Member Spotlight:
RTR Sports Marketing is based between Bologna, Italy, and London, UK. Founded in 1999 by Riccardo Tafa, the company has worked with clients from across the sporting spectrum, with activities ranging from sponsorship to licensing and from hospitality services to digital activations.
Riccardo Tafa
They’re currently working extensively in the arenas of F1 and MotoGP, where RTR have ongoing relationships with most of the teams as well as the rights holder itself, Dorna. The agency’s main goal since day one has always been to offer consultancy and services to those companies wishing to use sports as a communication tool, whether that be sponsorship or on-field events, right the way through to traditional corporate hospitality and digital activations.
Emanuele Venturoli, RTR Communication Manager, took some time to tell us a little more.
When did your agency start? It all started back in 1999. Riccardo Tafa (our MD) had already spent many years working solo for the likes of McLaren, Williams, Ducati and Yamaha so it was a natural progression to create an agency and take all that knowledge out to a wider market.
What “bigger picture” do you seek to meet? Our goal with any campaign is to fully maximize and exploit the value of any partnerships that come about. We spend a lot of time speaking to our clients about their objectives, and then focus on helping brands and organisations reach those marketing and business goals. At the end of the day, a happy client is a client you’ll never lose.
What metrics do you use to measure the effectiveness of the sponsorships? We believe in using a multitude of ROI measurements to establish and ascertain success. I can proudly say that our team have undergone ROI training that is aligned with some of the major European courses. We start by looking at the overall visibility, with the help of some key partners such as Repucom, and then we move on to evaluate other aspects. We also measure the effectiveness of hospitality activities and one-to-one engagement, cross-checking data from sales and activation figures to give us a complete picture of how things have progressed.
What learnings have you gained from the work you’ve done so far? It’s actually a never ending learning curve, because the scenario, the technology and the opportunities change on a daily basis. But, as a company, we’ve learned that the most important thing is to fully understand our clients’ goals, which sounds obvious but sometimes an agency is shouting so loud to prove that they’re “experts” that they forget to listen. Every project is a new one and you’ll have to start from scratch, but the only way to succeed is to take your client to where is best for them.
Are there areas in which the work you’ve done is offering back something surprising that you hadn’t planned for? As any good agency does (or should be trying to do), we look to minimize the unforeseen. But, of course, strange things do happen and some things have grown in ways which we may not have expected them to. Several years ago we signed an F1 sponsorship deal with a building material firm, which may have puzzled some people. But, after all these years, not only have they re-signed that deal but they’ve improved and expanded their sponsorship portfolio with some other very important international partnerships. So the longevity and depth of that relationship surprised us a little!
What are the 3 key bits of advice you can offer to other people wishing to work in the sports marketing industry? Be curious, be dedicated, be brave.
What challenges have you encountered, and how have they been overcome? I guess one of the biggest challenges is not to get discouraged when, after lots of hard work, you get a “no” as a response. There is a line of thought that states that “the first best answer is yes, and the second best answer is no” but it doesn’t make it any easier to digest. It happens, and it’s happened to the best of us. Learn from your defeats, never give up and get to work as if it was your very first day. Mindset is the only thing that can possibly stop you: everything else is just detail.
What are the current trends within your business area, and how are they affecting how you work and how you deliver on strategy? Digital activations are “the thing” now: from dedicated accounts on social media to online contests; from apps, to the production of highly specific content, clients are now looking to speak with millions of people around the world in a quick, one-to-one, engaging way. Very specific professional skills are required and new positions have to be added to the mix, such as search engine optimisation (SEO) experts, SEM’s and community managers.
How are you harnessing the digital medium, and what problems / opportunities has this created? We are investing a lot in our digital operation. We currently have 10,000+ followers on Twitter, a daily-updated Facebook page and accounts on Pinterest, Tumblr, Medium and Linkedin. We are curious, and we like it! We love playing around with new tools. It’s a fantastically connected world out there and we make sure that we’re exploring it.
Social media – cure or curse?? Cure if you don’t take yourself too seriously and have fun with it. Curse if it’s something you do mechanically. Social Media has completely blurred the line and flattened the traditional barriers between brands and consumers, and I feel that people don’t’ want to be “schooled” by a brand on Twitter and Facebook. Rather, they’d like an honest, open conversation with brands that they trust. So we subscribe to the format of making them laugh, giving them the information they want, and trying to be a digital pal. Then everything will be ok.
You can find out even more information on RTR at www.rtrsports.co.uk
