Conference 7.286::digital

	Mike....only you could have started this string. :-) 

    Serious advertising opportunities are in the eye of the beholder...
    I guess I don't see IBM or HP loggo on cars now - isn't this a 
    beer company/oil company/potato chip company/cancer stick company
    kind of advertising realm?   

    NEC and Sequent are in this level of competition. 
    
    } Serious advertising opportunities are in the eye of the beholder...
    
    I was thinking of exposure, compared to the average commercial that
    lasts 30 seconds to a minute.  Figure, spend 1 million $ on something
    that runs a few times...
    
    Same thing, except now your billboard is travelling all over the
    country, showing up 18 times, doing interviews on TV, showing up in
    magazines and newspapers year round, showing up at DECUS/Comdex/....
    
    I'm being vague but you get the idea - money and obliations are
    things that need to be determined by the people who would be spending
    the $$$.  I know how much $$$ this team has (a big pile) and I know
    what they need (not much more).  If "someone" we all know and love
    steps in and completes the deal... it's a bargain.  
                                                       
    MadMike
    

    And as all us Formula 1 buffs know, Sun has their logo on the Maclaren
    wing mirrors, and (if I remember), HP has theirs on the Benneton. Team
    Jordan also run on HP kit.
    
    For my US friends, Formula 1 is similar to Indy, but with better cars,
    drivers and technology. (..sound of a Brit running for cover..).
    
    If I recall, Team Williams (the best cars for years now, owner-no relation)
    use Alpha to do their engineering work, and some PCs for trackside
    aquisition.
    And, as we know our Marketing types are making a lot of mileage from that
    relationship. Not.
    
    Formula 1 is followed by fans all over the world, with the exception of US. 
    But most of our kit is sold outside the US these days,
    so lets hope....
    

        Actually, astute US computer related companies are starting to
        look at this market.  I've seen quite a few quarter panel logos
        at the major league levels, for specific events.  Hayes is or was
        a full-time NASCAR sponsor.  This is very expensive.
        
        Many competitors are starting to purchase TV commercial time during
        US race events.  We could start by purchasing radio spots.
        
        Dave Zaniewski

I mentioned before in a similar note, that Digital is currently supporting the
Thrust SSC (Super-Sonic Car) effort from England to claim the world absolute
land speed record. Our logo is prominently displayed on their web site, for
instance. I wonder who in Digital decided to help them?
						-- Tom

    Last season, HP made a big deal about their relationship with Bobby
    Rahal.  The car was designed and tested on HP computers before it was
    ever built.  HP helped the team with the computers and technology they
    needed, and then used the results as a marketing tool.  A two way
    relationship.  We simply aren't savvy enough to do that (yes you
    marketing folks, you can read that as a challenge).
    
    Square-D, who makes networking products, is the primary sponsor of
    Kenny Wallace's Winston Cup car (NASCAR).  He's been having a pretty
    good season and has gotten lots of media exposure.
    
    The nature of the race fan has changed.  They aren't beer drinking
    rednecks anymore (well... maybe some still are).  Tickets to big events
    are $100+ each.  That's face value.  It's well-off/corporate people
    going to and watching races these days, and the audience is growning
    rapidly.  Last weeks race at Bristol, TN had 118,000 spectators on hand
    (and they're adding another 30,000 seats in the next couple of months)
    and had a pretty high TV rating in the Boston area (a 2.2, which is
    quite high for a sporting event that lasts almost 4 hours and was shown
    only on cable).  The New Hampshire International Speedway seats 85,000 and
    the 2 winston cup races there are sold out.  Indianapolis seats 400,000, 
    and both the Indy and Winston Cup races are sold out.
    
    Lead, follow, or get out the way, as they say.  We seem content to
    watch the rest of the field pull away while we just limp along...
    
    -Steve
    

    I hate to toss out numbers, but before this gets into a big
    "F1 vs. Indy, vs. NASCAR"...
    
    This is NHRA Drag Racing, Pro-Stock class.  The quickest gasoline
    powered, stock looking automobiles in the world.  In terms of
    "professionalness", only Top Fuel Dragster and Nitro Funny Car" get
    higher billing than this.
    
    This sort of racing is still considered "cheap".
    F1... figure $30M plus to race.
    Indy car... was around $13M to race all year.
    NASCAR Winston Cup series... takes about $6M to do the year.
    
    Pro Stock - ~$1M/year.  +/-?  
    And this guy is "almost there".  His car won't move until he's ready.
    
    *IMO* - digital should step in and say "how much", and buy the use
    of the whole car, not just spend $250K and get a quarter panel or
    something.  We want the whole shebang.  The whole car, the whole
    transporter.  Spare cars for events, and (i'm dreaming)... maybe
    a spare car or two I could go comp racing in....  When we were
    BS'ing I told the guy to go comp racing with what he's got.
    "he doesn't want to go backwards".  
    
    Again, I said it before in here for some other situations,  I could
    care less if digital does this or not.  I'm going racing anyway.
    It's just slightly obvious that some opportunity like this can be
    a good deal for my employer.  Take it or leave it, I just put it out
    for consideration.
                       
    MadMike

    Can someone give the guy a contact who can say yes or no?
    
    I hate to think what will happen in this note when nothing happens 
    because the idea only went to this note.
    
    - John
    
     

    Wire Magazine recently had a great article on the current state
    of racing simulators, and how even the real racer drivers practice
    on them.  A great tie in would be to connect real drivers to
    these VERY realistic simulators to their performance on Alpha.
    bob

    re .10
    
    We actually did something with this a couple of years back at the
    Vancouver Indycar race.  Apparently we sponsored the race (Digital
    logos on the retaining walls) and had a tent with our PCs running an
    Indycar simulator.
    
    As always, we never seem to be able to grow these ideas, to be able to
    exploit them.  Once race... gone.  Did we publicize it?  Did we
    continue this through other races so that the media would catch up with
    it?  Did we try it with other racing series?  Could it have been
    something that the fans at the races would look forward to seeing? 
    Would it have been something that the TV stations would have done a
    story on during a yellow flag?  We'll never know.  We didn't give the
    idea enough time for people to get -excited- about it.
    
    I would love to see Digital take advantage of this kind of advertising
    but like I said before, I'm not sure we have the ability or the will to
    partner with a team or sport for any significant period of time.  It
    takes some commitment in both time and money.  
    
    -Steve
    
                                                           

    I recall we had some race car at a DECworld event (remember those?)
    
    One of my customers (Sylvania) supports a car. Im not sure of the
    class, since I'm not much into racing (in spite of a dragster in my
    garage  that my kid has built), but they have brought the car to
    headquarters a couple times for shows, they bring in customers and
    suppliers, and last time raffled off a couple tickets to employess for
    big race up in New Hampshire.
    
    Of course, they have a marketing department, even a vice-president of
    marketing, so they seem  to understand doing this stuff.

    This is an opportunity we shouldn't miss, in my opinion...
    
    Let's do some real stealth advertising, and sponsor the whole car,
    plaster DIGITAL logo's all over it and the hauler, AND THEN NOT TELL
    ANYONE ABOUT IT. Just stay mum about it, and let everyone wonder just
    who this mysterious company is! Just think, no embarrassing questions
    like "Can you deliver/program/fix this <whatever> for me?" Just the
    ability to say "Yup, that's our car." and go only with our daily
    business.
    
    .mike.

Our products are used by two F1 teams; Williams and Ferrari. Currently we 
have no rights to shout about this and do not do any sponsorship. F1 is 
probably the no1 global sporting sponsorship opportunity. It is also the 
pinnicle of motorsport driven by leading-edge technology - a fine thing for 
a technology company to be associated with. Digital has a better story in F1
than any other vendor.

It is a complete mystery to me why Digital does not at least pay the price 
of using Williams, the ultimate motor racing team, as a publically 
advertised reference. 

Dave.

    Well, there was a time when a group I know was asked whether they'd be
    interested in something to do with Richard Noble's Thrust II supercar
    stuff. I forget the exact context, but the HQ people involved (not UK
    HQ) said "not for us, it's not environmentally sound". Whether this was
    just an excuse for "not out of *my* budget", I don't know.
    
    regards
    john

    
    Digital(france) sponsored a car for the Pikes Peak Hill climb back In
    90-91 time frame we didn't use that so why should we now..
     I still have a picture on my desk from the race. If there are
    non-belivers!
    
     Dave

    Maybe my brain is fading faster than I want to admit but I remember
    seeing "digital" on the side of Ferrari F1 cars back a few years ago.
    I believe this was just before the downsizing began so our sponsorship
    maybe have been dropped as a cost-cutting measure.
    
    Just a question:  Are there any demographic differences between the
    audiences watching the NCAA, NFL, and NBA games (I'm trying to pick
    sports where our spots have been);  and the audiences for NHRA, CART,
    and F1?  I.e who are we trying to reach?  And what are the respective
    costs of minutes per viewer?
    

but after all these replies, remember we're living proof that

having the fastest engine does not guarantee you winnning the race :^(

    re .17:
    
    Your brain isn't fading... the logo was so small though, that you'd
    have to know where it was to recognise it on TV.
    
    I went to a Ferrari exhibition at Forte di Belvedere, Florence, around
    those times. The F1 car they had on show did have the Digital logo on
    it.
    

    Digital was a Bobby Rahal sponsor the year he won the Indy Car
    championship (1992, I think).  He came to the Autofact show that year
    in Detroit (with his Indy car) to give a presentation in the Digital 
    booth and to autograph brochures.
    
    The sponsorship was dropped the following year because of expense
    cutbacks.
    
    M

     > Maybe my brain is fading faster than I want to admit but I remember
     > seeing "digital" on the side of Ferrari F1 cars back a few years ago.
     > I believe this was just before the downsizing began so our sponsorship
     > maybe have been dropped as a cost-cutting measure.
    
    No brain fade - the |d|i|g|i|t|a|l| stencil logo (in blue and white of
    course) was on the nose cone of Nigel Mansell's Ferrari.  I am reminded
    of two salient points about the Digital/Ferrari deal ;
    
    - it was largely a personal sponsorship deal - struck between our 
      beloved ex-European president Pier-Carlo Falotti and his pals
      at Ferrari.  Part of the deal was a truly impressive pit-side
      and car-side telemetry system and military spec network connections.
      Unfortunately PCF was arrogant enough to believe that the public
      should be smart enough to work this out for themselves and that it
      didn't warrant further marketing promotions.
    
    - the tie-up has long-lasting marketing mindshare potential.  I was in
      Monte Carlo just yesterday as the whole town is preparing for the May
      10th F1 race.  Old photos of Nigel Mansell are on view and his
      car is on permanent display in Prince Rainier's collection of
      classic cars at the Monte Carlo Museum of the Automobile.  As my
      son was so proud to point out to me - the digital logo is very 
      prominent on the nose cone.
    
    Ahhh - those were the days ....
    
    
    /Chris/

    
    
    And take a look at some of those model F1 racing cars, the die-cast
    ones. Look at the Ferrari and there they are, three real digital 
    logo's (the blue ones), one on the nose and two on the front wings. 
    
    Mark. 

    Re F1 and Ferrari -
    Nice to see us get involved in sponsorship, though, as always we failed
    to capitalize on it. The DIGITAL logo of the time (blue, remember?),
    was too close to that of FIAT - and at a distance (I mean, how many
    times do you get a close up of the side of the front wings?), was too
    easy to confuse...
    
    Simon

    
    	OK, but does the maroon logo look like anyone else's?
    

    re .24
    
    er, no.. but we're not sponsoring Ferrari anymore
    
    Simon

    
    	But we could.  Or we could sponsor another car company.
    

|   The DIGITAL logo of the time (blue, remember?), was too close to that
|   of FIAT - and at a distance (I mean, how many times do you get a close
|   up of the side of the front wings?), was too easy to confuse...
    
    Well, since the car is in the Museum of Modern Art in New York,
    New York, lots of people get up close to it.
    
    
    The banner trailing behind an airplane at the Boston Marathon yesterday,
    on the other hand....
    
    								-mr. bill

    um..
    
    I punted a mail to a senior manager, saying (I summarise): 'hey, F1,
    Williams, sponsorship., publicity, where is it ?.'.
    
    Amazed, I got the reply that Corporate are working out the details of a
    deal with Williams right now. Publicity, and all sorts...
    
    
    I'm going to lie down, then, if this keep up, I'll buy some stock.
    

|                   <<< Note 5240.28 by RDGENG::WILLIAMS_A >>>
                                                ^^^^^^^^
    :
    :
|    Amazed, I got the reply that Corporate are working out the details of a
|    deal with Williams right now. Publicity, and all sorts...
|
|    I'm going to lie down, then, if this keep up, I'll buy some stock.
 
    I'll do the same thing when they call me to make a deal :-)

    >Per

    'Scuse me while I pick myself up off the floor ;-).
    Is this deal for *this* season, or next? - shame it couldn't have been
    last season, or the one before that! Still, at least we've chosen a
    good team!
    Simon

    Race cars are plastered with logos from lots of sponsors.  These cars
    tend to go rather fast, so the time a viewer (TV or live) has to see a 
    specific label is miniscule.  
    
    Does it make more sense to put the Digital logo on something static - like 
    on a wall behind pitstops or give away caps with the Digital logo to
    *all* those potential computer buyers in the stands ?

Dave Cutler's two Formula Atlantic cars have a big Microsoft logo
on the side.  Tough to miss. 

    FYI:
    
    Seen, during last nights Sabers-Senators hockey game, on the side of the 
    Ottawa Senator's ice rink was the Digital Logo.
    
    Tim
    
    

    re: .33
    
    Aww, I missed it.
    
    I've never seen the Digital Logo smeared with blood before...
    
    8^}
    
    -- Russ

    russ:
    
    Then you were not around for the heyday of troop whacking.......
    
    the trenches were red with workerbee blood.
    
    chet

    RE: .31
    
    Miniscule for the people at the race, but not so for the TV audience
    at home.  With cameras pointing to the race leaders, you get solid
    TV coverage for your car.  From a TV point of view, something on the
    pit wall is useless.  
    
    Think of who Digital sells to and how many of those people are
    in the stands.  Not a very large number.  I'd say that Digital on
    a car is more name recognition, rather than direct sales.  After
    all, who buys an Intel product directly?
    
    				-John

    re: .35
    
    >Then you were not around for the heyday of troop whacking.......
    
    >the trenches were red with workerbee blood.
    
    Trenches, yes.  But the signs stayed clean.  Gotta keep up that
    corporate image, ya know...
    
    -- Russ

    re: .31
    If you're a front runner like Michael Schumacher in F1
    or Michael Andretti in Indy Racing or a Jeff Gordon in
    NASCAR you can pretty much get 2 hours of solid coverage
    during a televised race. The cameras always want find and
    follow these cars. Also if you fund a camera in a car you get
    your logo with every shot from that camera. Also, but not
    the most cost effective, is crashing. Crashed cars get lots of
    television time.
    
    I can tell you it is very effective advertising. I follow
    racing and every time I see a new sponsor I ask myself who they
    are and what do they do. I'm sure that's pretty much the norm since
    corprations around the world are dumping tons of cash into these
    sports. Auto racing is the fastest growing sport today. The race
    tracks are doubling and tripling seating area each year just to
    keep up.                                        

    RE:
   > <<< Note 5240.36 by TLE::REAGAN "All of this chaos makes perfect sense" >>>
   > 
   > Think of who Digital sells to and how many of those people are
   > in the stands.  Not a very large number.  I'd say that Digital on
   > a car is more name recognition, rather than direct sales.  After
   > all, who buys an Intel product directly?
   > 
   > 				-John

    Have you ever been to a NASCAR race, John? I've said it before, and at
    the risking of annoying those who know, the fans are not *all*
    beer-drinking, Winton-smoking, tee-shirted, good-ole-boys. (Those types
    are the Field Service Guys :-) 
    
    There are all kinds of folks in attendance, both in person and on TV.
    And if Mr.Beer-guzzling Red-Neck wants to buy a DEC product, I think we
    should come out of our cave and sell him one. 
    
    To me our absence in the mass-advirtising arena means only one thing.
              We aren't interested in being a household name.
    
    .mike.
    
    
 

    
    	Are those cars whizzing past the screen, subliminally
    registering advertisements legal?
    
    					Bill

    } Race cars are plastered with logos from lots of sponsors.
    
    NOT NECESSARILY.  I've been saying for a long time that Digital,
    or AXP, or altavista or...   needs to "buy the whole car".  One thing
    I'm worried about (not really) is digital will someday say... "OK..."
    and toss someone some cash and get a tiny decal like you think.
    (Bobby Rahal, the F1 deal)
    
    IF, big IF, digital does this or some other deal right, DIGITAL will
    be the only thing on the car (save for a couple other peoples tiny decals 
    somewhere).
    
    Where we spend our money is another thing.  Some places are cost
    prohibitive, even though coverage is world wide.  Like F1.  Forget it.
    Winston Cup... maybe... if we have $6 million.
    This pro-stock deal probably could have been done for ~$1M.  Maybe
    less.  We'll never know now.
    
    } These cars tend to go rather fast, so the time a viewer
    
    In action, ya, it could be a blur.  Obviously, the bigger your logo
    and sponsorship, the better it is to see.  But these cars also stand
    still sometimes.  They travel around the country, and also, with some
    marketing wiz-bang... we get 1 or 2 cars that don't race at all, they
    are showcars that show up wherever we want.  The cars are also seen
    on the news (maybe), or specialty news shows, magazines, newspapers,
    print ads... we're only limited by what marketing thinks up.  If
    anything.
    
    MadMike
    

>>    the most cost effective, is crashing. Crashed cars get lots of
>>    television time.

So everyone heads to the store looking for a "Di|al" computer.  8^)

    DIGITAL computers don't crash...

    re .42
    That's a good one. never quite thought of it that way. But even still
    the people will be asking who is that Di|al sponsor.  

>
>    DIGITAL computers don't crash...
> 
	...they just fade away in market share
	...are driven by chimps
	...have "intermittent periods of non-service related operational
		disruptions proactively addressed by periodic intrastructuture
		and extrastructure revitalization"
BobW

    >>	...are driven by chimps
    
    we would need to sponsor Williams, to get this one across properly %^)
    
    Graham

While watching a bit of the Indy time trials, they showed Arie Luyendyk 
sitting in the pits waiting for a practice run. I noticed the "digital" logo 
across the cowl, just forward of the cockpit. The pole-sitter, no less!

    <-- and how much did that little, easily missed logo cost us?
    
    I was absolutely astounded to actually see a Digital (DIGITAL?) logo on
    a race car. Now if only we can stop playing with go-karts and get a
    bigger logo on a real car...
    
    .mike.

    
    
    
    
    
    
    Auto racing discussions in this notes file have taken on the tone of
    religion discussions on the varying merits of Formula 1, Indy Car,
    Stock Car, etc. racing. I want to put in my $.02 on integrated
    marketing and leverage, whatever venue DIGITAL selects for strategic
    sponsorships. 
    
    I am Astounded Too on the car with logo - because there is 
    ZERO marketing leverage  with  whoever made the decision.  You 
    would think I might know  since I independently bought 
    a couple of ads on the  Indy 500 as part of third wave of TV that 
    starts this Saturday, for reasons of audience draw and composition.
    
    Our media approach is to commit to an event, like the NCAA bball, and then
    buy the appropriate media to build presence HOWEVER the market follows
    the event - be it TV, Radio, or Web.  We did the same thing with the
    Boston Marathon - TV, Radio, Web AND Airplane.   
    
    Get your body wet, not a toe nail.  People will associate you with the
    pool, and are more likely to remember you, and your messages.  In an
    era of budget reductions, focus and leverage work. Damp toes just grow
    fungus.  And, We know this focus approach works from research.
                                      
    This is still a funky place.
    
    Bill
    
      
                   
    I hope there is at least some customer hosting or something happening
    at the event itself.
    
    

So what I'm hearing is that within marketing itself, one hand has
no clue as to what the other is doing...

And people wonder why DIGITAL marketing stinks.  And BC says we need to stop
saying that DIGITAL can't market itslef.  Well, sometimes the truth hurts.

Sad, very sad.

    
    We are moving to integration of marketing and sales, hopefully quickly.
    These functions have been operated as stovepipes in each BU.
    We cannot assume that every activity and action that has been taken is
    additive to a larger whole.  I am also saying that it is NOT goodness
    to get a wee bit involved in a lot of things, big or small, 
    which has been our manner of doing business.  
    
    

    Well, we got some good mileage with the Indianappolis 500 thus far.
    The DIGITAL logo is on the pole sitters car.It can be seen,though
    at times it is a bit difficult to make out,from the on-board camera
    in the car of Arie Luyendyk, who is currently 2nd. There was also a TV
    ad on DIGITAL servers right at the beginning of race coverage.
    The race has omly gone 15 laps thus far because of rain delays.It 
    will hopefully be run today.
    
                              Rich
     

    I was surfing ESPN just before 11pm eastern (waiting for the local news
    at 11) and ESPN 2 had the Indy 500 awards presentations. Arie and the
    team owner had good things to say about Digital as a sponsor.  
    Good work by all those responsible!  
    
    Now if only there was an "Alpha onboard" the thing.  
    
    Nortel must have been the teams main backer, as Nortel (The folks that
    sublease over half of the ALF facility) got a lot more kudos 
    from the team owner and both his drivers.  That must have cost Nortel a
    bundle.  
    
    	Phil