Subway to announce ‘Groundbreaking’ Sponsorship With F1 (Update)
Zak Brown, an F1 sponsorship guru who manages the sandwich giant's motor sport portfolio, told the Telegraph newspaper that F1 and Subway are a "perfect fit".
"I took the Subway chief marketing officer to meet Bernie (Ecclestone) in Montreal last year, and I would say they have been exploring it for a year," said Brown.
"They (Subway) are all about the consumer, they are massive media buyers so they would look at a sport and see if it stacks up from a media point of view and formula one does," he added.
Brown suggested that, for its F1 foray, Subway could emulate its Nascar strategy in sponsoring "a team, an event and a driver".
04/13/14
| The new American F1 team owned by Gene Haas could use a big sponsor so why is Subway not sponsoring the team? Dumb Americans |
U.S.-based sandwich chain Subway "is considering a ground-breaking sponsorship deal" with F1 which could see several of the sport’s teams and top drivers "teaming up to promote the brand," according to Christian Sylt for the London TELEGRAPH.
JMI CEO Zak Brown, whose firm handles Subway’s motorsport sponsorship, said F1 would be the “perfect" fit. Brown: “I took the Subway chief marketing officer to meet [F1 CEO] Bernie [Ecclestone] in Montreal last year, and I would say they have been exploring it for a year. They are all about the consumer, they are massive media buyers so they would look at a sport and see if it stacks up from a media point of view and Formula One does." Sponsoring several teams along with F1 itself "would have a high-octane price tag."
The cost of a global partnership of F1 alone comes to an average of $20M annually, "with team agreements required in addition to that." Subway "has adequate resources at its disposal" as it reportedly had revenue of $18.2B in '12. F1 "would help to boost Subway’s profile in Europe where it is rapidly expanding." Telegraph