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 Riccardo Tafà| Posted April 15, 2019 | In MotoGP, Sport Sponsorship
The level of fitness required to tame highly performing vehicles such as today’s Grand Prix motorbikes is unbelievable. Can you imagine the stresses transmitted to the riders by their 300 HP motorbikes when they open the throttle – to go from 0 to 100 km/h in just a little more than one second – or they slow down? Riders, none excluded, have something more than mere talent: athletic training. This is what they need to perform at a high level for about forty minutes during the races, and this is even more true after the introduction of the sprint race on Saturday that requires riders to put in double effort on race weekends.
This is all quite normal for sector operators: something that almost goes without saying. The audience too are so used to being spectators of breath-taking duels that they tend to forget all that riders have to do to be ready for competitions.
What about fitness businesses? So far, they have not fully taken advantage of this communication strategy, although the video clips I am attaching below will show you that this is not new in the sector and that riders would be perfect testiomanials for the fitness industry.
Some of these clips are not very recent, someone may argue, and this is true to the extent that in the past few years the physical effort required from riders has even increased, as races are often won at the last bend, which makes the physical endurance of the riders as important as the competitiveness of their bikes. What is the point in having a perfect motorbike if the rider has poor physical endurance and looses precious tenths per lap as a consequence of fatigue? A specific training program is essential for riders as much as a good mechanic crew.
This is why riders take comprehensive and diversified training sessions combining endurance, rapidity, explosiveness and strength. Very frequently, bicycles are used for training (as bikes have no impact on the joints, unlike jogging), and so is functional equipment such as kettlebells, resistance bands and TRX. Another interesting piece of training equipment selected by riders – and, often, by Formula 1 champions too – is the Batak machine. This is a special machine with LED cluster targets that is used specifically for sports people training to improve reaction and peripheral vision.
No rider can, in fact, get to such high levels by chance: they need targeted training, a planned diet, time to rest and recover energy, and a lot of perseverance, in addition to the right equipment.
Total devotion, combined with something else. Riders are heavy users of fitness machinery, of any type whatsoever. Whether it is a rig you can find in specialized CrossFit gyms, gymnastic rings, rowing machines and watt bikes, each piece of machinery is functional to achieving the desired shape. And, of course, high-performance levels are required nine months a year. To make the scenario even more complex, riders are also exposed to the different jet lags in the different racing locations they travel to. This leaves no doubt that athletic training, focus, and sacrifice with the support of the best athletic trainers are indispensable, although they are not enough. Supplement companies could take advantage of such a demanding scenario as well, and riders could be great testimonial for men’s health.
Why should you miss the chance to let the world know that your best training equipment is helping these champions achieve their highest performances? If your company specializes in the manufacture of fitness machinery and equipment, bicycles and sports apparel, or in the production of food supplements and food in general, and you wish to explore the world of the two wheels, contact us and we will be glad to answer any and all curiosity you may have on this topic. Our contact email is: info@rtrsports.com
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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.
Managing Director for RTR Sports, Riccardo graduated in law at the University of Bologna. He began his career in London in PR, then started working in two and four-wheelers. A brief move to Monaco followed before returning to Italy. There he founded RTR, first a consulting firm and then a sports marketing company which, eventually, he moved back to London.
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Read MoreIn an era where it is possible to get anywhere with a click, there is a strong temptation to approach teams and properties directly for sponsorship projects.
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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