by Thomas Foschini17   Settembre   2014

Sassuolo Calcio 'produces' 55 million euros

Reggio Emilia Stadium, January 12th 2014: Sassuolo vs Milan. Redblacks are leading after only 13 minutes. Then  Sassuolo’s lead is restored, and at the beginning of the second time 4 goals are scored: a day which will be long remembered by the fans of the team and which marked an economic return for its sponsors. 
“Total sponsorship over the last year topped 55 million euros”, says Giovanni Carnevali, general manager and managing director at U.S. Sassuolo Calcio and sole director at Master Group Sport, one of the most active in sports marketing in Italy since 1996.
The source is a study carried out by Vidierre – a media monitoring certified company able to quantify the economic return a “sports communication” investment can generate, both at a forecasts and real level.  
“The study – says Carnevali – analyses commercials according to television images, crossing monitoring data with information linked to sponsors. The analysis is made through an algorithm which crosses commercial catalogs with tv audiences, giving the ‘media return’ of appearance”. It is altogether a useful device for the 20 tile manufacturing companies which took part in the sponsorship, accounting for more than 50% of the total volume.

In brief, if it is as it seems that companies have generally benefited from investing in Sassuolo (which is going to play again in serie A next year) this is certainly more so for ceramic firms – “the local district feather in the cap”. As Carnevali points out, there has been a “return on the territory and on the appeal echoed by our name at a national and international level”.
Independently of sports results it is clear that investments on communication in general and on sports communication in particular are able to generate value also at a global level. Sassuolo-Milan is one of those matches where global exposure is an important aspect to consider, adds Master Group Sport sole manager. 
Figures provide a great help to see things more clear. “Thanks to our partners providing the monitoring system – Carnevali adds – a more detailed analysis has been carried out. What came out was that the covering of the Sassuolo football matches was broadcast in more than 200 countries all over the world during last season 2013-2014, totalling 624 million contacts reached”.

What exactly created such exposure? LED video screens on the touchline area, the logo on interview backdrops, and again general communication such as the official website, press campaigns, match programs, and hospitality totems. “For sure LED screens on the touchline area are the best advertising tool” Carnevali explains. This sector employs professionals and operators so as to put labels in order thus avoiding “communication chaos” which would lower the audience attention. “The exposure along the touchline area available at Mapei Stadium – that is  where Sassuolo Calcio plays its home matches since it was promoted to the top league – has been studied so as to have a single 240-metre-long line, with as little lables and as much tidiness as possible. Among the consequences are higher exposure and visibility of the labels displayed” with a 30% increase if compared to traditional display of items.

The study aims at providing tangible assessment tools – a case study, that is – on how “the right mixture of the distinctive features of a place, from production to sports and local traditions, may prove successful and overcome national borders”.
Is it just a matter of visibility? Not according to sport marketing operators who place great importance on activities based on experience marketing such as walk abouts, free access trainings, open hospitality areas, all of which aiming at making contacts with customers”.
At the end of the day sports results do mean something: since Sassuolo scored another row of four against Genoa on the May 11th safety match, it will keep playing in the great top league; multiple investments are therefore imminent. Among them maxi screens will be next year’s new product: “they will enhance visibility and exposure inviting sponsor to think of new promotion activities”. The cooperation with Sassuolo Calcio triggers an important image return also for Master Group Sport: “Communication for sponsorship is key for us and make us more competitive”, underlines Carnevali, as enables us to match the brand to the name of the team and to benefit from a team perceived as “a young team, a symbol of Italianity being it the team with the highest number of Italian players; a symbol of tradition, of determination in confronting the giants of the A league”.
In a way they make up the same “identitarian” qualities that our local companies, especially the tile manufacturing ones, constantly try to promote every day through all possible instruments – including soccer sponsorship – on the national and global markets.