Sergiu Mircea, Executive Director of Marketing, Communications, and Customer Experience at Banca Transilvania, spoke about sports marketing at the ZF Marketing & Sport Business Conference:

How and how much does Banca Transilvania invest in sports marketing?

• Sports marketing is one of the key components of Banca Transilvania’s promotional and branding strategy. Essentially, we cover all aspects of this type of marketing: from the teams and athletes who serve as our ambassadors, to sports federations, visibility at competitions, and partnerships with teams. Last year, for example, we also expanded into Formula 1. In total, the budget allocated to all these initiatives amounts to approximately 50 million lei.
  
  
• When evaluating a sports partnership, we consider several factors. Obviously, audience reach is important—you want partners with high visibility. But beyond audience reach, what matters most is shared values and the fact that the partnership can offer more than just exposure.
  
  
• Essentially, all of Banca Transilvania’s promotional efforts and commercial drive stem from building a strong brand. We don’t focus exclusively on promoting products, but on creating a brand that people recognize and love. That is precisely why this type of investment in the brand is harder to measure than one strictly focused on the product—it is a long-term investment.
  
  
• A major advantage for us is that we already have experience in sports marketing, solid expertise, and an extensive portfolio of partners, whom we can constantly compare and evaluate. A basic rule is that a significant portion of the cost should be covered by the audience, with brand association serving as an added benefit. To draw a simple analogy, if you buy ad space on a soccer team’s jersey, ideally the investment should be covered by the visibility it generates, and the association with the team should be a bonus.
  
  

What can we learn from the West and from positive examples in Romania?

• Sports are part of a broader industry—entertainment. People come to the stadium to go home happy. In the West, sporting events are turned into comprehensive experiences that last well beyond the two hours of play. Fans arrive several hours early, spend time there, and are engaged and active, including on social media.
  
  
• We need well-trained teams that know how to connect with younger generations and invest in the fan experience. A relevant example is our involvement in basketball: beyond the results, there is extraordinary engagement, spectacular event productions, and creative initiatives. For example, in a game held on June 1, the players wore custom uniforms designed by children, which were later auctioned off. Such initiatives turn every game into a memorable experience.
  
  

About Romania'spotential:

• If I look at the United States, we see athletes who, although just as talented as ours, are trained from a young age—or from the moment they begin to show promise—and are built up as true marketing products. They speak flawlessly, their speeches are well-structured, they attend events, and they inspire companies through motivational talks. It’s a much more visible approach, backed by substantial investments. Basically, athletes, teams, and federations are strategically developed as products that can be further capitalized on.
  
  
• I believe that Romania also has many sports brands that could go much further. Of course, it’s not easy, because we’re talking about a smaller market with more limited financial resources than in other regions. Nevertheless, we have some truly remarkable brands. I won’t mention a single name, but I can give a few examples: Universitatea Cluj, Universitatea Craiova—I’ve seen extraordinary energy at their matches this year. Rapid is another brand that generates very strong engagement, and when it comes to athletes, the Simona Halep and Gheorghe Hagi brands are truly impressive.
  
  
• I believe there is tremendous potential here. I would encourage companies to take a closer look in this direction, because sports remain an extremely effective channel for building brand visibility, as well as for generating brand association and favorability.