Abstract
Santander has become a leading and global brand in world’s financial industry. This work underlines brand’s relevance in banking industry and brings out the importance of sport sponsorship as a powerful and effective marketing tool in financial services. Sport sponsorship made easier Santander’s strategic objective of transforming its group brand portfolio in 2003 into a single global brand in almost all its markets in 2010. The correct, coherent and deeply analyzed selection of the sports sponsorships: Formula 1 and Football and an intelligent, thorough and comprehensive activation of the sponsorships allowed Santander to improve its brand’s international positioning and notoriety, reach its strategic aims and get spectacular returns of its investments.