The business of marathons in Italy: between cultural and social value, growing numbers and opportunities for partners
Thousands of partecipants and a significant turnover: what the continued growth of this type of event depends on.
On Sunday, March 3, the third edition of the Bologna Marathon was held, one of the many running-related events that have been attracting thousands of people in recent years, and which appear to be growing steadily. From Milan to Rome, via Venice, how does such a challenging race generate as much interest?
AN EVENT FOR EVERYONE
The marathon remains the main-event, but the real challenge are the collateral initiatives, not only for registered participants, which are being built ad hoc already in the days leading up to it and which aim to broaden the participation of citizens and tourists as much as possible.
Work is being done on an offer made up of alternative races, including shorter distances or non-competitive ones, and on the modalities: from relay races to children’s races, to the increasingly popular “Charity Runs” in which the registration fee for the race can, for example, be donated to a nonprofit organization.
For the organizing city, all the cultural proposals aimed at introducing and appreciating the city, such as guided tours and initiatives with museums, as well as food stands and many other activities in collaboration with the event’s partners, also become very important. “A special edition of the race goes into the archives, where we reached the maximum number of registrations, with many foreigners who saw the beauty of Bologna in a different context than usual,” stresses Teresa Lopilato, chairwoman of the Bologna Marathon organizing committee (Source: TuttoSport).
OPPORTUNITIES FOR PARTNERS
The partners are as critical a component of the event as the event is to them.
The 16,000 participants in the Venice Marathon, the more than 8,000 in the Bologna Marathon, and the more than 40,000 expected for the Rome Marathon and Milan Marathon are obviously a huge opportunity.
Collaborations are built according to the budget available, to one’s goals and tailored to one’s characteristics, with a great many parties partnering with each of these events, contributing to its realization.
These range from the distribution of gadgets and discounts to participants, to obtaining visibility on the marathon’s social media, or through the affixing of the company logo on t-shirts and advertising material, to having and banners, to customized stands at the meeting and finishing points.
Matching individual initiatives and competitions has also become widespread, also facilitated by the increasing number of different challenges within the single edition.
A very recent example is the agreement between GLS Italy and Milano Marathon, with the express courier player becoming Official Partner of the event. The company will be present with a booth at the MiCo Milano Running Festival and has decided to involve customers and employees in the Relay Marathon, the Marathon on Sunday and also the Family Run. All this, tying in with the event also with a fundraiser in favor of nonprofit organizations.
What’s more, as was the case with the Venice Marathon, which has already been linked to ChainOn in the past, the possibility of being televised live becomes a national and international level asset, given also the increasing participation of foreign athletes and the search for involvement not only of citizens, but also of tourists.
WHAT A MARATHON REPRESENTS
In addition to associating and contributing to the realization of the event for a return in economic terms, the goal also and above all becomes to associate with its positive image.
From institutions and partners to individual participants and volunteers, through these types of events, sport becomes a medium capable of uniting and making everyone participate within the city, for a result in terms of physical, mental and social well-being.
And precisely the concept of well-being becomes one of the aspects to which sponsors are paying and will pay more and more attention, as pointed out in the 23rd edition of the Predictive Survey – “The Future of Sponsorship” published by ChainOn and StageUp: it is one of the six trends in the investment market, predicted for 2024.
The full document can be downloaded only on ChainOn, free of charge and at this
link: www.chainon.it/predittiva2023
