The importance of sponsorship activation in MotoGP and other major series

Sponsorship activation is without a shadow of doubt one of the main areas of any successful sponsorship program, and one that is too often overlooked. Sponsor brands sometimes forget that motorsport sponsorship opportunities, per se, are nothing but a set of marketing and communication rights. Therefore, actively leveraging on those rights to extract the maximum value and how you turn those rights into actions is the name of the game.

Simply put, sponsorship activation is the set of strategies and actions a brand sponsor can create to leverage on the sponsorship rights and thus exploiting the maximum value out of the program and generating return on investments.

It’s easy to see how broad this whole concept is: from events to social media storytelling, from hospitality programs to the production of merchandise, any action made possible by the sponsorship contract is part of the sponsorship activation category. Brands like Red Bull, Coca-Cola, Repsol, Monster Energy, Nike or Petronas have become famous for their clever activations and use of sponsorship, often resulting in memorable moments of marketing and branding.

However, while activation is a pivotal aspect for any sports marketing strategy, and one that can potentially multiply the value generated by the sponsorship, it is not something properties are providing their sponsors with. Rather, each and every sponsor must implement their own set of actions based on their needs, skills, goals and budget. Activation spending, as a matter of fact, must be considered on top of the the sponsorship spending itself and has to be taken into account as a separate, but necessary, cost.

A MotoGP Sponsorship agency such as RTR Sports Marketing, thanks to their expertise in the field, is particularly effective and useful when it comes to sponsorship activation, as they already have a very clear idea of can and can’t be done and what steps are needed to get to a specific goal.