RTR Sports Marketing has focused its core business on sponsorships in MotoGP and motorsports marketing ever since 1995.

At RTR we specialise in the provision of consultancy services to companies and brands that are willing to use sport as a communication tool, with a focus on MotoGP sponsorships, without, however, overlooking other disciplines. We have been an independent Motorsport Marketing Agency since its very early years, we can grant our customers the great advantage of accessing all sports, athletes and events, without any kind of reservation or impediment. Our portfolio of opportunities ranges from golf to soccer, from the European Swimming Championships to the Wimbledon Tournament, based on the brand objectives and business.

Sponsoring MotoGP: why?

As our portfolio and case histories properly document, a very large share of our business is focused on motorsports, the MotoGP World Championship more specifically. This is far from being a rash choice or a personal preference; in most cases, we recommend the World Motor Championship to our customers for reasons linked to marketing, visibility, and commercial impact. These very reasons are the subject matter of this post as they provide an answer to the all-important question: “Why should a company or brand choose MotoGP for their marketing strategy and become a MotoGP sponsor?”

Visibility

One of the primary and most evident motivations for choosing MotoGP as a business tool is extraordinary visibility: 207 countries receive the live TV signal for a total of 20,227 broadcasting hours per year all over the world, almost 60% of which are live. This huge reach, which amounts to 428 million households reached throughout the season, is then adapted in each and every nation to respect the local language, as well as the customs and TV habits of the viewers. A total of 9,454 TV, magazine and webzine representatives from 59 different countries are involved to ensure highly homogeneous media coverage.

Internationality

Unlike national championships, as traditionally intended (for instance, the Italian Premier League “Serie A” and the Italian basketball or volleyball championship), the great series of Motor Sports, such as Formula 1 or MotoGP, are endowed with an extremely appealing international flavour and they are geographically cross-cutting for companies and brands that do business or have customers in different areas of the world. It is not merely about worldwide visibility (the Premier League or the NBA too have viewers in every corner of the planet), but the opportunity to have a traveling communication platform which physically moves to a new nation almost every other Sunday. The most popular two-wheel championship travels to 4 continents to run the 19 scheduled races during this 9-month-long competition, offering on-site hospitality and activation opportunities in Spain, Australia, the United States, Italy, Argentina, and Malaysia.

Audience profile

The MotoGP audience is young, heterogeneous and very loyal: it includes women (30%), over 70% is below 35 years of age, and a viewer follows 14 races out of 19 on average, showing great affection to the series throughout the entire season. Additionally, ordinary viewers are usually long-term viewers: normally, they have been watching MotoGP with perseverance for over 11 years and have made it one of the family rituals. 70% of the interviewed sample follows the racing weekend with friends and family members and, when they go and watch Grand Prix races live, they do it in groups of 4 people. In this sense, the profile of a MotoGP viewer is not much different from the profile of the audience who massively crowd the circuits on racing Sundays. In this case too, ordinary viewers are under 35 years of age, but the male component rises to almost 80% and the number of spectators declaring their intention to go back to the race the next year is equal to 93%.

Propensity to purchase

An extremely interesting issue for companies opting for MotoGP sponsorship as a business tool is the impact on the bottom line, in other words, the increase in sales resulting from the sponsorship agreement. With regard to the above, it is important to stress that the MotoGP Championship is a stunning business driver for all partnering companies.

Research has shown that the audience of MotoGP is highly receptive and attentive to category sponsors. The values of this sport and the communication capacity are such that brand positioning to any potential customer grows far more than sensitively. 83% of the audience declared that the association with MotoGP is a good enough reason to prefer a brand to its competitor(s) and the same applies to the effect perceived from the sponsorship. Moreover, 68% of the people interviewed have stated that they have purchased a product for the very fact that it was a category sponsor.

Values

A very dear subject to marketing people has always been the value proximity of a discipline with the mission, history, and vision of the relevant brand. Very often these subjects are not even mentioned explicitly, but they are evident to most people and they appear natural in light of the shared background of knowledge and culture. This is, for instance, why golf and sailing are universally linked to a high economic and social profile, whereas rugby embodies values such as respect, sportsmanship, and teamwork.

It should now be easy to understand why the sponsorship of well-structured sports such as MotoGP, which are rich in unique and definitely extraordinary peculiarities, is so attractive in terms of communication. The key values of the most important two-wheel championship notably are: innovation, freshness, passion, dynamism, and technology. And the framework where they are deployed is deeply exciting and great fun.

This amazing wealth of values strongly appeals to companies and brands from different source sectors: telephone companies that rely on the connection speed, producers of lubricants and fuels who sing the praises of their innovative product(s), large TV networks and the media that use very high shooting technology, and computer manufacturers who find similarities in terms of massive technological development. The list may continue with energy drinks and brands in the field of sports apparel and lifestyle which find their perfect target in the young and enthusiastic audience of MotoGP who are constantly seeking ever new products.

If you wish to have more information on MotoGP sponsorships read Sponsorship Activation and please contact us at our email address: info@rtrsports.com

Source: Repucom Deutschland/Zenith Media/Dorna Sources