Telecom wars come to NASCAR: Nextel vs. AT&T
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Over the past decade, SBC has spent hundreds of millions of dollars establishing the Cingular Wireless brand name, billions more buying AT&T Wireless, switching all their customers over to Cingular, and dropping the AT&T Wireless brand. Then, when they bought the rest of AT&T as well as Bell South, and for reasons known only to some marketing genius deep in the bowels of the company, they threw away all that investment and decided to drop the Cingular brand and switch the cellular service back to AT&T.
What does any of this have to do with cars you might ask? Well it goes back to 2003 when Nextel stepped in to replace Winston as the title sponsor of NASCARs top series. Nextel didn't want their investment diluted by the presence of competitors on the cars. Cingular and Alltel were both sponsoring cars at the time and were allowed to maintain that sponsorship as long as they didn't expand it or switch teams. Of course since the Cingular brand is going away, AT&T would like to change the branding on the Richard Childress Racing #31 car and therein lies the rub. NASCAR wants to block the change to the
[Source: Advertising Age]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
CaliberSRT4 12:23PM (3/18/2007)
Nextel needs to get out of NASCAR if they don't like the cars having sponsors. Its not like everyone will get Nextel if it's the only cell phone sponsor in the sport. They should let it happen since AT&T isn't "new" it is just a name change. I think it is stupid what happened to Robby Gordon. Nextel didn't like him having Motorola on the car. He did finally get some kind of music player logo from Motorola on his car for today's race. Motorola is NOT a service provider as far as I know, AND Motorola provides Nextel with exclusive phones just for them.
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Frustrated Consumer 12:43PM (3/18/2007)
"Remember when there was once a time when racing was about who got get the finish line the fastest instead of about which company got the most screen time and mentions from commentators and drivers?"
That's because NASCAR isn't racing as much as it is entertainment that uses automobiles as it's backdrop. It's like 'big-time' wrestling - it's more about the personalities.
Besides, in most forms of real racing you can't win with an illegal car. In NASCAR, you can win with an illegal car and simply lose points.
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amp 10:20AM (3/19/2007)
Since when does Bill France turn down a buck?
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Fastmaster 8:13AM (3/28/2007)
Something smells funny here... This problem seems avoidable as does the one NASCAR has brewing with Motorolla and with Shell. Is it me or is NASCAR oversaturated and begining to rot? It looks to me that that they are overpromising and under delviering just about everywhere these days. Attendance is off at many tracks, ratings are down for the second year in a row, Toyota's entry to Cup has been a scandal tainted disaster. The "Car of Tomorrow" is actually the "Car of Yesterday" and most Cup drivers dis it. To me NASCAR feels like the last flamboyant hurrah for the 20th Century. "Bogity, Bogity, Bye, Bye AT&T/Cingular!" looks like where this is headed. Maybe AT&T should consider moving their sponsorship to a another form of American motorsport that represents life in 2007 not 1977. I suggest the Indy 500 and the Indy Car Series which went green last weekend with 100% Ethanol or the American Le Mans Series which has the sexiest race cars on the planet and fully embraces cool technologies or Champ Car which has a fast new car and great urban street races (fingers crossed that they have more that a dozen cars and at least six drivers I have heard of next week in Vegas). All three series probably attract higher income fans who can probably afford wireless and broadband sevices without missing a payment on their car (or pick-up truck). The brand clutter in NASCAR must also be an issue... theri broadcast are boring and nothing more than one long commercial laced with ignorant language and shameless shilling. Fans are smarter that that!
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