Edit to add: Now this article seems quite prophetic...Kenny Brak and his Ford Fiesta walk away from the X Games with the Gold medal. Congrats to him and congrats to Ford. It was a very close race until Pastrana wrecked. Hopefully in the next 9 months we will hear of Ford Motorsports putting together some sort of substantial Rally program. Certainly would draw a lot more new people to their product than the increasingly boring NASCAR... With the finals of X-Games 15 occuring today viewers will once again get to see the skill and huevos that the current crop of Rally America drivers possess. Though the X-Games version of Rally is a watered down (not even a co-driver this year), fabricated vision of what looks good to ESPN bean counters it still is what most American likely associate with the term "Rally Racing". For good or ill it is the X-Games that have given Rally America its greatest exposure over the past few years--and thats a problem...
Rally America's parallel problem is a somewhat related one. Rally America long ago hitched its wagon to Subaru. Subaru came into the series a few years back with every intention of dominating it. And they have been massively successful in doing so. In combination with Vermont Sports Car (which derives the vast majority of its revenue from being the unofficial "works" team for Subaru in North America), Subaru has become the 900 lb. gorrilla in Rally America. Subaru's closest competitor in Rally America is Mitsubishi (a bankrupt company consistently on the verge of pulling all operations out of the U.S.). The money that Subaru pours into its Rally America operations (either directly or indirectly) vastly out strips the funds used by all other manufacturers combined. Is that Subaru's fault?? No...they have simply succeeded in an arena no one else chose to compete...
So tightly are Rally America and Subaru's motorsports operations intertwined that when Rally America decided to open an "East Coast" office, seperate from their MN base, they acquired office space in the same exact building as houses the Vermont Sports Car headquarters. Would NASCAR house itself in the same office building as Hendrick Motorsports? Would Bud Selig put his office inside Yankee Stadium?? You can see where I'm going here...The closeness of Rally America's corporate employees to Subaru and Subaru's domination of the series through pure cash outlays has not made everyone happy, but it has made Rally America a moderate success within the motorsports world...
So why is all this a problem? Let me present a few more pieces of info. Rally America's contract with ESPN ends this year. Beyond 2009, even RA's director J.B. Niday publicly acknowledges that rally racing is not likely to be seen at the X-Games as ESPN holds a tight relationship with Ricky Johnson's TORC series and is always looking for something fresh. The consistent downsizing and reductions to the Rally events at the X-Games (the first year Rally appeared it was a two day event with only the final section occuring within the stadium itself and now its a 1/2 minute sprint with no co-drivers on a mostly asphalt, bulldozed course) shows that Rally racing is not pleasing to ESPN's eye. So that is likely the first shoe to drop, Rally America will lose its prestige event, the one all the marketers love, the one that reaches the most eyeballs and makes by far the biggest impression.
If your product suddenly lost its biggest point of exposure and would see its rate of "impressions" cut in 1/2 would you continue to fund that products marketing program at the same rate? For that matter, if you are Pastrana, Block or Mirra would you continue to focus on rallying if you were not going to appear on a nationally televised, highly promoted, signature event any longer? Rallying isn't cheap and the return on investment both from Subaru's and the top competitors standpoint has to be there...
So what if Subaru cuts its rallying funds and one of the Pastrana, Block, Mirra trio walks away? Or worst case, what if Subaru guts its rallying program and/or all three decide to walk and try something else??
Which brings me to why RA should rig the X-Games for a Ford driver to win. Ford is an auto company on the move. In not taking any tax payer money earlier this year Ford has built up a cache of goodwill amongst the American public and stands as the most popular of the three "American" auto companies currently. Secondly, the car Ford is using at these X-Games is the Ford Fiesta, a vehicle that has not even begun being sold in North America yet so the marketing arm of Ford is in its infant or adolescent stage for this unit. Thirdly, Ford has a long history of supporting motorsports efforts in all types of racing, whether its NASCAR, desert racing or drag racing there is no built in aversion to using motorsports as a marketing tool. Lastly, a true competitor for Subaru within the Rally America ranks would pressure Subaru and the Pastrana/Block/Mirra trio to remain with the sport--Do you want to go out a loser to the new kid on the block, erasing the stature you have built up over the past few years as you played with the deck stacked in your favor or do you want to show that your products can compete on a truly even playing field against equally funded and managed competition?
Would a Ford Fiesta winning the X-Games=Ford joining RA with a full on "works" team? No, but it certainly would raise a bunch of eyebrows within Ford's marketing wing. If you go through the Fiesta website and build your own Fiesta you will see that the "performance" options (a turbo package, sport tuned suspension and sport tuned exhaust) are the most desired options for the Fiesta currently and running a Fiesta within Rally America would just be another step in reaching what is fast becoming its target audience.
If Rally America is smart, it will rig the event for Foust or Brack as I believe Ford will enter Rally America in a big way if it can successfully show off its product at these X-Games. I further believe that Ford's entry into RA is the only thing that will offset the loss of X-Games coverage in '10 and beyond and allow RA to grow beyond its current status as being merely a small wing of Fuji Heavy Industries massive marketing arm.
No comments:
Post a Comment