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Branding and the Pro Series |
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Page 4 of 4
On April 3, 2005, Marco Andretti had done the same on the streets of
St. Petersburg with exactly 10 laps left to take over the lead, and, as
it would turn out, lead the rest of the laps and win the race. As the
former 1978 Formula One World Champion and grandfather answered when
asked by Cameron Steele after the race about the pass, “Well it’s the
only chance he had, really, with the lapped traffic, and he took it and
that was the win for him. My gosh, that was so awesome.”
And Mario said that with passion and emotion. Now that is a
wonderful story that adds to branding! 
In victory circle, a happy and thrilled Marco talked about his pass to
get the lead back, and then he said, in what was a very emotional
moment, “I want to dedicate this to my buddy Will, who was killed in a
car accident on the way to see me yesterday. This is for
you.” Talk about dealing with pressure and tragedy, this young
man showed talent, poise, class and emotion – on a very big stage.
Mario and Michael both said how proud they were of Marco. Michael
also thanked everybody who had supported Marco and helped get him
there, and specifically mentioned Vonage, Firestone, Magna Flow and
Hershey’s.
In his first IRL race, Marco had just made history by winning the first
IRL non-oval race and becoming the youngest driver to ever win a Pro
race.
As a branding story you probably won’t ever see a better one than the
story presented by ESPN2 about Marco Andretti. The Marco Andretti
brand name is looking very good for the future!
For more about Marco and the Andretti family go to their official web site: www.andretti.com/andrettis/marco-andretti.asp
In our next feature story we will tell how another rookie Pro driver,
who does not have a famous racing family name, is going about building
a brand name, Travis Gregg. Same principles, different story.
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