Infiniti To Become One Of The Big Names Of Formula One

Bertel Schmitt
by Bertel Schmitt

Nissan’s Infiniti is joining high-powered nameplates such as Ferrari, Lotus and Mercedes and becomes title sponsor of a Formula One racing team. Under a four year contract, the highly successful Red Bull Racing team will change its name to Infiniti Red Bull Racing starting with the 2013 season.

Infiniti has been a co-sponsor of Red Bull Racing’s car RB8 since 2011, and Sebastian Vettel was a brand ambassador. However, Infiniti’s name was relegated to infinitesimally small stickers on the car. Now, Infiniti becomes one of the big names of Formula One, and it breathes the rarefied atmosphere vacated by global brands such as BMW, Toyota and Honda. The companies all bailed during carmageddon when splurging for sports was the wrong thing to do. Or, as The Paddock Magazine put it back then: “The last thing that most companies wanted to be seen doing last year was guzzling champagne at the expense of their shareholders.” Now, it slowly becomes socially acceptable again.

The champagne does not come cheap: Before Toyota left the sport, its Formula One budget stood at $445.6 million, Honda and BMW spent similar amounts before they pulled out. We don’t dare to ask the cost of becoming the title sponsor of a three times champion.

Bertel Schmitt
Bertel Schmitt

Bertel Schmitt comes back to journalism after taking a 35 year break in advertising and marketing. He ran and owned advertising agencies in Duesseldorf, Germany, and New York City. Volkswagen A.G. was Bertel's most important corporate account. Schmitt's advertising and marketing career touched many corners of the industry with a special focus on automotive products and services. Since 2004, he lives in Japan and China with his wife <a href="http://www.tomokoandbertel.com"> Tomoko </a>. Bertel Schmitt is a founding board member of the <a href="http://www.offshoresuperseries.com"> Offshore Super Series </a>, an American offshore powerboat racing organization. He is co-owner of the racing team Typhoon.

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  • Pagani Baguette Pagani Baguette on Nov 26, 2012

    What a smart move by Infinity! You get onto a winning team, you put a small sticker and then stay and watch. The team wins again, then you put a bigger sticker and keep watching. Then the team wins for a third time in a row (!) and you go in and decide to only NOW change the name and put the big sticker! Next year (and the years after) sentences like "Infinity won 3 times in a row" will start appearing, in all sorts of context and while it will not be completely true, it will be somehow true and no one is going to correct the sentence each time by saying "well, technically they did not win as infinity the first three times".... Yes, BMW, Toyota and Honda failed (so is Mercedes so far!) because they did it exactly the other way around - they first bought a team, then transformed it into "their team" with their engines, management, influence, etc. Infinity is doing exactly the other way around - piggy-back a winning team and the more the team is winning, the more "Infinity" is becoming. In case RBR did not win the last two times, the sticker could have stayed smaller or disappear at all and no harm done as the masses always perceived the team as RBR and not Infinity. So brilliant!

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    • Th009 Th009 on Nov 26, 2012

      @MBella To be fair, stars aligned for Brawn GP, and Ross Brawn took full advantage of it with the rear diffuser design, giving Button a massive lead by the time the season was one-third over. The team went backwards under Mercedes, but 2009-style dominance was never in the cards for 2010.

  • Herb Herb on Nov 26, 2012

    Nice try. Infinity will soon be closely related to car-racing like Martini.

  • Tylanner Tylanner on Nov 27, 2012

    I want Monster to buy a team and put a shitty motocross rider behind the wheel and throw tons of money at em.

  • Olddavid Olddavid on Nov 27, 2012

    I'm glad I'm old. I've overseen several expensive ad campaigns that I was proud to put my name on, yet I'm baffled by the target of most modern advertising. An Infinti label on a Renault-engined car does nothing to advance the brand. It reminds me of the Henry Rollins webcast where he asked a woman wearing a Black Flag t-shirt who was "Black Flag"? She had no clue. Who would want some dilettante as a long-term customer who purchased an Infiniti because of some sticker on a race car? Hardly inspirational. I'm glad my living doesn't depend on me understanding, because I don't. But that's what that $200 charge is on every invoice - advertising. After this contract, it'll be $250. Carlos has lost his mojo.

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