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Marquez, Pedrosa celebrate HRC’s successful 2016 at Honda Racing Thanks Day
By Emanuele Venturoli| Posted December 4, 2016 | In MotoGP, Motor Racing, Motorsports
By Emanuele Venturoli| Posted December 4, 2016 | In MotoGP, Motor Racing, Motorsports
Marquez, Pedrosa celebrate HRC’s successful 2016 at Honda Racing Thanks Day
2016 Honda Racing Thanks Day at Motegi
Over the weekend Repsol Honda’s Marc Marquez and Dani Pedrosa attended the 2016 Honda Racing Thanks Day at Motegi, Japan. The event, a traditional part of the Company’s racing year, brings together official riders and drivers from Honda’s various motorsport programmes.
The event marks the end of the racing season and this year offered Honda a very special reason to celebrate: World Championship victories in MotoGP, Trial and MXGP. This is the first time in motorcycling history that a constructor has achieved such success.
Reigning MotoGP World Champion Marquez and team-mate Pedrosa began this special weekend by attending the HRC Thanks Dinner in Tokyo’s Cerulean Tower Hotel on Friday, alongside HRC Trials riders Toni Bou, Takashisa Fujinami and Jaime Busto, HRC MXGP rider Evgeny Bobryshev and many others. Sadly, MXGP World Champion Tim Gajser had to stay home sick.
On Saturday Marc, Dani and their racing colleagues moved to the Motegi Twin Ring Circuit, where Formula One drivers Fernando Alonso and Jenson Button joined them for a day on track, riding and driving various motorcycles and other machines.
Honda also celebrates 50 years since entering Premiere Class this year
Today’s fine weather prompted around 20,000 fans to attend the event, the crowd packing the grandstands to follow the action and cheer their heroes. Marc and Dani had a fun day on amazing four- and two-wheels machines. In the morning they took part in a kart race, then changed into their leathers to ride CBR250 Dream Cup machines. After that Dani took to the track on the RS125R he used to win the 2003 125cc World Championship, while Marc rode a historic Honda RC142. The Repsol Honda men also raced Honda CR-Z 1.5 Sport Hybrids before climbing aboard their RC213V MotoGP machines for another run.
Fernando Alonso didn’t miss the chance to have a ride on the 2016 World Champion’s MotoGP bike, sporting beautiful HRC livery, while Marc rode alongside him on another RC213V and Dani and Jenson Button drove Honda NSX Concept-GT cars. All four riders and drivers enjoyed themselves hugely while entertaining the enthusiastic crowd.
Marc Marquez 93
Rider – MotoGP
“As always it has been an honour to be here at the Honda Racing Thanks Day, spending some relaxing time with people from the company. It’s a nice event because it’s good fun for the fans and for us, because we get the chance to speak and exchange opinions with riders and drivers from other motorsport categories. For someone who loves bikes as much as I do, it’s a fantastic weekend! This year of course was even more special because we could once again celebrate the MotoGP title at the track where we won it. I look forward to coming back next year!”
Dani Pedrosa 26
Rider – MotoGP
“I’m happy to be here in Japan again and to share some time with our Japanese fans who are always so special and affectionate, and bring us lots of presents and nice surprises! We like coming here for the Honda Racing Thanks Day because we have the chance to ride and drive many types of bikes and car, so it’s great fun. This year we had fantastic weather too, so we could make the best of the experience”.
Emanuele Venturoli
A graduate in Public, Social and Political Communication from the University of Bologna, he has always been passionate about marketing, design and sport.
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Read MoreWhy choose RTR Sports Marketing
In 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.
Save time and money
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.
The right information, the right choice
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 beating heart
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.
Objective measurements for a certain return
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.
Sit back, relax, we’ll take care of it
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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