Saturday in Texas

Saturday was a long day at the office for many drivers and teams as two rounds of practice and the Nationwide race was on the schedule. For Robby Gordon and his #7 Jim Beam Toyotoa team, it was a chance to get his brand new car dialed in while entertaining some important sponsors and their guests. It's safe to say that Robby's car isn't perfect, and while he'd like to be higher on sheets from both practices, the rounds served their purpose as the team was able to make a number of adjustments and changes to the car. Even though Robby doesn't run the Nationwide race, it was all business for him and his team as they continued talking car set up and race strategy. Although I think Robby would like a few more laps in the car before the race, he's ready to go. Jim Beam does a good job entertaining guests at Texas Motor Speedway. They have the touring RV pulled up behind a private grandstand area between turns 3 and 4, and have some great food, drinks and music going for their VIP race fans. The view from the Jim Beam Party Deck is hard to beat, and will make for a great spot to watch Robby and his competition on Sunday. Last night Robby took some of his team to the Dallas Stars game at the American Airlines center in Dallas. Robby booked a suite for his team to relax and unwind after a hard day's work at the track. You've really got to admire Robby for looking after his crew so well. It's good to see a team leader, owner, driver, whoever, making sure that his team stay in good spirits and motivation. It's super windy and a bit cool this morning in Dallas. It'll be interesting to see how the teams fare if these conditions hold through the day. I'll be tweeting (you can follow me on Twitter @mojomorris) from the track and will post some videos and pics later today or tomorrow of the day's events.

Friday Night in Texas

The first official night of the NASCAR Texas race weekend got kicked off in fine sytle as Jim Beam hosted a local market appearance with Robby Gordon at Buffalo Joe's in Dallas. The Jim Beam team put together a good show with Robby getting up close with some of his fans. The Jim Beam team had its RV (think macked-out rock n roll tour bus) parked out front of Buffalo Joe's, complete with two NASCAR video games for the would-be racers to test their skills against Robby. Inside Buffalo Joe's the Beam team was giving away hats, shirts and even miniature Jim Beam #7 hoods -- and if you didn't mind waiting a couple minutes, Robby would sign them and ask you to pose for a picture with some of his friends. After the appearance at Buffalo Joe's, Robby grabbed his sponsors, a couple team members and some of his friends and headed out for dinner. The big surprise was when Robby got behind the wheel of the Jim Beam tour bus. I've yet to meet a race car driver who doesn't want to drive himself, but I think his instincts may have had him hugging the walls of George Bush Tollway a bit too close, though! You can imagine the look on the faces of the valets when we rolled up ... I don't think they really knew what to do with us. Today is more practice time. Robby likes his car, and thinks yesterdaya's qualifying isn't indicative of the car's capabilities. Let's hope he and the team can work out some of the kinks in today's practice rounds. Tonight Robby and team are going to catch the Dallas Stars game and then call it an evening to get ready for the show tomorrow. I'll try to post some videos and pictures of today's activities a bit later. And you can follow me on Twitter @mojomorris. All for now ... Mojo

Spot at Bristol with Robby Gordon

The Mojo Sports team and our client Spot (http://www.findmespot.com/) spent the past weekend at Bristol Motor Speedway (BMS). Spot was the primary sponsor for the Robby Gordon Motorsports team and Robby's #7 Toyota Camry.

Our weekend was dedicated to working with Robby and his team drive awareness for Spot. Spot has a great product whose target market nicely fits with the demographics of the NASCAR fan. Robby clearly sees the larger opportunity with Spot, and is very interested in seeing the product succeed. Robby was personally very involved in helping shape the Bristol opportunity for Spot and took an active role in making sure we received all the proper attention and "assets" necessary for a longer term marketing program.

The challenge for Mojo and Spot was the very short runway we had to prepare our activation programs (less than a week!). Whenever we're faced with limited time and/or resources, we narrow our focus and make sure we do a few things really well. This weekend was no exception, and we decided to focus our efforts in a few key areas -- PR, online activities, social networking, and a few well placed ads. Spot has a small but effective marketing team, and we're able to partner with them and their advertising and PR agencies in quickly developing an integrated and focused plan.

One of the appealing things about Robby is his fan base and appeal across a variety of motorsports segments. He's not only a good NASCAR driver, but an excellent off road driver and the current leader in the SCORE Desert Racing Series (SCORE produces the infamous Baja 500 and Baja 1000 races among others. Check out http://www.score-international.com/). Robby has a very cool fan site called PlanetRobby(http://www.planetrobby.com/), and we were able to work with them and RobbyGordon.com (http://www.robbygordon.com/) to leverage our social media activities including Twitter, Facebook, various blogs and other tools.

The proliferation and adoption of social networking is really changing the landscape for how companies and brands communicate, and this weekend was a proof point for how social networking can really help create and drive impressions, awareness and familiarity.

So in addition to being Twittering fools all weekend long, on Saturday night we took one of Robby's golf carts out into the campground surrounding the Speedway. It was CRAZY. RV's, camp fires, mechanical bulls, and line dancing under a disco ball over a gravel dance floor greeted us as we made our journey through the land of the NASCAR fan. If any of you have been to a NASCAR race, you know how passionate and committed the NASCAR fans are -- and let me tell you, the fans at Bristol are some of the best.

We woke up early Sunday morning and made our way to BMS, hoping to arrive before the other 160,000 folks. We had a full day of activities ahead of us -- meeting with the owners of the track (SMI), attending an autograph session with Robby at his merchandise hauler, going to the driver's meeting where Tom Colby was introduced as one of the VIPs, then heading down to the start/finish line for driver introductions, national anthem and "Gentlemen, Start Your Engines!"

Robby had a good race and finished in the top half of the sheet. Although I know he wants to improve, being a single car team owner and driver is tough sledding in NASCAR and Robby should be proud of his results. We're proud of our association with Robby Gordon and Spot, and look forward to more cool and successful activation programs.

That's all for now. Back at ya later.

Mojo

Mojo gets SPOT into NASCAR with Robby Gordon

As the sports marketing agency for the SPOT Satellite Messenger (http://www.findmespot.com/), Mojo has worked with SPOT to identify sponsorship/partnership opportunities across a variety of different activities in order to help them increase their brand visibility, awareness, and of course product sales. While we focus on growing SPOT's core target markets, we have also researched a variety of unique opportunities to grow their business and one sport that Mojo has always thought would be a good testing ground for SPOT has been NASCAR.

With its very active fan-base filled with hunters, hikers, anglers, campers & RV'ers we have always thought that the NASCAR fan was closely aligned with that of the SPOT user. And, after a few months of deliberation, internal discussions, various debates and an assortment of PowerPoint presentations the day finally arrived when SPOT was ready to enter into the world of NASCAR....even if only for one weekend.

The deal, brokered by Mojo, was a very creative one-race deal for SPOT with the #7 car of Robby Gordon (http://www.planetrobby.com/) for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Race (http://www.nascar.com/) at Bristol Motor Speedway. Through the sponsorship SPOT received primary branding on Robby's racecar and racing suit (both seen below), as well as branding on all casual and racewear for his staff and pitcrew.

To promote the sponsorship Mojo worked with SPOT and Robby Gordon's marketing/pr team on a variety of fronts to get the word out. The standard PR blitz was developed and handled by SPOT's PR manager Derek Moore with the help of Mojo and PR agency Skyya, and TV and print interviews were lined up.

On the activation side of things, Mojo promoted SPOTs sponsorship via the SPOT twitter page (www.twitter.com/spot_messenger) providing fans with live updates throughout the race weekend including behind-the-scenes images from the racetrack. The SPOT feed was also incorporated and "retweeted" via Robby's twitter account during the race.

Additionally, Mojo worked with SPOT to develop a unique landing page (www.findmespot.com/robby) with a limited time special offer on a SPOT Messenger. All marketing efforts, including the special offer and landing page were also promoted on both of Robby's websites (http://www.robbygordon.com/ & http://www.planetrobby.com/).

Check back for more updates, news, photos and videos from the Bristol weekend soon.

Ciao for now,

P.J.

Mojo Sports Selected by SPOT to Manage and Execute Integrated Sports Marketing Program

Mojo Sports Selected by SPOT to Manage and Execute Integrated Sports Marketing Program Focus on Athletes and Ambassadors, Events and Mobile Marketing Austin, TX (Business Wire EON) December 10, 2008 -- Mojo Sports, http://www.simplymojo.com/, a full service sports and entertainment marketing agency, has been selected by California-based, SPOT, LLC, http://www.findmespot.com/, the pioneer behind the award-winning SPOT Satellite GPS Messenger™, as their sports marketing agency of record through 2009. Mojo Sports will be responsible for developing, negotiating and executing unique athlete, event and mobile marketing programs which align the SPOT brand with category leaders, increase brand visibility, and integrate the SPOT technology into the fabric of the activities and properties they sponsor. Mojo Sports specializes in identifying, negotiating, leveraging and measuring highly relevant sponsorships and partnerships for corporate clients and was selected by SPOT because of its strategic thinking and tactical execution. Mojo Sports’ will spend the majority of the 2008 4th quarter working with SPOT’s management team to identify broad marketing objectives and strategic sports marketing programs to achieve their 2009 growth goals. “We selected Mojo Sports following a thorough sports marketing agency selection process,” commented Darren Bassel, Director of Marketing for SPOT, LLC. “Mojo displayed a clear understanding of the consumer electronics and outdoor markets, and an ability to think strategically and creatively with a strong focus on tactics and implementation. We are confident in their ability to help grow the SPOT brand through well executed sports marketing programs.” Mojo Sports will apply its “Four Circles” approach to achieve a cohesive marketing platform and positive return on investment for SPOT by combining the key tenets of brand visibility, brand alignment, product and technology integration, and unique experiences. “The SPOT Satellite GPS Messenger is one of the breakthrough outdoor consumer electronic products in the last several years,” said Morris Denton, partner at Mojo Sports. “We are very excited about the opportunity to identify and execute unique marketing partnerships across a variety of sport and lifestyle activities with the primary goal to drive sales and grow the SPOT brand.” Heeding feedback from SPOT about their desire to tap the off-road market, Mojo Sports developed and executed, in just four weeks, a unique sports marketing program surrounding the 2008 Tecate SCORE Baja 1000 which put SPOT in the middle of the action. Through a strategic partnership with Aura360 Ventures and SCORE Trophy Truck driver Cameron Steele, Mojo Sports was able to secure SPOT branding on Steele’s trophy truck and integrate SPOT technology into more than 80 race vehicles for tracking on a live website produced and executed by BFGoodrich and Volkswagen in conjunction with SCORE International. In addition to producing video for the live website, Aura360 Ventures will produce NBC’s December 14th broadcast of the 2008 Baja 1000 where SPOT will be incorporated. “Having identified off-road enthusiasts as a highly relevant group for the SPOT Messenger, we aggressively pursued opportunities to integrate SPOT at one of the world’s most challenging off-road events, the Baja 1000,” said Katie Schoeben, Senior Marketing Manager for SPOT LLC. “Working closely with Mojo we put together a compelling program for SPOT with a lot of touch points across a variety of marketing activities. Our ability to execute the Baja program under a condensed timeline, in a unique environment, and with a variety of marketing partners was impressive and a testament to Mojo’s capabilities. “ The Tecate SCORE Baja 1000, including in-car commentary with driver Cameron Steele, will be televised on NBC Sports December 14, 2008 and ESPN International beginning December, 2008.