Constructive, resolutive and optimistic. Ingredients of Nacho Solana’s personality, a true reference in women’s sports and sponsorship.
Nacho accumulates more than 17 years of experience in the areas of Sponsorship, Events, PR and Communications in sports. He is currently the director and founder of OÉOÉ Marketing, a company born with the aim of taking sports sponsorship to the next level. He is also a business associate of Aralia Dinamic and member of the Marketing Commission of the Spanish Olympic Commitee; besides of collaborating, from a sponsorship field, with Sandra Sánchez, karate world champion. Along his career, he has been involved in major projects such as the renowned Iberdrola – Universo Mujer program.
According to Nacho, one of the main barriers that women’s sports need to overcome is visibility. “If they see you, you exist. It’s the starting point.” An impact that is eventually growing in favour of players, clubs and competitions and that allows a rising interest throughout society. From his point of view, it is the trigger to get media more interested and, consequently, more sponsors investing.
In relation to women’s football and sponsorship, Nacho Solana emphasises the need of focusing on the values of women’s football to communicate and promote clubs’ assets. “Let’s forget about the value of pitch boards, the first page should be about the differential value of each club. We have inspirational stories based on different, innovative and reliable values for brands and media.”
Regarding increasing fans interest and attendance to games, Nacho suggests that record-breaking attendances in big stadiums as San Mamés or Wanda Metropolitano should go beyond incredible curiosities. “Record-breaking attendances are great, however, we also need to work on the average 1,000 spectators attendance in the rest of the games to make it 2,000.” As key element of the solution, he proposes actions to get players and their stories closer to society. “Let’s let institutions, businesses and educational centres know about the athletes on and off the field and about their values. Once you know about their stories, you fall in love.”
You can enjoy the full interview (in Spanish) here: