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).

New fruition tools

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).

Who can stop him anymore

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.

Ride the wave with your company

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.

Storytelling: the best friend of your success

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.

How does one enter this world?

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/