In light of the IBJ (Indiana Business Journal) foreshadowing a major IndyCar announcement in the next two weeks, IndyCar Garage would like to go out and predict it will be Verizon Wireless.
The link above quotes commercial division president Terry Angstadt, as saying:
“It will be a category-exclusive deal with mega activation,” said Terry Angstadt, president of IRL’s commercial division. “It will rival the [promotion] done by our series title sponsor, Izod. So it’s very exciting.”
Angstadt said he couldn’t say what category the new sponsor will fill because “that would give away who it is.” He expects the as-yet-announced sponsor to be at full speed with the open-wheel race series for the 2011 season.
Further more, Just Marketing’s Zak Brown was quoted as saying
“Izod has been extremely active in taking the IndyCar brand to the mainstream public,” said Zak Brown, president of Just Marketing International, a Zionsville-based motorsports marketing consultancy. “They’ve put millions of dollars into marketing IndyCar, which is just what the series needs.”
“I’ve not heard anything about an impending deal myself, but if it's on par with Izod, that’s certainly good news, especially in this economic environment,” Brown said.
Why does Verizon make sense?
1. They are shifting their sponsorship program away from NASCAR due to the Sprint deal
2. They will increase their involvement with Team Penske and be the primary sponsor for Team Penske next year
3. Angstadt was quoted as saying major activation, not many companies come to mind right away when you talk about major activation within IndyCar, except that Verizon has already been active with IndyCar this year, designing a mobile application for its users and putting championship points leader Will Power in commercials with Justin Alliager, who is left ride less in the Nationwide series now that Verizon is moving out of NASCAR.
Let’s hope in two weeks that IndyCar Garage is correct in their predication
The Indianapolis Buisness Journal contributed to this post
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