Opportunities for Sponsorship

European grants and private sponsors will finance the set-up and running of the Euro-MARS. Some €180,000 has already been raised by the Mars Society in both the UK and America to fund the fabrication of the station. The budget for set-up and operations through 2005-2006 is estimated at a further €250,000, and the Mars society plan to raise this through direction donations and corporate sponsorship.

Several options are currently available for potential sponsors:

• Logo display
• Naming rights
• Advertising campaigns
• Media rights
  

Logo Display

Naming Rights

A further way for a sponsor to enhance their global visibility is to make a one-off payment for the Naming Rights to Euro-MARS. In 2000, software solutions provider Flashline.com brought the naming rights to the first Mars Analogue Research Station (hence the name “Flashline Mars Arctic Research Station”), ensuring their corporate name is used in all media coverage of MARS activities at the station. This has lead to coverage of Flashline on Discovery Channel, The Learning Channel and CNN, and well as appearing in print in prestigious US publications such as Scientific American.

Advertising Campaigns

Space exploration and especially the exploration of Mars naturally draw on the imaginations of people the world over. In 1997, when NASA landed its first rover vehicle on the surface of Mars, the public website monitoring the event was averaging 100 million hits a day. More recently, Hollywood has demonstrated the enormous public appetite for Mars with a host of films on the subject. In 2005/2006 two further films - one directed by Steven Spielberg and starring Tom Cruise – will focus on Mars. In 2005, Volvo Cars commissioned a series of European television adverts using the subject of Iceland and Mars exploration as background for the campaign.

Volvo Cars commissioned a series of television adverts focusing on Mars,
and using Iceland as a photogenic backdrop (image C. 2005 Volvo Cars)

Euro-MARS, located in some of the most breathtaking scenery Iceland can offer, therefore offers the ideal backdrop for individual opportunities for advertising (e.g. television or print), or as the basis of multimedia advertising campaigns, offering advertisers exciting opportunities to promote products as diverse as drinking water to off-road vehicles.

Media Rights

Already, the F-MARS and MDRS stations have resulted in significant television coverage in continental North America, with scientific and educational programmes about both stations being aired in the United States and Canada by the likes of Discovery Channel, National Geographic and The Learning Channel. Euro-MARS promises to offer the same incredible opportunities across Europe, with both national (e.g. UK-only) programmes and opportunities for pan-European co-operative ventures. Programmes could be one-off specials, or multi-part series, again drawing on the intense public interest in space exploration, offering viewers first-hand insight to – and even the opportunity to participate in – simulated human missions to Mars.

Sponsorship Rates

Media Coverage

The MARS project has received extensive media coverage from:

Given this interest, the Mars Society believes the Euro-MARS project offers an ideal opportunity for organisations around the world to sponsor the project, and receive the benefits of global media coverage. Opportunities for sponsorship in the project are many and varied, and represent true value for money.

In-kind Donations

The Mars Society welcomes all in-kind donations towards the Euro-MARS and MARS programmes. For full information on making in-kind donations, please contact us.