Sponsors - we got sponsors --

Liz · 1 Oct 2002, 23:45 (Ref:393571)

MIAMI (October 1, 2002) - The list of sponsors joining the historic first pairing between the CART FedEx Championship Series and the American Le Mans Series at this weekend's Grand Prix Americas got bigger and stronger today with the announcement that international banking power HSBC and national distributing leader Southern Wine & Spirits had inked their deals.

HSBC, which is the second-largest bank in the world, has signed to be the official financial services provider of the Grand Prix Americas. The company also partners with Jaguar in the Formula One series, and will be represented with track signage during the broadcasts of both Saturday's ALMS event as well as CART's Sunday race.

Southern Wine & Spirits is a Florida-based distributor that has grown to become the largest distributor of beer, wine, spirits and non-alcoholic beverages in the United States. Sunday's Round 16 of the 2002 CART FedEx Championship Series will take place at 1 p.m. Eastern Time on Sunday and will be carried live by CBS Sports.

kmchow · 2 Oct 2002, 00:04 (Ref:393582)

Wow, that is great to hear some large and prominent sponsors have announced their support for CART. HSBC is quite recognisable by people? Is Souther Wine & Spirits just as recognisable? Since you mention distributor, does Southern Wine have a retail outlet or are they literally, only distributing to stores?

Crash Test · 2 Oct 2002, 00:35 (Ref:393597)

That's great- but will anyone cough up enough to run this mass of sponsorless cars for next season?

Liz · 2 Oct 2002, 10:50 (Ref:393849)

Well, they are certainly doing everything they can to get these people on board!

Another example:

Trackside
Adrian Fernandez will kick-off the Miami race weekend with an appearance for MOMO Design Watches at Burdines in the Dadeland Mall (Kendall Drive) on Wednesday, October 2, from 6:00 to 8:00 pm. Fernandez will be accompanied by the Tecate Girls, and media are welcome to attend.

Fernandez will be a guest speaker at the CART Business-to-Business Forum on Thursday, October 3, at the Miami City Club. The event begins at 4:00 pm.

On Friday morning, October 4, Fernandez will team with Michel Jourdain Jr. and Mario Dominguez for a Miami-based Three Amigos promotion. Six winners from a local radio promotion will join the trio for breakfast at 8:30 am at the CART Business Unit located in the Champ Car Paddock. Media are welcome to attend.

Lee Janotta · 2 Oct 2002, 14:36 (Ref:394091)

Woohoo!

However, it's sponsorship for the series, not teams... Which leads me even more to believe CART will start to act as sponsorship brokers for the teams.

Crash Test · 2 Oct 2002, 21:59 (Ref:394426)

They already are if they are going to subsidize all of the competitors next season..

But being the official financial or wine supplier is hardly ground breaking, every event have different official suppliers...

kmchow · 2 Oct 2002, 23:52 (Ref:394495)

Even if HSBC and wine company are just presenting sponsors, I think CART needs all the sponsors they can get at the moment.

Lee Janotta · 3 Oct 2002, 02:14 (Ref:394568)

Well, what I think we're seeing is how much easier sponsors feel it is to deal with the series than the teams... So I figure we're going to start seeing a lot more deals like the competitor support package, where CART arranges the sponsorship of cars so that they all look nicely liveried, and they have full grids.

In reality, it is a hell of a lot easier to just deal with the sanction, rather than picking a team, dealing with their management, their drivers...

Crash Test · 3 Oct 2002, 03:19 (Ref:394586)

Just to give you an idea of the Sponsors for the upcoming Gold Coast race, here is a list of them:

The Race is presented by:
The Queensland Government
IMG
CART
AVESCO

Naming rights sponsor:
Honda

Major Sponsors:
Qantas
Gillette
Energex
Conrad Jupiters Casino
FedEx
Falken
Worldcom (??)
AAPT Mobile
Konica
Barter Card
Coca Cola
Main Roads
Caltex
Gold Coast City Council
The Courier Mail

Official Suppliers include- BOC Gases, Fast Proof Press, Fuji/Hanimex, Gold Coasst Bulletin, Realm Productions, Beringer Blass, Network Ten, Lifestyle Australia, Norco Pauls, SeaFM, MMM, Event Gear, Spotless Catering, Streets Ice Cream etc...

And I can tell you right now, that most of these companies simply use the event for corporate hospitality reasons and junkets.

mac · 3 Oct 2002, 03:54 (Ref:394598)

You don't think it would have anything to do with the massive crowd that is just about guaranteed there? Or the fact that it is shown live across Australia?

Flatspot · 3 Oct 2002, 04:32 (Ref:394611)

Good on Australia! Maybe we should get some of your marketing people to the US to show us how to do it right. The Canadians do it well too. Any way you look at it, its all good for CART.

Crash Test · 3 Oct 2002, 05:11 (Ref:394618)

Basically a lot of it are done with deals created with the corporate packages. For example Qantas, they have a rather massive granstand/corporate suite at the first chicane, add in all of the catering as well as bells and whistles, it would probably set them back a couple of million. Throw in some stickers on some of the corners, what's the difference? But the event is big business down here for the corporate types, as MANY companies are prepared to spend hundreds of thousands on a box for the weekend. And the thing is that they keep coming back year after year. If they had the race elsewhere, with less of a party atmosphere, they wouldn't sell nearly as many corporate suites.

Just looking down the list, I know Falken Tyres always have a big get together where they fly in many of their key suppliers for the event. That's big for airlines, the local hotels etc... It's probably a bit harder in North America where ever 3 city would have a big time motorsport event of some description.

Crash Test · 3 Oct 2002, 05:14 (Ref:394620)

And that's another thing for this year's event, is that it has been combined with the local touring cars, and they will have a full on championship meeting on the weekend (although they have seen on the program in 94, 96-01). Apparently ticket sales are up 40% on last year's record sales, and they've had to put in additional grandstands.

macdaddy · 3 Oct 2002, 06:54 (Ref:394667)

Liz · 3 Oct 2002, 11:02 (Ref:394813)

From what I understand, that is the way Long Beach runs and that is the way they are hoping Miami will run. Hence the B2B events explaining how this can be really good for your company. Pirelli does this in ALMS -- we have been to Pirelli parties at Trois Rivieres and Mosport -- and of course Audi is the champion party thrower at Le Mans although I got in on some Spyker things too.

This is what is good about working with the ALMS this weekend, Champ Cars can see how this is worked and perhaps Dr. Don will give them some contacts. I think it's a good sign.

I can't wait to see these "Three Amigos" promotions. I wonder if they'll wear the hats?

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