Only 7% of general online shoppers visiting a site complete a purchase while 71% who came through social media will make it to point of transaction making users via social media 10 times more likely to buy. This top-line take-away is from a recent study by Payment provider Sage Pay (PSP) the UK’s fastest growing independent payment service provider which collected views and opinions of 2,000 plus online businesses operating in the UK.

So, sponsors expect more …and so do the fans. The sport becomes the conduit and the touch-point for sure – but – it (the communication) has to sustained, honest and consistent.

“Fans and the community largely have been often left out of this conversation. That’s the revolution that’s taking place,” said Jack Sichterman, founder of Great Big Circle marketing firm of New York; speaking at the recent Sport & Society in America conference.

We reckon Jack’s got it just about right but the sponsors want more now too – it’s all about the experience. The stadium, arena, track, circuit or venue and the sports and entertainment that takes place there is only a part of the interaction – this is the age of brand communications that people feel, they sense if a brand fits for them (the audience) and if it reflects where they’re at in their lives. It’s controversial but there aren’t many marketing folks who have a handle on this new era of brand communications – never mind the venue marketeers and sponsors – many of which still think putting a sign up and slapping a sticker on a race car generates some sort of measurable visibility or awareness! Sponsors still think that teams and athletes can generate sales and prospects – HOW? It’s down to the activation – the team or asset/property is the mechanism or catalyst – not the deliverer. Sponsors are going to have to wake up to the fact that ROI is replaced by ROO.

And now it’s not just the traditional press, TV and radio – Everyone is having to figure out what to do with social media channels such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. Now it’s getting really interesting because you can’t hide behind a billboard and hope the eyeballs ‘get it’. This is a one-to-one relationship and your brand’s reputation is at stake – the power and lasting effects of social media and the way it integrates into your marketing mix is now the third helix of modern marketing and branding — maybe sports marketeers will come to the fore on this one and lead the way.

The www.trofeoabarth500gb.com series website is a good case study in how to deliver content and energize the brand for fans while communicating essential information. Blog, SMS text, interactivity, downloads and keeping the brand front-of-mind without selling at the audience… the audience will make up their own mind; all the marketeers have to do is make their experience memorable and real.

Sporting events are becoming evermore important for Countries and Regions to trigger tourism and stimulate localised enterprise and entrepreneurship – this is evident in Oman with their Oman Sailing program and the move by Vietnam to host the World Match Racing Tour.

But perhaps it’s not that advertising is failing but that brand experiences (both on and offline) are really what are capturing the imagination of today’s consumer.

For example, 65% of U.S. consumers report a digital experience changing their perception about a brand (either positively or negatively) and 97% of that group report that the same experience ultimately influenced whether or not they went on to purchase a product from that brand. In a nutshell, experience matters. A lot.

Of course, brands that were “born digital” intuitively know this. Google and Amazon are pioneering experiential brands. That’s why Amazon continues to pour money into improving its customer service rather than run traditional advertising or marketing campaigns. As Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos has said, “We are not great advertisers. So we start with customers, figure out what they want, and figure out how to get it to them.” Zappos built its brand the same way, as has Facebook.

But what about more traditionally-minded marketers who weren’t born digital? Can they succeed in an experience-driven world? The answer is “yes” and here are some of the best:

Red Bull: Red Bull basically pioneered the experiential category. Not only did the brand rise to prominence by sponsoring alternative athletes and lifestyles, it went further by creating its own events, like Red Bull’s Flugtag and even its own sports like Red Bull’s Crashed Ice, which takes over old Quebec with a mix of hockey and motorcross. Even the brand’s website has morphed into a blog, much like today’s most popular publishers.

Camper: Most think of Camper as purely a comfortable yet stylish shoe brand. But the Spanish company is much more and pursues a brand ethos that’s both traditional, cultural and fashion forward simultaneously. Proof: Casa Camper, stylish (but laid back) hotels in Barcelona and Berlin that embodies the brand’s essence. Ditto for Camper Together which taps up and coming artists to create one-of-a-kind boutiques.

Guinness: Guinness may be old but it’s acting like a much, much younger marketer. The company has embraced experiential branding both literally and figuratively with its “It’s Alive Inside” positioning. For its anniversary, Guinness offered up Remarkable Experiences, including a trip into space. It also released a pub-finder iPhone application with a social media twist. More impressively, the brand created the Guinness Storehouse, a seven-story building that functions as both museum and pub, that has now become one of Ireland’s top tourist attractions. And, more recently, Guinness even wired up its rugby team with RFID tags (including balls and players) to capture a whole range of statistics about how fast, powerfully and effectively the game is played.

UNIQLO: Few companies have so used digital like Uniqlo to both build a brand and breakthrough to new consumers — and on a truly global scale. The Japanese retailer surprises and delights consumers at every turn, whether through innovative iPhone applications, calendars, e-commerce, stylebooks and microsites. Uniqlo’s experiential efforts not only express the brand, but reach new consumers who may live thousands of miles away from the nearest retail location.

Virgin America: Virgin America has gone further than most, ensuring that the experience is the marketing — and advertising in many cases. The brand targeted tech-savvy consumers early on with its Red system entertainment console and in-flight WiFi. It showed off its dramatic interiors in promotions with Diggnation and YouTube celebrities; became an early adopter of Twitter for customer service; and reinforced its brand values through its simple booking engine on VirginAmerica.com. And now, for the holidays, Virgin America is partnering with Google to offer free WiFi for travelers.

Nike: Nike, of course, has been moving in this experiential direction for a few years. ‘We’re not in the business of keeping the media companies alive,” Nike’s Trevor Edwards told the New York Times in 2007. ”We’re in the business of connecting with consumers.” And so they have. The company continually earns kudos for consumer experience breakthroughs like Nike+, its online running community; the Human Race, a global running event; and more recently the Livestrong Chalkbot which enabled users to submit a text message that would be painted (digitally) on the route of the Tour de France.

Experiences, it would seem, are the new advertising. Experiences reach and engage customers in new and more meaningful ways, they promote “trial” over simply messaging and — quite frankly — experiences are much more suited to our digital era when everything is just a click away. Our challenge now, as marketers, is to make sure that our products and brands can actually live up to the experiences that we advertise. Garrick Schmitt asks “Is advertising dying?”  It’s certainly fashionable to say so and it has a direct impact on how marketers apply the ‘experience’ to sports, sponsorship and entertainment properties.

According to the latest sports viewing survey from TV Sports Markets and Eurodata TV Worldwide, the big falls in Spain and Italy were partly counterbalanced by a significant lift in UK audiences. Viewership in the other two top European markets, France and Germany, remained broadly stable.

Audiences in Spain dropped 29 per cent on 2008, with Alonso’s worst-ever season coinciding with coverage shifting from what was the country’s leading commercial broadcaster, Telecinco, to smaller rival La Sexta. La Sexta’s live coverage averaged just under three million viewers per race and drew an audience share of 31 per cent.

Audiences for Italian public-service broadcaster Rai fell 21 per cent against 2008, when Ferrari won the championship, averaging 5.6 million viewers per race. Further analysis shows, perhaps surprisingly, that almost 40 per cent of the audience was female. Just under 50 per cent of the audience was aged over 55.

In the UK, Jenson Button’s championship season provided a perfect start for public-service broadcaster the BBC, which took over the rights at the start of this year after commercial rival ITV opted to concentrate its limited resources on Champions League football. Audiences were 16 per cent on ITV’s audiences last year and the highest since the BBC last had the rights in 1996.

In France, audiences for commercial broadcaster TF1 rose less than one per cent to 3.1 million. Some 33 per cent of the audience were women, slightly lower than the gender split for Champions League football, where women accounted for 35 per cent of TF1’s average audience last season. Forty-nine per cent of the Formula One audience in France is over 50 years of age, the same proportion for the Champions League. In Germany, RTL averaged 5.2 million viewers per race, with the penultimate race of the season in Brazil attracting the season-high of 7.2 million viewers and a 28-per-cent audience share.

Sources: TV Sports Markets, Eurodata TV Worldwide, Mediametrie – BARB – AGF/GfK Fernsehforschung – AUDITEL – TNS Audiencia de Medios – ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

Maybe this is ‘back to the future’ for F1 – more independent teams and less ‘manufacturers’ – with Lotus (where Trulli may be headed??), Manor, USGP and Campos racing to make the 2010 grid… who will be next to join the fray? Maybe F1 is beginning a new era.

Rossi is organising the event to raise money for a children’s hospital which treats leukemia sufferers in the Italian city of Pésaro. On Sunday 15th November Rossi will be one of the riders taking part in a special motocross event to give a financial boost to the hospital, with Andrea Dovizioso, Loris Capirossi, Marco Simoncelli, Mattia Pasini and former 500cc World Champion Kevin Schwantz also all booked in to attend.

The organisers are hoping for a big turn-out from fans to support the event, which will take place in Cavallara, a 40km drive from Pésaro.

In May, the championship heads to Europe for rounds in Spain, Monaco and Turkey, before the teams make their way to Canada for the first time since 2008, subject to the completion of contractual negotiations with Formula One Management. If these are not completed, then the Turkish Grand Prix will be moved to June 6.

Following the completion of the European season, the teams will fly out to Asia in late September for back-to-back races in Singapore and Japan, followed by the inaugural Korean Grand Prix. Abu Dhabi will be the penultimate round, with the championship finale returning to its familiar home of Brazil in mid November.

2010 FIA Formula One World Championship calendar
14 March – Bahrain
28 March – Australia
4 April – Malaysia
18 April – China
9 May – Spain
23 May – Monaco
30 May – Turkey
13 June – Canada*
27 June – Europe (Valencia)
11 July – Great Britain
25 July – Germany
1 August – Hungary
29 August – Belgium
12 September – Italy
26 September – Singapore
3 October – Japan
17 October – Korea
31 October – Abu Dhabi
14 November – Brazil

*Subject to the completion of contract negotiations with Formula One Management. If these are not completed then the Turkish Grand Prix will be moved to 6 June.

Note: The race in Australia will start at 1700 local time, in Malaysia at 1600 local time, in Singapore at 2000 local time, and in Abu Dhabi at 1700 local time.

www.formulaone.com

Lotus F1 will initially be set up in the RTN centre at Hingham, a 50,000 square foot facility most recently used by Bentley for its Le Mans programme. Works will eventually move to Lotus’ new operations base at Malaysia’s Sepang circuit. Sponsorship announcements are anticipated and driver line-up is due to be revealed next month.

Lotus F1, based in Norfolk joins Manor Motorsport, based in Buckinghamshire, as two of the four new teams in Formula One in 2010 boosting the motorsport industry in the UK. The other teams are from the USA, Team US F1, and Campos from Spain – more good news is the return of Cosworth as an engine supplier. BMW Sauber also has a new owner having been sold to Swiss-based Qadbak Investments.

It seems the auto manufacturers are pulling out gradually as teams – leaving more independant teams to fill the F1 grid… isn’t this how it used to be?? What goes around comes around!