I saw this ad during the European grand prix and liked it so I thought I'd share it with you.
The interesting thing is that Lewis and Fernando seem to be marketed as the same package. The only ads that I have not seen the two of them occupy the same slot is the Santander ads. But I think this is because of the need to localize some of the marketing i.e. Alonso is the face of Santander in Spain and Hamilton fronts the UK ads.
I also need to mention the Renault-ING sponsorship deal. I was reading an article over the weekend that pointed out interesting facts about that deal. One: Before the deal was made, Flavio Briatore, Team principle at Renault, had never heard of ING nor what they do. (It is a Dutch financial group - Internationale Nederlanden Group). In the USA it is probably more synonymous with the New York Marathon. Anyway, the deal rumored to be worth something in the region $80 million a year over a three year period is supposed to increase the profile of the group. This is of course because of the television audiences that F1 delivers over a season -a figure that comes in just under a billion, and set to grow with the prominence of India and China.
The second interesting fact about this deal was the fact that the board of directors that signed off on this partnership, knew nothing about F1. Apparently the Formula One 101, was done on the plane, on the way to Melbourne. This is interesting insofar as the justification for this course of action by the board was to maintain neutrality and non-bias on the decision. They needed to spend money on sponsorship and did not want to base their decision on CEO or Chairman's hobbies, whims or interests. (The decision was debated for a long period before the decision was reached)
I will keep my eye on this partnership because from it, we shall be able to learn a lot about the future of Formula One commercial sponsorship deals.
PS Why have Ferrari not placed sponsorship ads on the wheel caps?
5 comments:
"PS Why have Ferrari not placed sponsorship ads on the wheel caps?"
-Because they'll be spinning at 2000 revolutions per minute.
But I am sure that this an innovation waiting to happen. Sponsorship logos on the wheel caps....it will happen. I have a feeling that if it was Red Bull Racing it would already have been in place....anyway wait and see
I never saw the videolink before because I didn't have Flash but that commercial is hilarious. It doesn't mean there's no feud but it's funny all the same.
And to use Mika Hakkinen at the end...brilliant!
By the way, what Merc is Alonso driving? Here in the US we don't get certain versions of foreign-made cars (hence why the F1 manufacturers want more exposure here). Of course, we don't get those cool F1 ads either. The only one we get is Kovalainen'g ING one and it's nothing...
The Mercedes that appear in that commercial are both custom made AMG's. You know AMG? They modify Mercedes Benz's and customize them. Some people say that the modifications are actually better than whatever comes out of the factory. One things for sure is that they are damn fast.
Anyway the cars are Mercedes CLK 63 for Hamilton (which you know already) and Alonso is in the new C 63, the 2008 version. Shame you do not get those over there. But I am sure it is a presence in LA.
Yeah, that C 63 is sick. No, no... SICK!!!. By the way, it obviously follows that the mods are better than the original; that's why they are mods.
And AMG is the in-house 'soup-up' division of Mercedes like the M-Division of BMW so the cars are still 'factory'.
Both cars use the same engine but I'll take the C 63 anyday...
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