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 June 19, 2019 | In MotoGP, Sport Sponsorship
On the one hand, all great sports events share the peculiarity of placing the location of the event in full view of hundred million people. The connection between a sports event and the location is so strong that the territory and the sport become an unbreakable couple. Take Indianapolis 500 or Daytona: the races have given such a specific identity to their respective locations that they are now indelible in popular culture. On other occasions territories use the Football World Cup, the Olympic Games or the Grand Prix to revitalise their image and stand out on the world map, as is the case with Sochi in Russia, Baku in Azerbaijan or south-eastern Asian countries.
On the other hand, when they cannot organise or host large sports events, territories tend to more and more frequently use sport and sports sponsorship for the remote promotion of their offer with potential tourists or investors. The widely debated “Visit Rwanda” printed on the jerseys of the Arsenal players and many similar initiatives are good examples of the above.
To recap, there are two possible ways to create the bond between sports events and territories:
As stated above, a large sports event immediately has the power to place a location, a city or a nation under the spotlight. In many cases, such as the Olympic Games or the Football World Cup, the sports event also becomes a good occasion to modernise the existing infrastructures, to build new districts in the city and to reorganise the transport system. It serves the purpose of showing the world one’s best side and, at the same time, it helps to jumpstart local enterprises and to bring credit to the city prestige. Barcelona, where the Olympic Games contributed to the radical transformation of both the city and its suburbs, may be referenced as an evident example of the above.
On the other hand, when a Nation, a geographical area or a municipality decide to host one of the stops of a great travelling event such as Formula E (discover the Formula E Agency) or MotoGP, the purpose is very likely to be more tactical and the benefits originating from the positive economic repercussions on the territory are expected to come in a shorter time. The industry of hospitality, overall, including shops and other businesses, draws enormous advantages from the huge feasting audience that fill the city for a whole weekend.
Have you ever been to Imola? I bet few of you have, respectfully but honestly speaking. Imola is a nice town in Romagna with approx. sixty thousand inhabitants. Although the town is well-known for its ceramics, its worldwide fame actually comes from the fact that it used to host the Formula 1 Grand Prix of San Marino for many years. Those were the days when this F1 event was broadcast live and on free-to-air television reaching out to an audience of 400 million viewers all over the world. The result? Imola was known to everybody at the time, although the borough was one of many and did not have any peculiarities making it unique (hopefully, this will not annoy our dear fellow friends from Imola, who deserve our appreciation for their enthusiastic efforts to keep the two souls of our region – Emilia and Romagna – tightly together). It would be extremely interesting to test the level of awareness that today’s teenagers have to Imola, considering that they have never had the pleasure of watching the historical duels that F1 and the race track named after Enzo and Dino Ferrari gave us at the time.
A large sports event can become the economic driver of a whole geographical area and it may also serve as sounding board for nations that are both in need and willing to become known and appreciated. This is, for instance, why many entities involved in tourist promotion have decided to exhibit their brands and colours during sports events as a way to enhance their visibility: Visit Catalunya, Visit Malaysia and Visit Rwanda on the sleeves of the Arsenal jerseys are just few of a multitude of examples we may call to mind.
Undeniably, all sports have one thing in common: passion. And passion can be used to pass on messages to an attentive and receptive audience in a positive manner. Being part of the event without breaking off the show is a great advantage.
Why motor sports and tourism then? The answer is simple: the audience is basically limitless and the world championships are on the road, which means that they visit extremely important markets every 15 days, thus offering businesses the opportunity to be an on-site protagonist for a whole week. Additionally, businesses have the chance of engaging the million fans who purchase their tickets to the race track.
These championships are one with the very idea of travelling as they are on the move in 4 different continents, nine months a year, every year, offering partners the opportunity to use one simple communication strategy all over the world. This travelling platform does not merely grant businesses visibility, but it also serves the purpose of implementing a number of PR or promotional activities in which the race is the pivoting element.
This is a great occasion for anyone interested in promoting tourism, as they can be directly involved in the organisation of the event and, at the same time, use tourism to appeal to millions of viewers through TV or on-site initiatives. Check the most common initiatives by a click on this link giving information on sponsorship activation.
Travelling also opens up the doors to other product categories, which are all potential partners of teams and championships in the motor sports sector. Airlines and luggage producers, money exchange and power banks for ever-present smartphones running out of battery are some peculiar examples we already addressed in a post published a few days ago which you can find here.
If you are curious to have more in-depth information on the opportunities offered by sports marketing, do not hesitate to contact use at the following email: info@rtrsports.com
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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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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