IndyCar to announce new title sponsor (B2B) in January (Update)

IndyCar will help put millions of American IT workers on the unemployment line with an NTT deal

UPDATE With the rumors that NTT, and it's American arm, NTT Data, is going to take over title sponsorship of the IndyCar series it's clear this rumor will soon go to 'fact'. NTT's primary goal is IT services for large corporations. They take over IT services from American companies, almost all the American IT workers lose their job, and the work gets farmed to India, Mexico, Panama and other low labor cost countries. NTT and its competitors, like Atos and Tata, have collectively put millions of American IT staff out of work.

NTT's goal will be to market to large corporations to put Americans out of work. They are not a consumer company, and as such, will not be looking to market the series to consumers to win new fans. This will strictly be a money in IndyCar's pocket deal with little series growth potential.

One of NTT’s main subsidiaries, NTT Data, is a longtime sponsor of Chip Ganassi Racing’s IndyCar program and is one of the largest IT services companies in the world with more than $16B in annual revenue. It was not clear whether NTT would use its name, the NTT Data name or one of its several other subsidiaries if it landed the deal.

Mark Miles talks about IndyCar being a great B2B platform. B2B sponsors do not market to consumers meaning IndyCar gets money but zero promotion

12/26/18 IndyCar CEO Mark Miles told Autoweek on Friday the announcement of a new series sponsors is coming sooner than many people are expecting.

“I expect it to be put to bed and have an announcement soon," Miles told Autoweek. “I hope we have a new title sponsor and a new logo on the firesuits and the cars for the open test at COTA on February 12-13. If we are going to roll it out by the middle of February, that means an early January or mid-January announcement."

Miles would not reveal who the new sponsor will be because the deal is still being negotiated, only to say, “In due time, you will find that out."

Miles said. “First of all, it’s a significant financial relationship. We take the rights fee the title sponsor pays us and then we pass along a lot of that to the race teams that put the sponsor's marque on the race cars, the firesuits, crew uniforms and the transporters.

“We do the same for our race promoters. The rights fee that is paid by a title sponsor is an important contributor to the financial systems for our ecosystem. It helps fund expenses for the teams and race promoters.

“Then, there is promotion. IndyCar right now is an incredibly strong platform from a marketing point of view for business-to-business (opportunities). It’s where businesses can entertain their own customers and find new ones. That’s very helpful to them. We aren’t quite as strong at the moment as we hope to be someday with respect to being a consumer brand. Right now, I think marketers are more likely to sign up for business-to-business opportunities than they are on direct to consumer opportunities."