News and Insight

Right Formula 2020: A Year in Review

When I started Right Formula in 2009, I knew the business would have to continually evolve to keep up with client needs and market forces. But this year has necessitated change beyond what anyone could have predicted.

Just over a decade ago, the premise for starting the business was to bring together some of the finest strategic and innovative people to deliver a high-quality service that meets our clients needs.  

To achieve this, we ensured that principles such as ongoing creativity, resilience, adaptability and perseverance were rooted in the way each and every team member went about their work. 
 

In turn this has allowed us to achieve success based on the strength of relationships we’ve nurtured in some cases over many years, built on the core principles we’ve instilled across our workforce. Having marked over a decade of operating and experienced what has been without doubt the most challenging year of the business – which has incidentally also been my 40th birthday year – I’ve probably been in a more reflective mood than usual!

Today, we have more than 50 staff working across numerous sports across the globe, consulting for many prestigious clients who operate in a range of business sectors. It is therefore critical to me, now more than ever, that each and every client sees us deliver a return on their investment. 

In 2020, the marketing rights we were tasked to activate at Right Formula simply couldn’t be delivered in the way they were articulated in contracts. As a business, we have had to work creatively with rights holders to ensure we adapted, and fast. We had to find solutions that were mutually agreeable but not without compromise from both sides.

The character of those within the business, channelling the values we had when Right Formula began, has led us to be more creative than ever and truly deliver best-in-class solutions. 

For example, across the industry there had been question marks around how best to activate digital and virtual experiences. The COVID-19 pandemic required innovation, so at Right Formula we introduced a Virtual Official Match Ball Carrier for Kia at the UEFA Europa League Final, provided innovative digital solutions to leverage Genpact’s partnership with Envision Virgin Racing in Formula E, and delivered an entire Esports competition for Logitech.

LogitechDec2020

These are just small samples of our work this year and whilst I’m truly delighted that we’ve delivered campaigns that have produced amazing results for our clients, it’s also the personal development of individuals within our business that I’ve witnessed first-hand that I take huge pride in.

 

I have to admit, I was worried about whether remote working was an efficient solution as our industry is all about people, but it’s fair to say that worry has been firmly dismissed. The team has been diligent and determined in all aspects of their work and as a result we haven’t lost a client – in fact, we’ve renewed several existing partnerships and seen some healthy new business wins

 

Whilst it’s difficult to predict what exactly to expect in 2021, we can certainly take a huge amount of experience from the past 12 months. What’s more, there seems to be renewed optimism commercially in the marketplace which is a welcome change from recent months.

 

It’s positive that our clients are planning both physical and digital activations for 2021. We have proactively found solutions to ensure our clients are still achieving business-changing results and I’m hopeful that come this time next year, we’ll be back to normality. I’m certainly keeping my fingers crossed!

 

But whatever the world throws at us, I feel that we have a business that’s genuinely robust and we will be better prepared than ever. 

 

Just finally, I’d like to take this opportunity to wish all of our staff, clients, partners and suppliers a well deserved break over the Christmas period and all the very best for 2021.