[Mr Brooksy]

It reminds me of the old VISA ad campaign a bunch of years ago, basically the notion was that there is a big World out there to see and explore, experiences to be had and at the end they flagged up the Visa logo. Basically to connect all those possible experiences etc to Visa.

I read an article not long after the ad campaign was around explaining the thinking behind it. It wasn't about getting more Visa customers then and there, bit it was designed for the purpose of connecting those positive emotions to the brand, so that when the brand was mentioned, those feelings that you experienced thinking about the possible new adventures etc were subconsciously connected.

So... When you go for a holiday to a new exciting location and you need a travel card, you link the new experience with the Visa travel card over say the MasterCard one etc.

I'm guessing most of us don't even realise we are effected by the notion of our favourite teams sponsors effecting our decision making. For example... We are all (or most of us are) Ford lovers right, but maybe that doesn't effect our choices of car in the next car purchase period for whatever reason...
But how many would hire a car for some reason and request a Ford? I'm one of those.
Or, when someone we know is looking at buying a new car asks the car guy/girl for their advice, even though we may never have ever driven an X Ford, we will more than likely suggest our friends "at least take a look".
We could also be persuaded that genuine Ford parts are better because they were made by the very FoMoCo we love, even though the damn radiators fail on my BA XR6T etc.

I gotta admit, I'd never considered drinking a Martini until the sponsored WilliamsF1, but the past 5 years, I've actually considered it whenever going out to a nice restaurant... Now I've done more research on ROKiT phones that aren't even available in Australia than I did signing up to my current ISP!

It would interesting to know how many of us know more than we did before of a particular brand that started sponsoring our favourite teams.