Brands like Brembo, Tissot and Nolan Helmets are discovering the power of play and engagement with the new Mobile Game MotoGP Championship Quest.

1. On any Thursday before a MotoGPTM
race as you walk the paddock it is clear
that comradery and a love of racing is at the heart of the sport, despite the
fiercely competitive nature of Championship. As a licensor, Dorna Sports has
always aimed to find complimentary partnerships and where possible make
introductions which will facilitate promotion of MotoGPTM
and trade for our
partner’s products.
As one of our licensee’s prepares to ship the new mobile game based on the
2016 MotoGPTM
season, I wanted to take the opportunity to show you how
a group of licensee’s have teamed up to cross promote their products and
engage with the mobile audience.
MotoGPTM
is breaking new ground in the area of brand engagement in mobile.
As an executive with Google Play recently commented “You are doing a
phenomenal job of pioneering a new advertising/engagement model for
games.” This endorsement of our digital strategy is an important one and
serves to illustrate how our team has focused on creating an environment
which enhances the fan experience and delivers real engagement value for
our partners.
The case studies presented in this paper are just the tip of the “iceberg” and
we look forward to many more of our licensee’s seizing the opportunity to
amplify their product and brand recognition amongst the loyal audience that is
the MotoGPTM
fan.
Phaedra Haramis
Licensing Manager,
Dorna Sports

2. Engagement by design.
When WePlay Media acquired the rights to MotoGPTM
for mobile platforms the
experienced team of game developers and hard core MotoGPTM
fans decided
to take a very different approach to the game play. Graeme Warring, COO and
co-founder of WePlay Media said “Over the past several years the mobile gaming
market has moved from a pay to play business model to a free to play model
which has been a total game changer for several reasons. Firstly as users do not
have to pay, any friction which existed between the yes / no decision to download
the app has disappeared. Now consumers in their millions are consuming content
like this game in markets from Indonesia to Russia.”
The team at WePlay then set about designing a game which would be free to play
and seamlessly and innocuously introduce brands and advertising into the game.
Graeme said “When you have a situation where consumers are engaging with free
content like MotoGPTM
Championship Quest on a screen for up to an hour or so a
day, you begin to have more in common with free to air Television than you do with
the traditional notion of gaming.”
The recognition that the game would be ubiquitously available and a powerful
brand delivery tool helped craft the design decisions. Mark De Simone CEO of
WePlay said “the first thing we had to do was make the game fun and easy to play
so that any fan could feel like they were succeeding the first time they picked up
the game. Far to often, motorcycle racing games have been designed like a light
version of a console game and to be fair while they are challenging, for the average
player they are simply too hard to play and this steep learning curve just ends up
driving players away”
Authenticity of the experience is the reason WePlay chose to license MotoGPTM
,
however the team wanted to dig deeper and partner with brands that recognize
MotoGPTM
as being a great vehicle to promote their brand and deeply integrate
these into the fabric of the game.

3. Time To Be Smart
Tissot has been the official timekeeper of MotoGPTM
since 2001 making the partnership
one of the longest and most valuable of the series. Tissot’s limited edition MotoGPTM
watches have become a staple favorite of fans and across the circuits and paddocks the
Tissot logo is never far away.
The Tissot logo is also featured in all of the video games Dorna has licensed, however
with Championship Quest Matt George and his team went one step further. Knowing
how many hours and how frequently use their mobile devices each day, Matt and
the team at WePlay Media put their heads together to come up with an engagement
partnership which will see Tissot generate billions of brand impressions from the race
screen timer, all the way through to the production of a “Tissot” sponsored rider which
free players may choose to engage with and a Tissot Tournament.
“We really wanted the Fan World Championship to be a special event and create a prize
pool which would blow the customers away” said Graeme of WePlay.Media Tissot
recognized this and in addition to providing monthly prizes of T/Touch Watches, they
provided us with a limited edition watch for each fan who takes the podium of the Fan
World Championship.
Graeme and the team at WePlay Media have taken the brand placement of Tissot and
extended it though all of the material they produce, including banners, timers, User
Interface screens and on set of the Weekly Game Show, Championship Quest.
“It is really important that when partnering with brands like Tissot that we deliver value
and brand recognition in the context of the extended experience, whether this be in
social media posts, our web site, Facebook page or the game itself.”
“If we were to count the brand impressions over the first year of release, I am betting it
will be well north of 2 billion based on the frequency and prominence of the placement”
said Graeme.
Creating a favorable impression amongst fans is something that Matt and the Tissot
marketing team don’t take lightly and the integration of Tissot in Championship Quest is
just another example of the thought leadership Tissot takes in sports sponsorship and
their focus on active engagement with the fans.

4. Protecting the Brand
Nolan Group founded in 1971 by a former racer protects the heads of 12 riders in the MotoGPTM
, Moto2 and
Moto3 classes. Two of the riders in MotoGPTM
, Stefan Bradl and Danilo Petrucci and two test riders, Michael Pirro
and their high profile long time rider, Casey Stoner. However it is through their license with Dorna that Nolan
reaches out into the motorcycle community and protects the heads of thousands of riders around the world with
their MotoGPTM
branded helmets under the Noland and X-Lite brands.
WantingtoreachintothepocketsoftheMotoGPTM
fans,LucaMazzoliniofNolanwasquicktosiezeontheopportunity
to work with the team at WePlay Media to connect with fans around the world who download the app.
While the riders in the game are all represented true to life with their respective helmet providers, the “rookie”
class riders and other sponsored riders used by those players who use the game for free had no helmet deal, until
Luca struck a deal which would see every one of the rookie riders outfitted with an X-Lite helmet. Graeme from
WePlay Media said “When you consider that in a free to play game most of the players who use the app are not
going to pay, that means that most of the rider characters being used by the community are going to be wearing
an X-Lite helmet. That’s huge in terms of impressions and engagement and more importantly the very helmet
that the racers wear can we won in the Nolan Tournament”
Luca also saw the value in the Fan World Championship and how the entire fan experience revolves around this
competition, so Nolan provided an additional 3 X-Lite carbon fiber helmets for the fans who end up taking the
podium in the 2016 Fan World Championship, swelling the value of the prize swag by over $1000.
On a recent trip to Italy Graeme dropped into the Nolan manufacturing facility to see for himself how the helmets
are made. “As a motorcycle rider the helmet is always on your head but rarely on your mind and to be honest I had
no idea how they were made. It was incredible to see the process of manufacture, especially the hand laid carbon
fiber helmets Nolan have donated for the Fan World Championship Winners. I was completely blown away when I
saw how much human effort goes into the construction, they really are hand crafted and the quality is first class”
The community of MotoGPTM
is a tight knit one and we at Dorna were really pleased to see our licensee’s getting
together and sharing how their businesses work and most importantly how they are working to serve the fans
of MotoGPTM
.

5. Brembo
It is often said that races are won and lost under brakes, and as one of the major
brake component suppliers of MotoGPTM
, Simon Piutelli, Communication Director
of Brembo recognized the opportunity to make an even deeper connection with
the MotoGPTM
audience by integrating the Brembo brand into the actual game play.
In an effort to simplify the game play, the designers at WePlay decided to just focus
simply on timing. Timing under brakes and timing as you roll on the accelerator.
Auto steering would keep you on track and enable you to focus on the important
things, like picking the perfect brake zone and achieving the highest scores to
challenge your friends with. This also meant there were just two controls on the
screen, a brake button and an accelerator button.
On a recent visit to the Brembo headquarters in Bergamo, Italy, Graeme from WePlay
and Simone and his team came up with the perfect brand integration strategy. The
brakebuttonwouldcontaintheroundsymbolofBrembologo,andasyouapproachthe
brake zone marker, the symbol would be complimented by the actual Brembo name.
Simone said “This is really an elegant solution, it makes sense, our brand is used
in context and it provides an additional layer of authenticity to the game” while
Graeme said “based on our forecast downloads it is likely we will generate around
1 billion race sessions in 2016, when you consider that the average player will hit
thebrakebuttonandpassthroughabrakemarkeraround25timeperrace,Brembo
will generate around 25 billion brand impressions from this simple integration.”
Brembo went several steps further however and they became the trophy sponsor
of the MotoGP TM
Fan World Championship, creating a unique one of a kind trophy
out of a MotoGPTM
brake disc and caliper and they sponsored a dedicated Brembo
Tournament within the game. This tournament rewards those players who
achieve the most “Perfect” braking instances during a weekly challenge. “For fans
of MotoGPTM
who may not have heard of Brembo or know what we do, I am sure
this game will change that” said Simone.

6. Authentic Brand Representation
In all things MotoGPTM
, Dorna always strives to be consistent, professional and
deliver real value for our brand partners. When it comes to the Video Game
category Dorna has three major focuses, Console gaming, Mobile Gaming and an
emerging category of browser based light casino style gaming.
Every brand associated with Dorna is represented in the artwork of the tracks,
riders and bikes, As you can see from the images below the attention to detail is
intense. With the release of the new free to play mobile game, Dorna expects to
grow audience by up to 50 million new users over the next few years and generate
billions of brand impressions.
As smartphones quickly overtake other media for the share of users attention,
we hope that this will further compound the benefits our brand partners derive
from their association with MotoGPTM
. If you would like an introduction to any of
our partners feel free to reach out to Phaedra Haramis or Jorge Canela and we
will facilitate these introductions. If you would like to appear in the new mobile
game, run a tournament or get involved in the Fan World Championship, contact
our licensee Graeme Warring on +1 480 234 1914 or graeme@weplay.media