Bud man: Kasey Kahne, the new face of iconic brand
By Michael J. Fresina
NASCAR Illustrated Executive Editor
He was alone in a bar sipping a Bud Light and watching ESPN when he heard the news: “Dale Jr. to Hendrick, Budweiser Taps Kahne.”
“First, I looked around to see if anyone else was watching TV, or if anyone in the bar recognized me,” Kasey Kahne says.
He noticed a few people staring his way. Soon, those same people approached, asking questions and offering hearty congratulations.
“It was strange and certainly highlighted how cool people think the Budweiser sponsorship is,” Kahne says, “but I needed to call my manager to see if it was true.”
So fresh was the news that even Kahne’s manager was unsure if Bud had simply announced its intention to pursue Kahne or if a deal had been struck.
The deal, which was ironed out over the course of the next few weeks, put Kahne in the pressure-packed position of replacing the sport’s most popular driver in its most coveted sponsorship and landed Bud the driver it wanted.
So, why Kahne?
Anheuser-Busch Vice President of Global Media and Sports Marketing, Tony Ponturo, insists a gut feeling, combined with traditional market research, told them Kahne would be a great Bud Man.
“And one of the first calls I received after we signed Kasey was Dale Earnhardt Jr. telling me he thought we’d gotten the right guy,” Ponturo says.
Since the deal was finalized, Ponturo says Kahne has done all the right things.
“He hosted a dinner for people who work on the account,” Ponturo says. “He wanted to get to know us. He opened his home to us, cooked on the grill and we drank a few Budweisers.”
For Kahne, the Budweiser sponsorship is a dream come true.
“I used to watch the Miss Budweiser Ultimate Hydroplane boats during Seafair races on Lake Washington back at home,” he says. “When I was a kid, it always seemed like Budweiser had the fastest boats on the lake and the fastest cars on the track.
“There are a lot of great sponsors in NASCAR, but none are as cool as Budweiser.”
The Pressure
Paired for eight years from 2000-07, Budweiser and Junior became synonymous, giving the mega-beer an unprecedented level of stability in NASCAR. Before the Junior era, drivers regularly rotated in and out of the Bud sponsorship.
“There is a lot of pressure that comes with taking over for Dale Jr. because of who he is in the sport,” says Kahne, who is focused on doing his best for Bud. “To me, Junior is the ‘Man’ in NASCAR and Bud is its greatest sponsor. They were a great team.
“But it’s not like Junior won every week. It’s not like they were winning Cup titles together and now I have to keep that going.”
Kahne is well aware that his best bet to make the Budweiser car his own is to win, however.
“All I want to do is win races and run up front with a shot to win every week,” he says. “My expectations for success may exceed any Bud has.”
Despite his quiet demeanor, Kahne’s will to win has impressed his new sponsor.
“On the surface, Kasey is a pretty quiet guy,” Ponturo says. “But once you get to know him, you see the fire that lingers just below the surface.”
The Job
Kahne’s new gig will require that he transition smoothly from the barroom to the boardroom, and back again.
“What is really cool about Kasey is that he wants to understand our business,” Ponturo says. “He wants to be more than just a face.”
Having already taken his first brewery tour to learn about the product and how it’s made, Kahne will address 5,000 Budweiser distributors this summer at their annual meeting.
“I’ve always been nervous speaking around new people,” Kahne says. “But when you work with groups of Budweiser employees, it’s obvious that they love what they do, so I’m really looking forward to it.”
In the old days, Bud Men weren’t necessarily propped behind podiums speaking to company bigwigs.
“Back then, they dragged me out to do appearances at local bars every weekend,” says former Bud Man Wally Dallenbach.
Signing autographs and occasionally serving as a celebrity judge for various contests, Dallenbach remembers each event ending in much the same way.
“Inevitably, one of the patrons would have been deep into the Budweiser for quite some time and tell me what a great racer he was and that, given the chance, he could win on the Cup level,” Dallenbach says. “The same thing happened in every bar, in every city. It was always a different drunk, though.”
Kahne thinks Bud should bring that program back — once in a while.
“An appearance at a bar would be easy because I can have a beer, sign stuff, talk to fans and have fun,” he says. “I’m not worried about drunks telling me I suck. I’m used to it. That happens at the track every weekend. Drivers get flipped off a lot. When I see it, I’ll sometimes react in a funny way and usually gain a new fan. But, if a guy is flipping me off with both hands and yelling, he’s probably pretty committed to his position on how much I suck, so I usually just ignore him.”
The Image
With the power, influence and experience of a century of advertising behind them, one has to wonder what Budweiser will do with Kahne. How will he be presented?
“He’ll do whatever we want because he knows how much money Bud is investing to back him,” Ponturo says. “But I can tell you one thing, he’s a Bud Man. We don’t have any plans to use him to promote any of our other products.”
Dallenbach, who now works for TNT in the booth during race broadcasts, thinks the Bud/Kahne relationship will develop over time.
“A lot of Kasey’s success will come as his personality emerges,” Dallenbach says. “If they do some fun commercials where he can shine, it will be great, even if he isn’t winning. Remember, you can make up for a lot of poor performances with a winning personality … just look at Michael Waltrip.”
Kahne may never have Waltrip’s gift of gab but one of his greatest attributes — and certainly something Budweiser will capitalize on — is that he’s a great sport.
For NASCAR Illustrated, he’s been a biker (July 2006), donned a business suit with mud on his face (May 2007) and posed for this issue as a Budweiser delivery man. As the folks at Allstate can attest, he’s exceptionally easy to work with.
Kahne, who likes doing commercials that make people laugh, says, “I don’t have a lot of say in how I’m presented in ads. I see the storyboards and can contribute ideas, but my job is to do the best job representing the sponsor in the manner they think best fits the product and its audience.
“One of these days, I’d like to do a commercial where I get to be a badass, even if it’s still funny. The Allstate ads have made me into such a pretty boy that something different might be fun.”
The Face
Is it possible that Bud’s newest man looks too much like a boy to sell beer?
“I don’t really understand how I could be too pretty to be a Bud Man,” Kahne says. “Some people have said, ‘It doesn’t even look like this guy drinks beer.’”
Maybe it’s because Kahne, who is 28, looks 15. Add his involvement in the Gillette Young Guns program, which requires him to maintain a clean-cut appearance, and maybe the criticism bears consideration.
Ponturo disagrees.
“You have to take advantage of his looks and the fact that he’s got such great crossover appeal between male and female consumers,” he says. “NASCAR’s female fan base is growing. Women like Kasey and women drink beer. It’s a win all the way around for Budweiser.”
But what about the guys, the type who related to Junior’s good ol’ boy, rough-around-the-edges aura — something Kahne doesn’t exactly radiate?
“At the end of the day,” Ponturo says, “guys have to respect the fact it’s pretty macho to drive 200 miles an hour, in traffic, just inches from a wall.”
And let’s be clear about the comparison we are making, it’s not as if Junior would ever be confused with John Rambo or Chuck Norris.
“If you hang out with me,” Kahne says, “you’ll discover a guy who is far from pretty. I like to have a good time, enjoy everything life has to offer and drinking Bud is a part of that. One of the best things about this sponsorship is all the free beer.”
The Perks
No matter how Budweiser chooses to position him, Kahne may get the better end of the deal. With connections to so many cool events, the perks of working with Budweiser extend far beyond the confines of racing.
Kahne could have been a VIP guest at the Super Bowl, but he had previous plans. He would like to attend the NCAA Final Four someday, but only if he could see all three days, something that would require an open date in the NASCAR schedule to land on the same weekend.
And of course, Kahne is reminded of his good fortune every time he opens the fridge.
“So far, I’ve mostly taken advantage of the free beer,” he says. “It was great during the holidays.”
The Responsibility
It’s not all free beer, however.
“Anytime you have a beer deal, you will have to defend yourself to Mothers Against Drunk Driving and other organizations,” former Bud Man and one-time Coors driver, Bill Elliott, says. “I always tried to explain that beer is a legal product and it’s OK to drink, but you have to do so responsibly. Kasey will do a great job promoting the need for greater awareness of the consequences of making bad decisions.”
Kahne, who is already involved with Budweiser’s “Responsibility Matters” campaign that encourages adult consumers to, “Take the Lead, Be a Designated Driver,” says, “Budweiser is the most responsible beer company in the world.”
In 2005, Kahne established a foundation to benefit chronically ill and disadvantaged children. He and Budweiser will work together to ensure there is never any crossover between Kahne’s representation of the beer giant and his work with children.
“When I do an event for kids, anyone under 21,” Kahne says, “it will come under the umbrella of one of my other sponsors, Kasey Kahne Racing or my foundation.”
Only with the passage of time will we know how successful Kahne is as a Bud
__________________
To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 5 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.
Ryan Newman, Daytona 500 Champion!!
To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 5 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.
|
Linear Mode
