Some sponsorship just makes sense. Regular readers of this blog will know that two of the sports I am involved with are sailing and motorsport. While there are a lot of similarities, there are also some big differences.
Probably the biggest difference between the sport of sailing and motorsport is the fundamental reason for doing it in the first place. While yacht racing exists primarily for its competitors to go sailing, motorsport exists to sell more cars. The phrase “Win on Sunday, sell on Monday” comes from a belief that consumers are influenced by a brand’s involvement in the sport and it will influence the purchase decision.
Car manufacturers believe this mantra, even in series like F1, where the car being raced bears no resemblance to the vehicles in the dealer forecourt. On the other hand, it is extremely rare to see manufacturers of sail-boats involved at all in the sport of sailing.
While the idea that winning converts to sales is well accepted, it is extremely difficult to measure. Digital technology has made it easier to track conversion for products bought online, but for products like a car, bought at a dealership, the only way to really know what influenced the transaction is to ask the customer. This week, I heard such a story…
The Trofeo Abarth 500 GB is a one-make motor racing series in the UK featuring the Abarth 500. The series has the backing of the manufacturer, Abarth, which is part of the Fiat group. The race version of this car is almost identical to the one you can buy from your local Abarth dealer. There is a small, but extremely passionate community of people who love the Abarth brand.
As part of the marketing for the Trofeo series we reach out to fans and invite them to be VIP guests for the weekend. All they have to do in return is record their experience on a Flip video camera that we supply. We call it ‘Fan with a Cam‘. After the 2nd round of the championship at Silverstone, I was approached by a fan who had attended the event asking to buy hospitality tickets for his girlfriend. Instead, I offered him the chance to become our ‘Fan with a Cam’ for the latest round at Cadwell Park.
It turns out that the real Abarth fan was his girlfriend. Speaking to her over the weekend she revealed that she had wanted to buy an Abarth 500 for nearly a year, but upon watching them race at Silverstone, the home of the British Grand Prix, she left the racetrack with a single purpose – to buy one. And she did. Back at a different racetrack 4 weeks later she was the very proud owner of an Abarth 500. Not just a customer, but a fan.
The story is a nice reminder that marketing does not exist for its own sake. Interactions are not the same as transactions. ‘Follows’ and ‘Retweets’ and ‘Likes’ and ‘Shares’ are meaningless unless they convert into more sales.
