Honda Racing and Red Bull have announced an enhancement to their collaboration in MotoGP through the Repsol Honda team, which sees the energy drink company’s logo featured on Honda’s factory team starting in the 2015 season, as it becomes the official energy drink for the team as well.
The two parties have collaborated over the last nine years, but the Red Bull logo has never before been featured on the Repsol Honda machinery, despite Red Bull supporting both Marc Marquez and Dani Pedrosa with personal sponsorships.
“We are delighted to have the opportunity to grow our partnership with Red Bull,” said Shuhei Nakamoto, Executive Vice President of HRC.
“It is an iconic global brand with whom we’ve worked alongside for nine years, so this was the logical next step. I’m sure that this new partnership will increase our visibility, not only as Honda, but also MotoGP on a whole to a wider global audience, which can only be good for the sport.”
The news is the latest move in the escalating sugar-water war that is brewing inside MotoGP, which has seen Red Bull, Monster Energy, Rockstar, and other brands competing for placement in the premier class.
Today’s announcement also makes Red Bull’s investment into the Repsol Honda team a positive sign for MotoGP’s viability as a prominent marketing avenue for international brands, as the Austrian company continues to invest further and further into the sport with rider, team, and event sponsorships.
It will be interesting to see if other energy drink brands follow Red Bull’s suit, and increase their exposure as well, much in the same way we saw the tobacco industry compete for sponsorship contracts in the 500GP days.
Source: Honda
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