In France, Cycling Sponsors Most Memorable

A study by sports marketing company Sportlab revealed that in France, "four of the 10 best memorized sponsors" are in cycling, according to Guillaume Errard of LE FIGARO. The four sponsors are Francaise des Jeux, LCL, Europcar and Cofidis. Interestingly, "not one football partner is present in the top 10." Sportlab co-founder Gilles Dumas said, "Today cycling is one of the most efficient sports for a company that wants to invest in sponsoring." He added: "Cycling is one of the rare sports where the legitimacy of the sponsor is absolute." The study also revealed that in '11, the Tour de France was the "sporting event most followed (53%) in front of Roland-Garros (50%)." The budget of professional cycling teams is usually "between €8M ($10.1M) and €10M ($12.7M)" with 80-90% covered by the main sponsor. Tour de France organizer ASO revealed that the number of main sponsors for the Tour "went from 37 in '11 to 43 in '12" (LE FIGARO, 6/30).