Brazil Coffee to sponsor IndyCar finale

At a time when U.S. corporations remain conservative in sports sponsorship spending, the IndyCar Series has looked abroad and found a title partner from Brazil for its final race of the season.

The Oct. 2 season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway will be known as the Cafés do Brasil Indy 300. The Brazilian coffee industry’s title deal, its first major sports sponsorship in the U.S., is designed to raise consumer awareness for its name and logo. Brazil produces more coffee than any other nation, but trails Colombia in terms of consumer awareness.

Terms of the deal were not available, but IndyCar race title sponsorships are typically valued between $300,000 and $500,000.

The sponsorship, one of the first significant partnerships signed by Cafés do Brasil, gives the Brazilian coffee industry 2,500 grandstand tickets, retail promotional rights and the opportunity to do sampling at the event.

“We never promoted this logo, and they wanted to put their name out there," said Silvia Pierson, the operations manager in the U.S. for the Apex-Brasil agency, which signed the agreement on behalf of Brazil’s coffee growers. Read more: Miami Indy race gets Brazilian flavor – South Florida Business Journal