Are you willing to sponsor?
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By Emanuele Venturoli| Posted August 3, 2015 | In MotoGP, Motor Racing, Motorsports
After a two-week Summer holiday since the Misano Test, the Repsol Honda Team are en route to the famous Brickyard for the Red Bull Indianapolis GP, where Marc Marquez and Dani Pedrosa will be hoping to repeat their perfect 1-2 finish in Germany before the break.
The famous circuit – Home of the Indy 500 – is one of the most famous circuits in motorsport, ‘The Brickyard’ became an official MotoGP venue for the first time in 2008 following some modifications and homologation by the FIM. The layout of the track, which is 4.170km in length and has 16 turns (ten left turns and six rights), incorporates the main straight of the famous oval circuit including the Brickyard and an area between turns 1 and 2 of the oval, before meandering through the vast interior of the IMS.
Both Marc and Dani have enjoyed fantastic success here in the past few years, with Marc winning on four occasions – 2011 and 2012 in Moto2, 2013 and 2014 in MotoGP – and Dani on two occasions – 2010, 2012 – and taking second in 2011 and 2012. Honda have celebrated ten consecutive wins on American soil (since Indianapolis 2010).
“It’s been great to have some time off to recuperate and recharge the batteries ready for the second half of the season. After the Misano test I went to Ibiza with some friends for a week which was fantastic, and much needed! Then we resumed our training schedule in order to prepare for the coming races. Now we are on our way to America for the Indianapolis GP. I love racing on American soil and appreciate the enthusiasm of all the fans. I like the Indy track it can be tricky with the changes in asphalt but as always we will work hard from Friday, and get back into our rhythm as quickly as possible!”
“I feel relaxed and ready for the second half of the season after this brief Summer break. We enjoyed a good end to the first half of the season with a good race in Germany and then a productive test in Misano. Then I headed home and enjoyed some time on Lake Geneva with some friends, taking some important time away from it all. Even though I’ve been relaxing I’ve been continuing my recuperation on my arm and then started to get back into my training to be ready for Indy this week. I’ve had pretty good results at Indy in the past so my aim is to arrive there and fight again for the victory. It can be difficult to setup the bike here with the varying grip levels so we will have to pay attention to this.”
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.
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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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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