Columbia Records makes itself heard at Lotus
F1 is often considered a sport-business. It provides us with an excellent illustration with the long-term agreement between Lotus and the music label Columbia Records.
Since the 2011 season and the purchase of the Enstone team by Genii Capital, all of its press releases have been titled with song names that refer to the team’s current events. The relationship with music will now be contractual as Lotus has forged an innovative partnership with the oldest music label, Columbia Records.
The objective of this agreement is to create interesting content for both parties and their target customers. Thus, during the season, Columbia Records, which has signed stars like Daft Punk, Aerosmith, David Bowie, Depeche Mode, Bob Dylan, or Bruce Springsteen, will provide free playlists on the team’s website. The aim is to highlight the creations of its artists while generating traffic on its partner’s website, allowing the latter to further enhance the visibility of its other partners on this communication platform. To symbolize this agreement in an even more visible way, the Columbia Records logo will now be present on the cars of Kimi Räikkönen and Romain Grosjean, near the rear wing.
Eric Boullier, the team director, explains how this partnership fits into the communication plan implemented by the team: « This partnership is fantastic for Lotus F1 Team, it represents a new building block in the construction of our communication plan. In the past two seasons, we have demonstrated our love for music and our ability to reach a new audience through our press releases with titles borrowed from songs, as well as through our app with Linkin Park and our compilation CD. It is a great opportunity for us to have access to this impressive list of great musicians thanks to our partnership with Columbia Records. We look forward to presenting Columbia artists in an innovative way and opening new musical horizons in the paddock in 2013 and beyond. »
Lotus has therefore managed to strike a new deal with a major consumer products company since Columbia Records is a subsidiary of the Japanese electronics giant Sony. This is indeed a sign that, despite the economic crisis, companies seeking to reach a wide audience worldwide still see F1 as an interesting communication platform, despite the significant budgets involved.
With the participation of www.Racingbusiness.fr
