Case study

In April 2005, BSI, the organisers and rights holders of the FIM Speedway Grand Prix World Championship series appointed MTA Media. The brief was to secure major national and regional media coverage for the 2005 FIM Fiat Vans British Speedway Grand Prix, which was to take place at the Millennium Stadium, Cardiff.

This was after the 2004 Grand Prix had been largely ignored by the mainstream UK media.

In the build up the Grand Prix, MTA Media secured coverage in a broad cross-section of the UK national press, including coverage in The Times, The Sun, The Mirror, The Express, The Sunday Times and The Star.

On the day of the event itself there was in-depth coverage in every single UK national newspaper, including a number of whole page and double page features.

We also secured a media deal, which saw The Sun logo feature on the bike fronts at the event, as well as some additional in-event branding.

The meeting itself, which took place at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff, attracted just under 40,000 spectators, the biggest Speedway Crowd in over 20 years.

Sky Sports live television ratings also hit a record high.

MTA Media were reappointed to work on the 2006 Grand Prix, and again secured major national feature and news coverage in the run up to the event, including major features in The Sun, The Star, Mirror, Sunday Times, The Times, Independent, News of the World and Maxim amongst many others. We again reached an agreement with The Sun to appear on the bike fronts at the event.

We also secured some 40 regional radio competitions and 40 regional newspaper competitions, as well as additional ticket competitions with The Sun, thesun.co.uk and SkySport.com.

The 2006 campaign, which began at the beginning of April, ran right up until the day of the event on June 3.

The attendance at the event grew by 10% on the 2005 figure.