The Big Interview – Infiniti

As Formula One returns to the sporting calendar next weekend following its summer break, SportIndustry.biz spoke to Simon Sproule – Corporate Vice President, Global Marketing Communications for Nissan Motor Company – on Infiniti’s sponsorship of the Red Bull Racing team – one year into the deal.

Infiniti agreed its partnership with Red Bull Racing just over a year ago, how has the last year been?

I think when you start any big sponsorship there is always a first year of learning. I’m sure most agencies would agree that you get a critical mass building after two or three years. You need to set a target on the horizon because one or two years is too short because you are still learning how to activate your partnership, and the public are still learning about your involvement, but then they begin to recognize and associate your logo with the team and the product. 

It does take time, I suppose we are formally out of the honeymoon period, but we are certainly still in the early days of the marriage. 

And before the wedding, what was it that first attracted Infiniti to Formula One and Red Bull Racing?

The Infiniti brand is still relatively new, even in a global sense. We launched the brand in the late 80’s in the US. At the time there were four Japanese manufacturers looking at the global automotive market and recognizing the rise of the luxury brands, such as BMW and Mercedes, so the competitive response was for the Japanese brands to crack the North American market. Infiniti stayed in the States for 15 years before it really started to expand to the rest of the world. 

The challenge when you launch a new brand is awareness – it doesn’t matter if you are a car company, an airline, a bank or a soap powder – awareness is the key. So a couple of years ago when we were looking to launch to other markets around the world, the big problem was no one knew who we were. We didn’t start by saying we were going to go straight into Formula One; the business problem to solve was awareness. 

We looked from football, tennis, golf and sailing, all the way through to arts and theatre. There are an endless amount of potential platforms out there and we narrowed it down to F1 or a top team from the English Premier League, because of the global reach. Then it was just a case of meeting the teams and, with our existing connections with Renault already in place, it became clear that Red Bull Racing was the best fit for us. It’s a young brand, unconventional, and it felt right.

It was around a year ago that Vettel was named one of your ambassadors, what is it that Sebastian brings to the brand?

Anytime you link yourself to a celebrity or sportsman you take on their values, and you project them onto your brand. Vettel is young, dynamic, good looking and racing for the team you’re sponsoring, as well as being a rising global star – it was a very attractive proposition. Obviously on the most basic level, we make cars and he is a very good driver, so immediately that is a good fit. 

He hadn’t done any specific car endorsements before, and we thought we could do some cool things with him. We are a new brand so we are not stuck with complying with the heritage of the brand etc. so we are free to go in whatever direction we like. 

Following on from the ‘cool’ things you mentioned, what was his involvement in the creation of the ‘Infiniti FX Sebastian Vettel version’?

It actually started off from day one of our relationship. We quickly came up with the idea to create a limited edition car, and as an ambassador we thought it would be great to work on a project that could bring brand Infiniti and brand Vettel together.

Sebastian worked closely with our head of design to incorporate technology that he liked from vehicles he had already been driving. For example he asked for more carbon fibre compared to the original FX, with a different body design, so he really put a lot of input into the car. We start production later this year and it is priced at £100,000, with first deliveries early next year.

When Infiniti was announced as a partner of Red Bull, one of the targets was to boost the global profile of the brand. Has this worked? And did you have any other targets for the partnership?

It has worked, we have data that shows brand awareness in a lot of markets has risen, and we see that as attributable to F1. We have also seen additional benefits such as attracting dealer investors, particularly in new markets. Obviously when a new dealer comes in and takes a franchise, they invest a lot of money and they want to know what you are doing in terms of promoting the brand – and they are certainly encouraged by the investment made in Formula One. 

F1 is a great way to show that we are serious; investing a lot of money into the brand to raise awareness. 

So yes, it has worked – on a BtoB level and a BtoC level – and I would say that the other aspects that we didn’t anticipate as much at the start are things like technical collaboration. We have our engineers working together on technical projects in all kinds of areas that are relevant to us – from aerodynamics to power to weight, as well as safety. 

What does the future hold for Infiniti in sport, whether that be in F1 or further a field? 

We have another big partnership with Cirque du Soleil, the performing acrobats, which has gone on for the past three years, as well as some other individual projects – but I think F1 is a good platform for us. 

Like I said, with any new project you spend the first couple of years learning and building and once you have a foundation you can then start to accelerate the progress and association. Infiniti is still new in the pitlane, but I am positive about our future in the sport.

As a car manufacturer, we entered into Formula One in a completely different way. The conventional way in motorsport is to own the team or build the engine – but we have gone in as a sponsor. 

Twenty years ago it was the car company that ran the team and the drinks company that held the sponsorship. Now we have a drinks company running the race team and a car company doing the sponsorship. It was never our intention to run a race team though, and you don’t have to do that to build brand awareness – regardless of what your brand is.