Columbia's Tour de France sponsorship 'an unqualified success'.

A great article in 'The Orgeon' today about a last minute sponsorship deal that delivered great value for money.

The recent deal by outdoor apparel company Columbia to sponsor the Team High Road cycling team after previous sponsor T-Mobile pulled out due to a doping scandal resulted in Chief Executive Tim Boyle saying "The sponsorship was an unqualified success by any measure."

Despite initial objections from European managers, the deal to promote Columbia's Omni-Shade Ultra-Violet-ray-protection material resulted in results that were pleasing to management.

For one, Boyle said, the sponsorship boosted company morale. More importantly, statistical measures and anecdotal impressions suggest the team and its five stage victories thrust Columbia's name and the yellow-flared trademark of its Omni-Shade fabric into broad exposure in the prized markets of intense Tour de France fandom.

Although Columbia does not actually make cycling apparel, they still wanted to make the link between the fabric and the world famous cycling event. Columbia's sales and marketing team came up with the idea of placing "Omni-Shade" beneath the company's logo on the jerseys.

Columbia would not say how much it paid for the sponsorship, but industry experts say it likely cost more than $3 million -- much less than T-Mobile probably paid.

"No other team had anywhere near as many stage wins, which is what gets the majority of the daily coverage globally, and all the coverage in the rider's home market," Boyle said. "When you add in the coverage we're likely to get with the riders in the Olympics, this is better than a grand slam home run."

Columbia spokeswoman Leslie Constans said more than 11,000 articles in 85 countries mentioned Team Columbia in some fashion this month.

French and Spanish newspapers devoted more pages than ever, both in print and online, to this year's race, with Team Columbia's five stage-victory salutes figuring prominently, said Carlton Reid, owner of Quickrelease.tv, a U.K. cycling news Web site.

"You'd be hard-pushed to sponsor a minor soccer team for a season for the money Columbia would have spent on this team," Reid said.

Reid and others think Columbia's three-year deal will continue to pay dividends.