Following Philips Shavers three successful years of sponsorship of the AT&T Williams team, Philips Consumer Lifestyle today confirmed a widened agreement with the Formula One team in order to extend the marketing benefits to more of its business categories.

In a new multi-year agreement, the sponsorship will be broadened to span Philips entire Consumer Lifestyle sector, enabling six business units to generate sales uplift founded on a global and scalable marketing platform. The positive experience of Philips’ Shaving category has been instrumental in influencing the extension of the sponsorship program to all aspects of Consumer Lifestyle marketing communications.

In 2008, Philips Shavers entered its third season as a sponsor of the AT&T Williams team. Philips’ Shavers business saw exceptional growth with a 10% increase in Q2 2008 sales compared to the same period in 2007. The clear success of the partnership and the support it has provided to the launch of Philips breakthrough shaving products, arcitec and Philips Nivea for Men shaver has led Philips to extend its commitment to the AT&T Williams team.

Egbert van Acht, Chief Marketing Officer and EVP Philips Consumer Lifestyle said, “In the past three years, Philips Shavers has reported quantitatively assessed sales growth driven in part by a cohesive and appealing marketing effort built on our Formula One engagement with AT&T Williams. Based on the careful assessment of hard metrics and our increased understanding of how to exploit a global sponsorship, we are delighted to be able to broaden our relationship with the team and offer the same growth opportunities to all six business units in our Consumer Lifestyle Sector.”

The business units within Philips Consumer Lifestyle Division include Television, Shaving & Beauty, Audio, Video & Multimedia, Domestic Appliances, Peripherals & Accessories and Health & Wellness.

The new multi-year agreement will see the Philips brand reflected even more extensively within the AT&T Williams team, including primary branding locations on next year’s car, the FW31, and on the pit stop lollipop in addition to the established inventory elsewhere on the team’s race cars, uniforms and other assets.

In 2009, Philips Consumer Lifestyle will extend its global activation plan of the sponsorship including major executions such as a global promotion to win a chance to drive an AT&T Williams Formula One car and, following the award-winning success of its advertiser funded programming in 2007 and 2008, the company will once again be commissioning long form television programming based on Formula One for international distribution.

Commenting on the confirmation of the extended partnership, Sir Frank Williams, the AT&T Williams Team Principal said, “Naturally we are delighted to have the support and patronage of one of the world’s most valuable brands, but what makes this agreement all the more satisfying is that it is based on the real and positive return on investment experience of Philips Shavers over the past couple of years. We look forward to being able to make the same contribution to the wider ambitions of the whole of Philips Consumer Lifestyle Sector.”

The AT&T Williams team and Philips’ partnership is a strategic alliance that brings together two companies with similar values and culture. AT&T Williams is one of the world’s leading Formula One teams and has secured 16 FIA Formula One World Championship titles, while Philips is one of the world’s leading health and well-being companies. Today, Formula One is the world’s single most popular annual televised sporting event with an average of 162 million TV viewers across the globe per Grand Prix.