What’s your name and position within the organisation?
Merrick Haydon, Managing Director, rEvolution, London
I co-founded Revolution Sports in 2015, with my late business partner and close friend Rod Kohler. Rod sadly died from Pancreatic Cancer in February 2018, having played a key role in the exciting acquisition by Chicago-based sports marketing agency, rEvolution, that came to fruition in September 2018.
As a global group, our competitive advantage starts with a sustainable business strategy, coupled with a passion to succeed as a team of talented people through our culture, values and principles.
How did rEvolution come to work with Rights Holders and Brands? What ‘bigger picture’ did this relationship seek to meet?
Working with rights holders and brands is in our DNA and is something we have done right from the beginning.
Among clients past and present, we have worked with rights holders including Cowes Week, Formula BMW, Silverstone Classic, Goodwood Festival of Speed and Goodwood Revival and the Royal Windsor Horse Show. A recent rights holder brief rEvolution is proud to have delivered is the FEI World Equestrian Games™, Tryon in USA. Over the course of the 18-month project, rEvolution was part of the team who ran the international PR and marketing for the event with the key responsibility of running all media operations on-site (managing a team of 45 contractors).
From a brands perspective, we have worked with many of the world’s leading companies including Jaguar Land Rover North America, SAS, Jumeirah, MasterCard and Continental Tire in the US.
The bigger picture has always been to build our international credentials and expertise to work across major events in global sports, including F1, Champions League, Ryder Cups, Olympics and World Cups. Our team has worked on all these global events and we seek to expand further now, into new emerging sports and events and into new territories internationally.
How is the effectiveness of the relationship(s) measured? What metrics do you use?
Of course, it varies from client-to-client, based on their wants, needs, target audiences, budgets and our recommendations. We are always mindful of how their business works and this has been the secret to building secure, long-term relationships with clients who trust us and have confidence in how we are benefiting their bottom line.
One of our core values is that we innovate and pursue superior quality. To that end, we permanently scrutinise how we report, to ensure we give our clients the full picture. That is why we have recently added a Research-specific department to the UK team, which will work across Commercial Valuation, Sponsorship Evaluation and, importantly, Measurement using both a Return on Objectives model and a proprietary Return on Investment model.
What are the current trends within your business area, and how are they affecting how you work and how you deliver on strategy?
We are constantly adopting and understanding new trends, whether they be hot topics, technologies, or something else. To us, that often means being more imaginative and being unafraid of challenging our clients to think big!
Esports is a phenomenon at the moment in the sports industry. We have our own dedicated esports division called REV/XP, which has been rapidly expanding since it was first set up four years ago in 2015 and is now one of the fastest areas of growth within our business.
How has sponsorship changed in your industry over the past few years? And how do you think it’s going to change in the next five years?
Sponsorship is increasingly more intelligent. By that, I mean there fewer partnership deals done with a handshake between friends or chairmen. There is a growing amount of data available to now help show brands where the most valuable relationships are. This can only be a good thing for the industry, as growing numbers of businesses take greater confidence in investing in partnerships that work for them, with robust ROI and clear sponsorship metrics.
How are you harnessing and executing on digital strategy, and what problems / opportunities has this created?
You have to work a lot smarter than as recently as just three or four years ago to cut through with digital content. We champion inspirational examples we find elsewhere and try to see what we would do differently. Our expertise through major US digital activations is helping lead the way here in the UK and EMEA for our current clients.
The greatest challenge is often budgets, but that can equally lead to greater creativity. Being creative and connecting with consumers and sports fans in a genuine and relevant way is the core to success.
What challenges have you encountered, and how have they been overcome?
Many of the challenges we faced before the merger have now been overcome because of it. For example, we now have a global footprint, a 100+ team across nine offices, with a far broader skillset at our disposal and a broader suite of integrated sports marketing services, making us able to challenge for new cross-market and global contracts.
Is there anything else you’d like to add?
The sponsorship and sports marketing industry, in particular, is in rude health right now, with hugely positive forecasts of growth for the coming decade. With our new US-based headquarters, we are ideally placed for brands and rights holders and therefore very excited about the future, with major events here in Europe, including the Rugby World Cup and Olympics in Paris, plus the Olympic Games in Los Angeles and the Football World Cup in the USA. The future is bright for rEvolution. If you are ever in Chicago, please drop by and visit our stunning new HQ offices in Fulton Market!
Contact Merrick Haydon:
t: +44 (0)20 3176 0355
w: https://www.revolutionworld.com/