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Antonio Pagano is a sport marketing consultant, the direct marketing and valuing of teams and sport clubs. Providing company communication consultations and managerial training and team building courses.
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Three ideas of reflections: Dott. Roberto Ghiretti, Giancarlo Dondi and Dott. Enrico Borra
Sports Marketing in Italy: the State of the Art
Dr. Roberto Ghiretti (President of Studio Ghiretti & Associates)
The year 2000 definitively signaled the end of the traditional form of sports marketing that featured the classic mode of team sponsorship and that focused primarily on the playing fields and their immediate confines. In the transition from company-based strategies to the larger politics of marketing and branding, and finally from ‘simple’ branding to ‘emotional’ branding, even the field of sports marketing realized that it was time to redefine its image, promoting sports marketing as a form of new media ready to serve new corporate exigencies.
The recent economic crisis has essentially created that which we can define as the “natural selection of sound business practices.” Those who had the capacity and know-how to anticipate the rapid changes in the marketplace, understanding both their origins and the emerging growth patterns, succeeded in obtaining notable results in these past few years. The crisis, therefore did nothing but accelerate a process of polarization in sports marketing, that essentially divided the offerings into two camps: those that were able to profit from an evolving model, and those, as they say, that were more traditional and that relied on a logic that did not keep pace with the changing times.
The recent economic crisis has essentially created that which we can define as the “natural selection of sound business practices.” Those who had the capacity and know-how to anticipate the rapid changes in the marketplace, understanding both their origins and the emerging growth patterns, succeeded in obtaining notable results in these past few years. The crisis, therefore did nothing but accelerate a process of polarization in sports marketing, that essentially divided the offerings into two camps: those that were able to profit from an evolving model, and those, as they say, that were more traditional and that relied on a logic that did not keep pace with the changing times.
The widening of access to the fundamental instruments of communication (thanks to digital and satellite media, the internet, and independently produced web TV) allows all sports-makers to employ “good practices”, developed according to an evolving model giving them the possibility to target interested publics and to listen to their message, and consequently, to target investors who will be ready to support their endeavors. The actual novelty in this modern form of sports marketing is that everyone has at their disposition these tools for efficient communication and can amplify their message with technologies and objectives that were not possible until now. They are not as obvious, as they were in the past, and neither are the sporting results (long considered essential in the politics of sports marketing), or the levels on which one competes. The good ideas circulate with a speed that was previously impossible to imagine. To create benchmarks (literally, to intelligently reproduce positive results) should be the first order of business for the sport-maker that seeks to evolve their product and consequently their game.
Rugby, with its reservoir of values that speak for themselves, the particularity of its sports management and the appeal of its players, embodies this idea of valorous media. In rugby, just as in contemporary sports marketing, it is important to be able to look back in order to understand and to appreciate what has come before, but the objective, the goal, is always in front of the player, at the end of an emotional ride, which is comprised of every step it took to reach the goal.
A team sport, a sport marketing involves many more “P”s than the four that constitute the base of traditional marketing: Product, Price, Place and Promotion. In sport, one must consider 3 more “P”s: People, Passion and Pitch (the field of play is a metaphor for the sports agent). This book promotes this process in the interest of understanding the development of marketing from its traditional roots to its current status and contextualizing it to the world of sport, through the lens of rugby. Antonio Pagano leads the reader on a winning journey. This is a witty and up to the moment articulation of his philosophy and his approach to contemporary sports marketing. The chapters alternate specific case studies with a thorough analysis of the system of marketing, encapsulating a point of view that is decidedly...oval. |
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The Opinion of the Italian Rugby Federation
Dr. Giancarlo Dondi (President, Italian Rugby Federation (FIR)
In 1996, when I became head of the Italian Rugby Federation, it was clear from the outset that the FIR would work to increase the commercial potential of the game of rugby in Italy. In the past 14 years I think that I am able to state with calm that rugby, in Italy has grown significantly from the point of view of the game itself as well as from the point of view of the promotion of the game and its overall public image. Today, the FIR boasts a panel of sponsors and partners that number among the most important national and international corporations, all of whom are particularly aware of the general values of our sport and of our home product that are effective testimonials to our popularity. But we are also well aware of the necessity to continue to develop new strategies to attract a growing number of supporters and to continue to mobilize them in new and efficient ways to promote the image of rugby. Our entry in the Six Nations, from the first disputed game in 2000, was a defining moment in the growth of our movement and in the evolution of our image status. Now, with the imminent appearance of two Italian teams in the Magners Celtic League, I believe that our sport has not only a new and difficult challenge to face, but also a concrete possibility of achieving a new level of public appreciation.
In 1996, when I became head of the Italian Rugby Federation, it was clear from the outset that the FIR would work to increase the commercial potential of the game of rugby in Italy. In the past 14 years I think that I am able to state with calm that rugby, in Italy has grown significantly from the point of view of the game itself as well as from the point of view of the promotion of the game and its overall public image. Today, the FIR boasts a panel of sponsors and partners that number among the most important national and international corporations, all of whom are particularly aware of the general values of our sport and of our home product that are effective testimonials to our popularity. But we are also well aware of the necessity to continue to develop new strategies to attract a growing number of supporters and to continue to mobilize them in new and efficient ways to promote the image of rugby. Our entry in the Six Nations, from the first disputed game in 2000, was a defining moment in the growth of our movement and in the evolution of our image status. Now, with the imminent appearance of two Italian teams in the Magners Celtic League, I believe that our sport has not only a new and difficult challenge to face, but also a concrete possibility of achieving a new level of public appreciation.
Following this line of thought, we are hoping to inspire along the way, more and more people with the dream, enthusiasm and love of rugby and marketing that Antonio Pagano has shown us, and that he will undoubtedly continue to demonstrate once he arrives in the USA, in his new adventure with the University of California.
With sincere wishes for your continued success and good fortune.
Giancarlo Dondi
President, Italian Rugby Federation
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A Word from the Director
Dr. Enrico Borra
External Director and Editor in Chief of "Rugby! Magazine", La Meta, and the website "Mondo Rugby"
There are encounters in the never-ending cycle of life that go completely unnoticed. There are people that we notice for a moment, among the millions that we encounter on our meandering journeys through this world, as they slide along our skin like the morning dew. And then, there are those that remain with us forever. Fortunately for me, Antonio is one of these: first as an acquaintance, then as a collaborator and finally, as a friend. This friendship is the genesis of years of sporadic encounters, often and willingly carried out in the form of “eat and run” discussions on sports marketing, Italian rugby and the potential marriage of these two camps. Long sessions of brainstorming gave birth to projects that were sometimes realized and other times remained stuck between the pages of the moleskin notebook in which they were written. Why did I immediately want Antonio to write for Rugby! Magazine? Because the world of Italian rugby had an enormous need to elevate its professional status and its patronage, and Antonio had the skills and abilities to make this happen. In every little thing that he does, Antonio has elevated the status of rugby in Italy, and his ideas have been implemented in every club in our country, from the large franchises such as the Magners League to the smallest municipal clubs. Rugby possesses a value system that is unique in this world, but it cannot rely solely on this quality if it wishes to grow. What is needed is someone and something that is able to provide the sports managers with the capacity to position the rugby product, effectively increasing its value in the supermarket of Italian sports without reducing it solely to a question of the bottom line. Rugby must create for itself a large-scale initiative that allows the clubs to secure an adequate return on their investments in accordance with their image as a team sport and the image of the companies that choose to sponsor the game.
This book is an important step in this direction.
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