Vodafone exiting Formula 1 McLaren team sponsorship

Following a review of its global sponsorship activity, mobile comms giant Vodafone has announced that it will end its seven-year title sponsorship of Formula 1 team McLaren at the end of 2013.

The company has announced that it intends to ‘transform its local and global sponsorship strategy’ to deliver an enhanced approach to customer engagement, founded on a new Vodafone-owned marketing platform to be developed and implemented this year.

Reflecting on the decision to end its association with McLaren, Vodafone Group chief commercial officer Morten Lundal remarked: “We have been very happy with our engagement with McLaren. Our relationship has been a key ingredient in bringing the Vodafone brand to where it is today. However, our brand is evolving, and we’ve concluded we will have less of a need for this kind of exposure in future. We now look forward to further success and brand engagement with McLaren in 2013.”