Are you willing to sponsor?
Are you ready to explore the transformative power of athlete sponsorship for your brand? Click here to learn more about how sponsorship can help brands grow and thrive in the exciting world of motorsports.
By Silvia Schweiger| Posted March 22, 2022 | In Sponsorizzazioni Sportive
TV Series have been a part of our daily lives for several decades now due to their easy way of access, availability and entertainment. Streaming has fueled their expansion, giving the possibility to access them at any time. Raise your hand if you have never made use of them and if you have never had “marathons” until ungodly hours.
In the offer that is proposed to us, you will surely have realized that a large part deals with topics related to sports. More and more sports entities, in fact, feel the need to tell their story, and not necessarily from the distant past, quite the contrary. Let’s be clear, documentaries have always been there, but here we are talking about a next level: experiencing the behind-the-scenes of a season, experienced up to that point only as a spectator, is an opportunity that the fan appreciates (despite already knowing the ending).
With the arrival of the pandemic crisis, the process of this evolution accelerated. In March 2020, the whole world experienced a major stop, and sports was no exception. No more spasmodic weekend anticipation for the game, the competition, the duels. No more Sundays at the stadium with friends and family. How to fill this void?
The ability to access a streaming service how, when and where you want has changed the entertainment paradigm. How many times has it happened to us that we are not at home but, thanks to apps on our smartphones/tablets/PCs, do not miss a single minute of our favorite event? This is joined by sports, always distinguishing itself as one of the best possible social activators. In fact, it is one of the most popular reasons for meeting both physically – “Shall we go to the game together?” – and intellectual – “Do you follow the sport too? We have common interests, we might get to know each other better.”
By tying these two characteristics together, the potential for engagement increases exponentially. Moreover, the reach covers a wide range of audiences: 26 percent of Netflix users (the benchmark of streaming platforms) are 18-34 years old. If, on the other hand, the company targets adult audiences, the situation even improves: 51 percent are over 35 years old (1).
Everyone will have watched titles such as ” Rush” or ” Pelé,” and then launched on the more recent ” The last game” and ” All or nothing: Juventus” to stories about individuals such as ” Fernando” (Alonso, ed.), ” Rooney,” “Schumacher,” “Naomi Osaka,” “Maradona: blessed dream,” and “Sir Alex ferguson: never give up.”
The conjunction of sports and streaming has not died with the gradual return to normalcy, far from it. The purpose has become to stretch the event beyond its actual duration: to fill the gap between races or championship breaks, not to mention the continuity between seasons. The hunger for content is never enough for a sportsman. This aspect is not always present with other products, even if they grant visibility.
Sport being the best driver of emotion there is, why not use it to enhance your brand?
Once the association between the brand and the values of a team/team/athlete is created, that’s it. Engaging a person’s affective side means shaping his or her behavior (in our case, the most important one: buying behavior). Whether he is aware of it or not, the fan watching his idol’s sporting feats in action is stimulated by the many images included in the show. This is how, unlike classic advertising, sports sponsorships guarantee a tangible result.
TV Series have amplified this concept, since repeated viewing of the same series is not such an abstract phenomenon. Moreover, events are presented with a certain spectacularity, along with a good dose of “fake drama.” Sometimes very extreme, as some F1 drivers lament in the famous “Drive to Survive.”
Lando Norris, McLaren’s first driver, exposed himself to the press microphones: “Netflix can make you look like you said something at a time and place that is definitely not correct. There’s a scene of me and Daniel Ricciardo going side by side in the first corner when we’re actually not even close, where there’s audio edited in where I say he pushed me out, but that belongs to a completely different race. I don’t really agree with all that, but overall, I think it’s an exciting series for everyone ” (2).
The latest addition to motorsport is Amazon Prime Video‘s “MotoGP Unlimited,” which chronicles the highlights and behind-the-scenes of the 2021 season of the world’s premier two-wheel championship. For the first time, the audience is let into the paddock, inside the teams’ pits, in the hospitality areas, in the riders’ motorhomes; you get to see what goes on behind the scenes as the riders whiz by at 300 kilometers per hour. The preparation, the anticipation, the joy, the hard times of the teams, the families, the friends who accompany these guys around the world. For the first time we see, even in this series, the human side of the sportsmen, which fascinates and interests the audience as much as the sportsmen.
The absolute protagonist, not only of this series, but of the MotoGP of the last 20 years, is clearly Valentino Rossi. In this ducumentary we witness his retirement from racing, but we also recapture the most salient emotions and historical moments that the icon of the sport and 9-time world champion, made us live. A piece of history, not only of motorcycling and motorsport, but of world sport.
Despite some protagonists of these series complaining about a narrative that is sometimes too “seasoned” in excess, the hype that such products have brought can only increase. In fact, emphasizing is not always a bad thing. Sometimes, it is just what the audience desires (without falling into ephemeral sweetening, let’s be clear).
The demonstration is Federico Buffa, with his “Buffa racconta“: narratives of the greatest events and sports personalities in history, enthralling from the young to those who perhaps experienced that feat with their own eyes and want to “literally” relive those days. The power of the narrative and the catalyzing emphasis with which the episode is proposed astounds the viewer, but never aggressively.
Including your brand in a sports story means living through time and never dying. From old to new generations, for better or worse.
With sports marketing agencies, you can offer your clients unique experiences during the season’s most important events.
Do you wish to make your company’s most important partners happy? Give them a dream with RTR Sports Marketing: MotoGP or Formula 1 weekends at exclusive locations, customized entertainment packages, and the chance to get up close and personal with the world’s best riders.
For any information, please do not hesitate to contact us.
(1) “Netflix statistics in 2022: the status of the internet streaming giant” – https://www.internetadvisor.com/netflix-facts-statistics
(2) “Norris warns of Netflix overdoing it with Drive to Survive stories” – https://www.gpfans.com/en/f1-news/77584/norris-warns-of-netflix-overdoing-it-with-drive-to-survive-stories/
Are you ready to explore the transformative power of athlete sponsorship for your brand? Click here to learn more about how sponsorship can help brands grow and thrive in the exciting world of motorsports.
Associate Director, Executive Marketing and Commercial at RTR Sports Marketing, a London-based sports marketing company specializing in motorsport for over 25 years. Without sports, life is boring
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By doing so, we are convinced that we are shortening the value chain, saving time and money. However, these DYI methods are anything but risk-free and what initially appears to be a competitive advantage soon turns into a problem that is difficult to resolve. That’s why there are agencies. And this is why you should rely on us for your sponsorships.
When first approaching a sponsorship or sports marketing project, it is difficult to know immediately which stakeholders are correct, what the decision flow is, and what the right timelines are for each process. Sports is a very specialized field of action, and fitting effectively into its paths can take a lot of time and therefore money. We, on the other hand, know referents and spheres of action and know who to talk to, when and how. So you are also more effective.
Sports is an immense passion, and for our heart colors we would be willing to do anything. But business is a different business, and it is important to make the best possible strategic decisions based on independent research, statistics and reliable data. A sports marketing and sports sponsorship agency like RTR has an objective, 360-degree picture of the scenario and can tell you what is really best for you: which sport, which athlete, which team. This is because we possess a great deal of data and information on ratings, segmentation and attitudes. Because the numbers don’t lie. Never.
Activations are the real heart of sports sponsorship. Without them, there remains only a blank sticker on a motorcycle, car or uniform and no contact with the public, no emotional connection, no impact on the bottom line. Then how do you do it? It certainly won’t be the teams or the athletes who will help you leverage sponsorship and enjoy the many marketing rights you have paid for. To bring out the best in a sports marketing project you need an agency that knows how to use sponsorship to engage the fanbase on the Web, to reach out to Shopping Centers, to organize hospitality, to develop B2B and B2C opportunities, and to get “your” athletes in front of millions of potential consumers.
Would you ever go to the dealer who sold you the car and ask if the competitor’s car is better? No, of course. So, how do you expect to get firm measurements of the effectiveness of your sponsorship if you do not rely on someone super partes? At RTR, we have always worked with independent third-party agencies that allow us to know the return on any exposure of your brand on TV and in the media. In addition, we believe in calculating ROI as the ultimate measure of your success-so we can tell you for every penny you spend how much you are making.
We have been involved in sports sponsorship and sports marketing for more than 15 years. We are consultants in the sense that our goal is to maximize your investment, but we are also an agency that manages the project from start to finish. We have been doing this since 1995 with passion and professionalism, following three principles that have become cornerstones of our business: independence, verticality and transparency.
I would like to highlight the fact that one of the qualities of RTR is its great ability to approach the sponsorship scenario strategically, together with its passionate attitude, its amazing enthusiasm for solving problems, and its high level of professionalism.
Gianluca Degliesposti
Executive Director Server&Storage EMEA
Eurosport is truly delighted with its business relationship with Riccardo Tafà, who has become extremely popular, thanks to his detailed knowledge of the sports marketing sector and his highly diligent attitude to work.
Francois Ribeiro
Commercial Director
Passion and Expertise are the features that I have found in RTR since the very beginning. Serious and reliable professionals but also very helpful, nice and open-mind people, willing to listen and compare different ideas. All the values in which RTR believes make this agency a partner, not just a supplier, a partner with whom we have had the opportunity to achieve significant commercial results in term of success and image.
Luca Pacitto
Head of Communication
We have been working with RTR Sports Marketing for over 10 years. The objectives and the programmes of collaboration continue to be renewed and to grow with mutual satisfaction. I believe RTR is a team of great professionals led by Riccardo Tafà, who I consider a manager of exceptional skills and with a great passion for his work.
Lucio Cecchinello
Team Principal
I have known and worked with Riccardo Tafà since 1995 when we collaborated for the first time on a project for the Williams Formula 1 team. Several clients followed. After leaving Williams to work for Gerhard Berger then owner of the Toro Rosso F1 Team, I turned again to Riccardo to seek his help in finding a tool supplier for the team and Riccardo duly obliged with an introduction to USAG, a partnership with Toro Rosso which endured for five years. I recently started a new role as Group Commercial Director for the renowned Andretti Autosport organisation and I find myself working with Riccardo once again on a number of interesting projects. Why has this relationship with Riccardo endured ? He’s smart, knows the commercial side of sport inside out and back to front and he’s honest and trustworthy. Riccardo Tafà is a “doer” not a “talker”: in over 20 years I have never had a dispute either with him or with a company that he has introduced and each partnership introduced by Riccardo has delivered quantifiable ROI to rights holder and sponsor alike. I can think of no better testimonial of Riccardo’s diligence, knowledge, contact base and hard work than that.
Jim Wright
Group Commercial Director
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