SPONSORING a high-profile local sporting event used to be enough to raise brand awareness.

But now, more companies in Singapore have upped the ante and are gunning instead for international recognition by sponsoring top-flight overseas sporting events.

Food and beverage firm Food Empire Holdings, and luxury homes developer SC Global Developments are two such firms.

Food Empire sponsored the 2008 World Figure Skating Championships, while SC Global is a sponsor of the 2008 Formula One Grand Prix.

Food Empire, which is also sponsoring the 2008 UEFA Cup qualifying matches, pumped in about 250,000 euros (S$531,250) to position MacCoffee, an instant-coffee mix, as an official sponsor of the recent 2008 World Figure Skating Championships. The ice skating event, held from March 18 to 23 in Sweden, is one of Europe's 10 biggest sporting events. About 400 million people in more than 63 countries watched it this year.

Food Empire hopes the exposure from its sponsorship of the event, which it has been funding since 2005, will boost the MacCoffee brand in the former Soviet Union, especially Russia, where skating is a hugely popular sport.

The company is also spending 40,000 euros to 50,000 euros per UEFA match. Sponsorships for international events by the company this year has gone up by more than 50 per cent from last year.

'The idea is to build loyalty and create a positive brand experience with our consumers,' said Mr Tan Wang Cheow, Food Empire's chief executive.

SC Global, meanwhile, has secured the rights to be the official real estate partner for the 2008 Porsche Carrera Cup season, an F1 support race. Industry sources estimate sponsoring and marketing such an event can cost about $1 million to $2 million.

'The Singapore F1 is one of the most highly anticipated events in the region this year, and we expect the international audience attending to be a close fit to our target audience profile,' said an SC Global spokesman.

Brand expert Ben Flint, general manager of OgilvyAction (Sports & Entertainment) Singapore, believes sponsoring global sporting events endows brands with 'value migration'. Brands get a rub-off from the platforms they sponsor since events have 'personalities', he explains. The events also allow companies to reach a much larger audience.

Mr Flint, however, does not see any significant rush by local firms to endorse global sporting events yet.

'In principle, a brand should never get involved with a high-cost event until they understand the full cost implication of the sponsorship; for example, hidden costs such as activation or specialist agency support,' he said.

Even so, he reckons that home-grown Asian brands which want to break out into the global scene - SingTel, for instance - will benefit most from sponsoring international sporting events.