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Nowadays, whenever I discuss IndyCar marketing – I do so with caution. After writing a post last summer that called into question some of the marketing efforts of the NTT IndyCar Series, I got my hand slapped (or chopped off) by the series. I try to avoid writing about it at all these days, but there was what I interpreted as a “good news” story that hit over this past weekend, which caught my eye. Bear with me while I walk gingerly through this minefield.

I think we all know what IndyCar Marketing is and has been for the past couple of decades, so I probably don’t need to site any specific examples to prove a point. Fortunately, I think enough people have been saying the exact same thing publicly, where Penske Entertainment is getting the message that maybe IndyCar marketing efforts do need some tweaking.

Marshall Pruett of Racer.com ran a story on Sunday, saying that Arrow McLaren’s Zak Brown has been named to join a small taskforce that was brought about to improve IndyCar marketing. Why Zak Brown you ask? What does he know about marketing? He’s still trying to squeeze the first win out of Arrow McLaren since Iowa in 2022.

Well, if you’ve followed this sport for a while – you remember that Zak Brown founded a company in 1995 called Just Marketing, Inc.(JMI). They eventually were based in Indianapolis, but had offices in the UK and Hong Kong. JMI specialized in motorsports sponsorship and marketing. He brought several major companies to NASCAR and Formula One.

Brown sold JMI in 2013 for $76 Million, but he stayed on as CEO. He remained in that position until 2016, when McLaren came calling after Ron Dennis was ousted. Brown has been with McLaren since 2016, and has been CEO since 2018. It was his marketing expertise and ability to attract large sponsors that made him attractive to McLaren in the first place.

I’ve not been a huge fan of Brown’s, since he and McLaren slowly but surely took over Sam Schmidt’s team. I thought he did their drivers at the time, James Hinchliffe and Marcus Ericsson, dirty. The he showed what a short leash he had after kicking Oliver Askew to the curb in 2020. Brown has not made many friends in the paddock, as he has flashed the McLaren checkbook and aggressively went after other team’s drivers and crewmembers. Then again, I don’t think Brown is really interested in what the other owners think about him.

While Brown may not have the admiration of the other team-owners, I don’t think anyone questions his abilities as a business person – especially when it comes to that ever-elusive skill – marketing.

When I was reprimanded for expressing my views on IndyCar marketing, it was suggested to me that I didn’t really know what I was talking about – especially when it came to marketing. I didn’t bring it up at the time, as I had decided to sit and take my medicine – but my degree is in marketing, so I know a little something about it. I know enough about it to know that most people can’t do it, even though they think they are good at it. That’s why you see so many blunders from mega-corporations. Many marketing whizzes are better at selling their own company execs on an idea, than they are at selling ideas to the ultimate consumers.

Marketing is a fine art. Most people think they are good at it, while in reality – very few are. It’s sort of like how when it comes to driving on streets and highways. Most people rank themselves as excellent drivers. Most of them are not.

Zak Brown has a proven track record of business-to-business marketing as well as consumer marketing. In the Pruett article, Brown politely acknowledged that he had some opinions on some of the marketing opportunities that IndyCar has missed to make the sport much better.

To me, this is huge news and something that should not be overlooked. No one questions that Zak Brown is a very savvy marketer and has a strong track-record on getting things done on the marketing side of things. In my opinion, this is a win-win all the way around. Kudos should go to Mark Miles, Roger Penske and Penske Entertainment for not turning a deaf ear to the criticism they have received on their marketing efforts. They heard to remarks, they listened and they acted – in a very positive manor, when it would’ve been easy to listen to their egos.

Roger Penske is as skillful a businessman as there is today. His empire speaks for itself. But I think he is finding that operating a racing series and marketing it to the masses is a different animal than the B2B world of trucking and logistics, or even running retail car dealerships. Not everyone in his position would admit that it’s time to seek help. When they decided it was time, they chose the right man – Zak Brown.

Credit should also go to Brown. It would have been tempting to tell IndyCar that you should’ve asked for my help before now, and turn his back. Instead, it seems that Brown is more than happy to help.

This won’t produce results overnight. It’s hard to turn a battleship around. But once you do and it starts sailing in the right direction, it builds momentum that is hard to stop. Marketing is much the same way. But you have to start sometime. The cynics will say this should have been done over four years ago when Penske bought the series. Well, there’s nothing we can do about that.

I applaud IndyCar for making this move. I think it will eventually pay dividends, and could be a real shot in the arm. But fans, team owners and the series have to give it time. Hopefully, everyone can show a little collective patience.

George Phillips

Update: Aside from the good news discussed above, Susan and I received more good news yesterday. We learned the results of her six-month scans that were done last week – following her bout with pancreatic cancer that began almost four years ago. The scans were all clear! Now we can enjoy the Month of May without having to worry. – GP

This entry was posted on April 24, 2024 at 4:04 am and is filed under IndyCar. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.