Drugi jezik na kojem je dostupan ovaj članak: Bosnian
Encouraged by the growing community of runners, which in Europe brings together around 50 million fans, consultancy firm in the field of strategic corporate sponsorships VETTURELLI, conducted a large survey, studying the habits and preferences of the runners’ community and the effectiveness of communication activities of sponsors in this field.
The survey was conducted online, between 19 October 2015 to 01 November 2015, through the trcanje.hr portal and FB profile RunTrek. Of the total of 391 persons who participated in the survey, 92% of respondents run and 77% are between 25-44 years.
One of the conclusions derived from the research is that sponsorship, which use running as a platform for branding (without continuous communication with the community), have absolutely no effect. So brands, which have been in the field of running for many years, are not recognized as partners of the runners’ community. For example, Hervis was recognized as a sponsor by only 1% of respondents, while none of them recognized Merkur, despite the fact that 21% of respondents participated in the Zagreb Marathon which is traditionally branded with the mentioned sponsors in the form of competitors’ numbers and finish line arches, and that the race was held just days prior to the survey.
Another company which can’t be satisfied with its results so far is Konzum, which entered into neighborhood races with media support of Styria, and that was recognized by only 1% of survey participants.
The absolute winner among the sponsors is Adidas. 34% of survey participants marked Adidas as the biggest and most positive partner of the community, followed by GRAWE with 12% and Salomon with 11%. These are three companies that have done a good job and achieved excellent results.
Global activities and a long-standing Adidas running school, accompanied with FB page and joint appearances at a number of races, supported the results of the survey. A surprise runner is GRAWE, which has been active in running as of spring 2015 but has left in the dust a number of long-time sponsors. Their success is based on continuous communication with the runners through various channels and through the title sponsorship of the Night Marathon, which survey participants recognized as a contribution to the runners’ community.
Therefore, the decisive factor for the success of sponsorship may be explained by the Adidas’ slogan – all in or nothing – which completely overlaps with the results of the survey which confirms that, without 100% engagement, sponsorship yields no results. Adidas and GRAWE didn’t try to draw runners into their world, but became part of theirs, which the community responded to with great satisfaction.
VETTURELLI further notes that the coming 2016 year will bring a lot of interesting things in the running community, both in terms of new partnerships in the existing races (eg. Wings for Life) and through new races and projects such B2B RUN and Run Croatia.
You can find out more details of the survey by contacting info@vetturelli.com.