I’m feeling extremely proud to be British today having watched Lewis Hamilton drive the Santander sponsored Mclaren exquisitely to win the Monaco Grand Prix.

And it got me thinking about sponsorship, brand building and trust. Is there more to it than companies shelling out telephone numbers in sponsorship money, just for the World’s leading banking execs to rub shoulders with the World’s movers and shakers?

I would like to think its more about a bank or sponsor wanting to be associated with winners - who wants to be associated with losers? But I’m unsure as to whether the general public trust winners more than losers?

The British disease of jealousy and negativity is probably more prevelent today than at any time in history, and with recent billion pound frauds, writedowns and rights issues accross the leading banks - protecting and building a Bank’s brand has never been so important.

Lewis Hamilton is currently the clean living Golden Boy, and quite rightly so. You will have little boys across the land wanting to open their first savings accounts - “look mummy that’s Lewis Hamilton off the telly yesterday, I want my first bank account with his bank”. And I guarantee Santander’s Abbey Branches will open considerably more new savings accounts tommorrow from young sports fans as opposed to the Royal Bank of Scotland who sponsor a non winning team.

How do you put a price on this brand building? Young people trust Lewis Hamilton, so they will naturally trust his associations. It is actually unaccountable value on a spreadsheet, but for the future it’s a great long term investment strategy, not a get rich quick in and out strategy that seems so prevelant with American organisations. Long term plans for me are safe plans. If you fail to plan, you plan to fail!

So 1 - 0 to European Banks.

Only a few months ago, Trumpo was quaffing the best wine at Monaco’s Hotel de Paris with some of the World’s largest financial institutions; Citibank, Bear Stearns, Deutsche Bank to name just three. The Bank execs, mainly the Amercians were very worried that they wont be rolling all expenses paid dice in Monaco for the forseeable future.

But is it down to the credit crunch or is it down to public perception of American banking brands being damaged by so called “risk taking city playboys” gambling with the worlds savers hard earned and the PR guys pulling in the high rollers high profile reins?

I think maybe so.

So 2-0 to the Europeans.

But don’t count the Americans out yet, they are still the world leaders, it’s just that when they catch a cold, so does the rest of the world - and we are all now reaching for the tissues. You don’t create and break the World’s largest economy overnight. The Americans are good at sticking together, especially when times are tough. Unfortunately we can’t say the same for all the little European empires. We don’t have the same co-operative worldwide financial clout.

One for the Amercians, but still 2-1 to the Europeans. Game over?

Well we forgot one other element - ASIA.

Who are the largest, safest and financially secure banks in the world?

Which Bank do you trust with your money - Table produced of the largest banks in the world by Bloomberg in Jan 2008:

1. Industrial & Commercial Bank of China Limited - $277.5bn market capitalization

2. Bank of America - $195.9bn

3. HSBC - $176.7bn

4. China Construction Bank Corp. - $165.2bn

5. Bank of China - $165.0bn

6. JPMorgan Chase - $159.6bn

7. Citi - $140.6bn

8. Wells Fargo - $112.3bn

9. Banco Santander - $109.8bn

10. Mitsubishi UFJ Financial - $105.4bn

Just imagine the brand power of a Chinese Lewis Hamilton. How many new savings accounts would the Asian bank open then?

European Banks and US banks are not even in the running, the ASIAN banks are the kings of the banking world. And they havent really started competing in Europe yet!

Now where have I put my “Trumpo Racing Porsche Supercup Presentation”?

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