To help broaden brand awareness and leverage its involvement with motorcycle racing's MotoGP, Tissot has begun selling watches at MotoGP racetracks in a specially designed, portable shop. The official timekeeper and the official watch of MotoGP, Tissot is trying to take advantage of the signage on the track and on television to increase brand awareness and spike sales.
“Our efforts at the circuit are really about brand exposure and helping our retailers increase sales, while at the same time building customer loyalty is part of the programme too,” says Bernie Schreiber, Head of Sponsorship at Tissot.
Tissot partners with the local retailer in a MotoGP city, making a big marketing push with advertisements in the official MotoGP programme, billboards all over the city and additional media where appropriate.
Javier Zapata, owner, Zapata Joyeros, is Tissot's local retailer in Barcelona (with four stores) and it was his responsibility to staff the store and handle the sales at the MotoGP track. According to Zapata, the opportunity to sell Tissot and Tissot only at the MotoGP was a great idea.





“We found out that Tissot has a merchandising set for the MotoGP events, so we thought it would be a good opportunity to try it here in Barcelona,” he says. “Tissot is really focused on the Motorcycle world, with the special T-Race watches, the MotoGP limited editions and the special helmets. We started talking with the Tissot people — they had tried the concept at other tracks and it worked out well. For a local store, doing something like this would be too expensive on our own, but having the support of the brand made it possible.”
Tissot also uses defending MotoGP champion Nicky Hayden, an American from Kentucky, as one of its ambassadors (another motor racing ambassador is Danica Patrick). Not surprisingly, it was difficult to sell Nicky Hayden watches in Spain, as Daniel Pedrosa, a Spanish rider, is also a competitor in MotoGP (and is on Hayden's same Repsol Honda team).
“In Barcelona, we couldn't sell Nicky Hayden products, because he is up against the local hero, Pedrosa,” Zapata explains. “If we had a Spanish rider, we could have doubled our sales. The people who were asking for the Nicky Hayden products were interested in the model for the design and the colours, not because of Hayden.”
Zapata saw a great deal of impact from the Tissot campaign surrounding the MotoGP. Not only were more people coming into his shops asking for MotoGP Tissot watches, he was able to sell to a completely different customer from his regular clients in Barcelona.
“We weren't selling to the clients of my stores,” Zapata acknowledges. “All the sales were to people who came to the MotoGP from other areas in Spain or from all over Europe. It's kind of strange, when people travel, they feel free to buy. For us, it was hard work, because we had to close the sale quickly, we only had a short period of time, half an hour maximum, to sell someone you will never see again.
”I am going to try to do other events like this,“he continues.”For the brand, it's really important because they are doing a merchandising effort to tell people about the products, we did so many speeches about the Tissot products, which really helps the brand."





The average MotoGP spectator is a hard sell for the price range of Tissot motorcycle-racing themed product, which has an average price of 550 Euros, but all the efforts by both the brand and the retailer paid off. “We doubled the sales that they did at the other tracks,” Zapata says proudly. “We sold 50 pieces for a total of about 25,000 Euros.
”I was quite surprised at how many people were already wearing Tissot watches at the race,“Zapata adds.”We were offering a free gift to everyone who was wearing a Tissot who came into the stand, so if someone came in with their friends and they were the only one wearing a Tissot, that person got a free gift. We wanted to take care of our clients and make them feel special. We gave away so many gifts, it was great!
"A lot of people know about Tissot, but they didn't know they had specific products for MotoGP,” Zapata notes. “They know that Tissot is sponsoring the timing of the MotoGP because they see the signage, but they don't know the product.”
Tissot is presenting its MotoGP concept at the three races this year in Spain, two in Italy and on each in the UK, Netherlands, Germany and USA. In 2008, they are planning to roll out a larger concept in MotoGP and NASCAR in the USA.
“We are really happy with the programme for the first year and believe we have big potential to increase sales for 2008 with some new promotional concepts,” says Tissot’s Schreiber.

For more information, please visit www.tissot.ch