Jeep Gets in on the AR Action
Rob / 15.12.2003
The Jeep® brand, NBC Sports and sports marketing firm Aura360 have announced the launch of an all-new adventure sports series, Jeep Adventure (a working title), due to air on weekend afternoons beginning in April 2004.This provides the opportunity for a networked showcase for adventure racing, and perhaps just a bit of commercial sparing with the Subaru sponsored Primal Quest, which was the first major race with a network showing when it aired on CBS. (And with the Land Rover sponsored races run by Frontier Adventure Racing in Canada ... and a few others.)
It won’t all be adventure racing though, the series, which will cover action-adventure sports from around the globe, has a much wider scope. The broad range of lifestyle and adventure sports covered will include big-wave surfing, snowboarding, rally-raids ... and “extreme adventure racingâ€.
Anchor events will be complemented by behind-the-scenes features on athletes, expeditions and the world of action-adventure sports. The series will include seven shows from April through December 2004, with an ongoing commitment in 2005. There will also be print and on-line promotional activities and local events.
“Jeep, the original ‘go anywhere, do anything’ vehicle, has always gotten adventure sports participants and their fans to the heart of the action,†said Jeff Bell, Vice President, Chrysler and Jeep Marketing. “Now, together with NBC and Aura360, the Jeep brand will bring the heart of the action to millions of viewers.â€
\"We\'re excited to be partnering with Jeep and Aura360 to provide the first network television exposure for what are unique, but established events from around the world\" said Jon Miller, Senior Vice President, Programming, NBC Sports. \"This is a terrific opportunity to showcase compelling events such as The Raid World Championships in Argentina and Teva Mountain Games in Vail to a national audience.\"
It’s a smart move by Jeep who get the association with the best of a range of sports, without any of the complexities, or risks of actually sponsoring an event. Like the weather affecting it, or the problems of filming in extreme conditions. They get maximum exposure too.
The potential tie in with the Raid World Championships comes through Aura360 who’ve also been contracted to manage global marketing and sponsor development for this, and the qualifying X-Adventure Raid Series. (They also manage Team Nike ACG/Balance Bar.)
They will manage sponsorship, marketing, development, content and event identification for the series. And if the Raid World Champs does end up in the series (as seems very likely) it will be because race sponsors Saab, and series sponsors Jeep, have sufficiently different markets to be allies in the increasingly competitive field of AR sponsorship by major motoring brands.
The more the better!
