Robby has a sponsor for Atlanta UPDATE forced to pull logos: Add another cellphone company to the NASCAR mix. Verizon Wireless officials plan to announce today they will work with Motorola to sponsor Robby Gordon in the [#55] Busch Series. The first-time Busch sponsorship for both companies will begin with Saturday's Busch race at AMS. Motorola will also sponsor Gordon's Cup #7 Ford in the Kobalt Tools 500 on Sunday. The sponsorship also includes Busch races at Charlotte, Chicago and Texas.(Atlanta Journal-Constitution), see images of the scheme on the #7 Team Schemes page and 2007 Busch Series Schemes page.
UPDATE: Robby Gordon is removing a Motorola logo from the hood of his #7 Ford at the request of NASCAR officials, but he says he doesn't understand how Motorola and Cup series sponsor Nextel are competitors. He also can't understand why the company can be an associate sponsor on the car, as it has been the three previous Nextel Cup races, but cannot move into a primary slot. "I'm having a hard time understanding how Nextel and Motorola are competitors because that's the reason we can't use the sponsorship," Gordon said. "They have been an associate sponsor on my car for the first three events, and they can remain as an associate sponsor on my car; they just can't be a primary sponsor on my car." Gordon said NASCAR officials told him that was the reasoning for the changes. NASCAR President Mike Helton said that Motorola is specifically listed among the companies barred from being a primary sponsor in the Nextel agreement, which gives Nextel (now Sprint) exclusivity among wireless providers as well as wireless handset manufacturers. "It's a NASCAR decision, yes," Gordon said. "This is the first time I have ever been involved in something like this. I've never been told no [on] a sponsor because we never felt we've gone after a sponsor that wouldn't be approved. I didn't even imagine that Motorola wouldn't be approved. They're the official radio of everybody in the garage area. It's just mind-boggling, and I'm having a little bit of a hard time on it." Gordon said he planned to use the sponsorship for two events. "We have a relationship with a competitor's cell phone company [Verizon] in the Busch Series, and we felt that with them in the Busch Series and Motorola strictly in the Cup series, there wouldn't be a conflict," he said. Motorola has a relationship with NASCAR as it is the primary vendor of Racing Radios, which provides two-way radio service for NASCAR at the track. Gordon said he was unaware of exactly how Motorola could be considered a competitor. "That's where a person like myself has a hard time because you go to the front page of Nextel.com and you find Motorola logos on there and Motorola phones on there, and it's just a bit confusing why we're having an issue with the race car being on the race track," Gordon said. Helton added that NASCAR - not Nextel - made the decision on the car, a decision that he said seemed fairly black-and-white. "NASCAR is the group that polices the sport, so it's NASCAR's role to approve paint designs, approve sponsors on cars, approve how sponsors utilize the paint designs on the cars to promote and activate their relationships," Helton said. Helton said that most of the times, these issues are handled before the car gets to the track. "There is a process in place where the paint scheme has to be approved ... there wasn't time to fix the car before it got here, but we have plenty of time here to correct things," he said.(SceneDaily.com)(3-16-2007)
# AT&T to sue NASCAR to place logos on #31: The cell-phone industry's ruthless fight has spilled over into NASCAR, and landed squarely on the hood of Jeff Burton's #31 Chevy. AT&T's wireless unit, formerly known as Cingular Wireless, planned to file a lawsuit later on Friday in Atlanta's U.S. District Court against NASCAR. The suit will center around AT&T's sponsorship on the #31 Chevrolet driven by Burton. The car has traditionally been sponsored by Cingular, with its familiar orange paint scheme. Though federal regulators approved AT&T's acquisition of BellSouth and its wireless unit Cingular on Dec. 29, NASCAR will not allow AT&T logos to appear on the #31 car because it would violate its current agreement with Sprint Nextel, which owns the naming right to NASCAR's top series. "We're filing a lawsuit to protect the right to transition from Cingular to AT&T on the #31 car," AT&T spokesperson Clay Owen said Friday afternoon. NASCAR officials were not immediately available for comment. Burton's car will continue to sport the Cingular Wireless paint scheme for this weekend's Kobalt Tools 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway.(Atlanta Journal-Constitution)(3-16-2007)
It should be very interesting to see how this all works out. A privately owned corperation ( NASCAR ) signs a contract with another corperation granting them exclusivity in their business which already has other competitors involved. At least two have been bought out/changed names.............All I can say is theres a bunch of lawyers out there fixin to get new Beemers and Benzs
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It should be very interesting to see how this all works out. A privately owned corperation ( NASCAR ) signs a contract with another corperation granting them exclusivity in their business which already has other competitors involved. At least two have been bought out/changed names.............All I can say is theres a bunch of lawyers out there fixin to get new Beemers and Benzs
damm greed is what it is! Now Robby Gordon and the Motorola thing. Nextel sells Motorola made phones!!! wth
So now in order to be a Nascar fan you have to have Nextel? When it was Winston did you have to smoke? lol
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damm greed is what it is! Now Robby Gordon and the Motorola thing. Nextel sells Motorola made phones!!! wth
So now in order to be a Nascar fan you have to have Nextel? When it was Winston did you have to smoke? lol
jimmy spencer drove the winston / camel car... no marlboro drivers!
nextel bought the sponsership rights to the cup series not each race team !
if thats the case all the race cars should be yellow n black (nextel colors )just differt #'s.
i think nextel will lose this one
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Alltel working to overcome NASCAR sponsorship limits
Alltel working to overcome NASCAR sponsorship limits
By Sporting News Wire Service
March 20, 2007
12:33 PM EDT
It's safe to say that Samira Zebian, Alltel's director of sponsorship marketing, will be pulling for the underdogs in the NCAA Tournament. It's a role she knows well.
As the first-year chief of Alltel's sponsorship on Ryan Newman's No. 12 Dodge, Zebian went into the year knowing her company had limitations because of Sprint Nextel's position as title sponsor on NASCAR's Cup Series.
Rather than butt heads with NASCAR's top partner, she centered a program on an online promotion, television advertising and driver appearances, which has kept Alltel out of the recent quagmire of turf wars over NASCAR exclusivity (Cingular vs. Sprint Nextel and Sunoco vs. Shell).
The "My Circle 500" promotion, which launched last month, already has generated more response than any of Alltel's football- or basketball-themed promotions, Zebian said. Specific numbers weren't available.
"We know we can't do the same things that some of those other brands are doing. We can't outspend them," said Zebian, whose company ranks fifth in the number of wireless customers. "So we're trying to deliver control to the consumer by making what we do accessible to all of the fans, not just those at the track."
The core of the program ties Alltel's sponsorship with its "My Circle" calling plan to create the "My Circle 500" online sweepstakes. GMR is Alltel's marketing agency of record.
First-prize winners will go to Charlotte, N.C., May 24-27 to race for $500,000 as part of a race experience around the Coca-Cola 600.
Zebian wouldn't comment on Alltel's spending, but industry insiders say the program, including the sponsorship, could approach $25 million for the year. Part of that will go toward a commercial this summer that incorporates Newman into Alltel's "My Circle" spots, in which Alltel's cool sales rep interacts with the geeky reps from the competition. Newman would be the first personality to be injected into the ads, which were conceived by Campbell-Ewald, Detroit.
"We can't be at the track, we can't title sponsor a race, and last year wasn't a very good year for Ryan," Zebian said. "If nobody is talking about you at the track, how do you get beyond that? It does force you to be a little more innovative."
Alltel is in its seventh full year as a Penske Racing sponsor
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