The magic of sporting events is not only in who wins this or that match, but there is a commercial window behind it that allows a much more lucrative impact for sponsors and commercial partners. The WTA Finals in Guadalajara meet both labels, since being the most important women's tennis tournament of the year, its exposure is measured at nearly 200 million people from the five continents and opens up an unprecedented opportunity that, above all, is being exploited by the local brands.
“Beyond the cost (for being a sponsor of the WTA Finals), this is a bet for what it can give us in the future, it goes beyond a transaction, we are talking about an event with more than 60,000 attendees and we seek to be on more than 3% of a conversion level and this speaks of hundreds of thousands of pesos (...) If that small percentage adopts us as a brand, for us it is a win-win, keep and retain”, he explains to this newspaper , Manuel Murillo, commercial director of the fashion brand, Tucané, originally from Jalisco and one of the sponsors of the event.
Tucané was born 12 years ago in Guadalajara as a youth casual dress proposal and has found an ally for its exposure in sports, such as Club Atlas (soccer), Astros de Jalisco (basketball), the Mexican Federation Polo and, in tennis, the Zapopan WTA 250 Open and now the Finals, which represent an exhibition platform aligned with its goals of transcending borders.
“It was a surprise invitation, in September we had a meeting with the general director of the event, Gustavo Santoscoy, and the possibility arose. The relationship with him has always been to bet on Mexican and Guadalajara brands that are protagonists (...) Today loyalty to brands is less and less and this is a great opportunity to transfer experience and vision, we know the importance of the event to worldwide and as a local brand is very important to be in the top of mind of the consumer. Our 2024 plan is to be leaders in the casual fashion proposal in Mexico and begin to expand in other territories such as the United States, Europe and South America”, adds the manager of Tucané.
Along with Akron (lubricants and fuels) and Aga (soft drinks), they are the strongest Jalisco companies within the 2021 WTA Finals, which will be broadcast to more than 160 countries for a week and with options to make the interval longer of time before and after. Tucané, for example, launched its special clothing line for the event a month before with more than 3,000 garments including polo shirts, t-shirts, sweatshirts, jackets and caps, in addition to providing kits to logistics operators, children who spend balls to the tennis players and even to the judges.
“When there are these types of activations it is a very good thing, because building your own return on investment is one of the most difficult objectives, many of the mistakes that are made is to spend the totality of your budget in hiring or associating with the tournament and in the end there is no money left to activate, but if these two things can be done, it will always be good to give it a couple of months so that people can become more associated with the brand and activate it by releasing specific products for sale that can extend the temporality of the event”, analyzes Armando Escamilla, an expert in sports sponsorships and managing partner of Patroria.
Although the Finals arrived in Mexico with a load of sponsorships that already have agreements for years, such as Porsche or Amstel Ultra, it was not an impediment for regional brands from Jalisco to get involved. For the sports marketer, this serves two purposes that are highly profitable.
“First there is the sponsorship of the blockade, which is focused on strengthening the regional issue, seeking to make Guadalajara its fortress and protect it in different sectors. On the other hand, local brands are going to give this type of sponsorship a much longer validity, they show their ability to provide such large events and one of the objectives is to generate confidence in future client prospects, they are sponsorships that will be part of their booking, they want to show local and national consumers their ability to be suppliers and sponsors”.
The presence of the brands and the event itself brings a positive effect for the economy in terms of reactivating tourism, a priority task after almost two years in a pandemic, says Armando Escamilla: “In an international reading, this gives certainty and agrees to say that there is a stable strategy for the economy in Mexico, which is capable of betting on world-class events. This attracts tourism and generates another type of income, the fact that the WTA trusts the health protocols that are carried out in the stadium, that the tennis players themselves feel confident about the situation in Mexico, everything permeates internationally for tourists who are still undecided to travel here”.
The specialist puts the WTA Finals in Guadalajara at the level of a U17 soccer World Cup for attracting global interest, although not yet at the level of a World Cup in a higher category, an NFL game or a Formula 1 race. He also mentions that the proximity between the tennis event and the Mexico City Grand Prix (three days away) did not pay to fully exploit the marketing and publicity.
Even so, brands like Tucané are aware of the unique opportunity that is presented to them to transcend the perimeter of Jalisco: “We want to always be one step ahead, to be the leading brand in the casual market not only in Mexico, but also from this type of event allows us to be in the mind of the consumer. It is a great opportunity that, based on these participations in the sport, they adopt us as a brand with a different proposal and tomorrow we will be part of their day-to-day life”, concludes Manuel Murillo.
The WTA Finals will conclude on November 17 after eight days with at least two matches each, including players like Aryna Sabalenka and Barbora Krejcikova, current number 2 and 3 in the world ranking.
fredi.figueroa@eleconomista.mx
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