in excess of $15m a year. The banking group, the sixth biggest in the world, has seen the success in Formula 1 enjoyed by HSBC and is obviously keen to expand its global branding.

"Formula 1 was assessed against a number of other international brand-building options," said Howard Moody, RBS's director of communications, "its reach through TV audiences presented the best investment for building the RBS brand in terms of round the year TV airtime value, offering approximately three times the size of the Superbowl TV audience - every fortnight."

The Royal Bank of Scotland is also a major sponsor of the European PGA golf tour and the Six Nations rugby tournament. The bank will be represented at races by Sir Jackie Stewart, who was previously involved as a consultant to HSBC.