Integrated Marketing

This is a report on my "vacation" from integrated marketing.10/15-24/05.

Although the project is clearly an integrated marketing program involving three departments at MBUSA, Mercedes-Benz AMG Germany, Mercedes Motorsports Germany, SpeedChannel, DTM (German Touring Car Series), ITR, the governing body of that series, as well as the Hockenheimring racetrack and a host of German race sponsors, I am writing this blog from Germany as a personal travelogue.

Read it only if you love motorsports. Also read it if you own wish to own or simply want to find out more about AMG and what it would be like to experience driving these high performance Mercedes-Benz cars on the racetrack and autobahns in Germany.

10/16/2005.

Arrived in Frankfurt after a nightmare flight from Newark in middle seat 53E, about as far back as a 747 goes. This seat has a three legged configuration so both feet can not fir into the foot cavity which can not even accommodate a briefcase. The perfectly nice cardiologist from Cologne just happened to be a 250 + pounder, so he and I sat with our arms squeezed in our laps for the 7 hour + flight.

Sprinting from terminal C to A via a long line of security screening, I missed my flight to Stuttgart.

I ran into Bobby Akin, Integrated Marketing VP of Speedchannel and an accomplished driver himself. He is the son of the late Bob Akin, a friend and one time driving instructor of mine. Bob was one of the great American Sportscar drivers who was tragically killed at Road Atlanta in 2002. Bob was a two-time 12 Hours of Sebring winner (1979, 1986)the latter with Jo Gartner and Hans Stuck in Bob's 962. He raced in six 24 Hours of Le Mans races, finishing fourth in 1984. He won International Motor Sports Association's world endurance championship in 1986.



Bobby was at the airport on his own, so he and I shared a cab to the Nestor Hotel in Ludwigsberg, just before Stuttgart and near Affalterbach, the home of AMG, our first stop.

AMG stands for Aufrecht, (Hans Werner, aka HWA) and Melcher, the two founders of the company,and Grosaspach, the town near the current home in Affalterbach, where they had their first garage. Initially they moonlighted while working for Mercedes with Melcher eventually being fired for spending too much time building racing cars with Aufrecht. They only used Mercedes engines and cars for their racing efforts, virtually inventing the sport of sedan car racing in Germany.

You can read the history on the website, but AMG is the Performance division of Mercedes-Benz. Their heritage is racing and this dominates their culture, thinking and technology development. (select AMG on) MBUSA.com).

Our mission was to film what an American owner or potential owner would experience if they visited AMG and signed up for the AMG Experience, see AMG driver training. In 2004, the cost was $7,500 (ex-travel), which included a great helmet worth around $700.00.

As soon as we checked in, we went out on the road with the film crew to look for country locations for driving scenes. So we got relaxed tour of the pretty German countryside outside the industrial city of Stuttgart. I am always amazed how the Europeans are able to maintain the balance between cities, towns, agriculture and suburbs, a skill that allows small farms to survive. It also makes for a much prettier rural countryside right near the big sometimes not so pretty cities.

My Mercedes USA AMG colleague Rob Allan and I enjoyed the E55 AMG loaned to us by the factory. This was my first chance to let this great car run on the autobahn. I had done 155 mph in this car on the oval track at Texas Motor Speedway so I knew what it felt like at speed, but running at that speed in normal Sunday traffic was a great experience. More on the autobahn later.

This car tracks very true at very high speed and has all the power and you could ever want in a high performance sedan. It just sits planted on the autobahn at 150+ mph giving you the confidence to pass cars driving in the right hand two lanes, which you approach at impossibly fast closing speeds compared to highway driving in the US.

The seat action that hugs you in the corners is a great sensation as the car senses the minimal lean and counteracts it by the seat hugging your hips on the opposite direction of the turn.

We got off the autobahn and drove through the picturesque country roads that comprise lush green crops and undulating hills. We saw a surprising number of vineyards, especially on hilly terrain where the vertical plantings broke all my high school lessons about contour planting but added a marvelous almost sculpted visual effect to the hills. Germany makes great wine which mostly goes unnoticed.

The green hills were occasionally interspersed with the blue of cabbages and the pale brown of the freshly harvested turnip fields, with thousands of turnips piled in triangular man made turnip hills near the roadsides of the fields. The result adds a colorful but subtle pastel hue, almost watercolor palette to the landscape.

Also dotting the landscape were the older buildings, schlosses etc. as well as quaint South German houses in this typically Schwabian area.

The overall impression is one of neatness and order.

Back at the hotel we were exposed to a common theme on the trip. Smoking in restaurants and public places. While I am not in favor of legislating smoking rules, I feel one should have the choice. In most places, there is a very theoretical line between the smoking and non smoking areas. At Frankfurt airport for instance, the coffee shops have two rows of tables close together. One has ashtray one does not. But second hand smoke is everywhere, which is not fair to non-smokers.

10/17

We drove through the very rural area to Affalterbach a pretty little town. AMG is in a small industrial area behind the town. A vast Glass and steel complex surrounded by cornfields and chicken farms that smelled like horse manure to the uninitiated nostrils of us urbanites.

Our Speedvision show host from the US, 4 time Trans Am champion Tommy Kendall who has won almost as many races as Mark Donohue, quipped, "you could smell the horsepower in the air".

AMG does not build cars. They design, develop and specify AMG equipment but they build engines, one at a time by hand. You can read about the one man one engine philosophy on the website.
So we met the man who would be your host if you went, Martin Heiss, who gave us unique access to an engine testing room which is a glass encased view of the dyno test. What makes this different from any other dyno machine I have seen, is that you can watch and listen to the dyno while they show a lap of any racetrack in Germany. The dyno is linked to the actual telemetry from the track, so the video shows the tach speedo and other gauges while the engine in the dyno room is synchronized to the real-time input from the hot lap. We watched Hockenheimring, the F1 track near Speyer with ex-DTM Mercedes driver Bernd Mylander run an SL65 around Hockenheim.



This is the first time I have seen a professional racecar driver do a hotlap in a box stock street car. While this twin turbo V12 engine with 604 horsepower and 738 foot pounds of torque is no ordinary car, you can drive it out of the showroom here and terrorize any street Bimmer or Ferrari on a racetrack in the US.

The SL65 AMG was voted “The Fantasy Convertible” by the New England Motor Press Association (NEMPA), consisting of New England-based automotive journalists. They tested the limited-production, high-performance hardtop convertible during its annual Ragtop Ramble convertible driving event from Boston to Kennebunkport this summer.
“Why fantasy?” asks Gerry Miles, NEMPA President and automotive editor for New Hampshire’s Portsmouth Herald. “Because it would be a fantasy to own one, never mind be lucky enough to secure seat time behind the wheel of one.”

I wholly endorse this decription. I have driven the SL55 AMG at Texas Motor Speedway at 150+ mph and the SL65 on the autobahn at 280 kph (170 mph) on the autobahn. All I can tell you is that this car will hold it's own with any car, anywhere.

We filmed the engine room where each man builds each engine in about a day and then signs it with a personal plate. The twin turbo takes about three days and each and every one is dynoed of the V12s. If you buy one, you may call the man who built it if you wish. It is a good thing my wife did not see this engine plant as even Martha Stewart would find it spotless and organized.

We popped into the world's most unique restaurant for lunch. The PS.

It is a private restaurant for AMG and it's customers, which is located in an Olympic style Dressage and riding arena, indoors an out, which adjoins AMG.

HWA has two daughters who compete at the Olympic level. On land surrounding AMG, he built this arena for his daughters to train. And inside it is the restaurant.

We had lunch with Mario Spitzner who is responsible for marketing AMG worldwide.

Mario made one of the most interesting pronouncements I have ever heard for a marketing man. He told us they did not want to grow any more. That their cars thrived on limited production for exclusive buyers. Not only cars for people like the sheik of Oman who demand special models like one with military grade night vision as an example of the incredible customization AMG will do for millions of dollars. But the C55 AMG, while retails for around $50,000 in the US. Every Mercedes model available in the US has an AMG version, so performance is available in a wide variety of configurations from the race ready SL65 to the family sized ML63 due next spring with the new generation of performance engine. (See Mercedes-amg.com).

While the sheik does not mind being talked about, most AMG buyers demand secrecy. While we know that the customers include most if not all the celebrities who love cars, their names will never be revealed or testimonials used in marketing AMG cars.

We met Klaus Ludwig at HWA racing where the raft of racing trophies is displayed along with some of the most exotic race cars, now out of production, in the world. AMG and Mercedes relationships are more complex than most. Hans Werner Aufrecht racing is the racing team personally owned by the founder.

This unit, in close collaboration with AMG, builds all the Mercedes racecars for the DTM (Deutschen Tourenwagen Masters) series regardless of race team and sponsor. In 2005 the series is supported by Mercedes, Audi and the GM German marque, Opel. Sadly, with GMs problems, it is the last year of Opel support.

In addition to building all the Mercedes cars for the series, HWA has it's own team, as does Mercedes Motorsports, all sponsored by different co-sponsors, just to add further complexity.

We will give you a race update of the DTM series which will be decided this Sunday, 10/23/05. In 18 years of DTM, the fight for the championship has been decided in the final race only 7 times. Gary Paffett in the Daimler-Chrysler Bank Mercedes has won 5 of the DTM's ten races so far the last one at the premiere race outside European Istanbul. The British driver still needs one point to take the title away from last years champion, Mattias Ekstom (Audi) who is second overall.

Only once has the leading driver lost to the second place man in the final race.

In 1991, Mercedes-Benz driver Klaus Ludwig came to Hockenheim with an eight point lead. In the wet race, the 4 wheel drive Audis were stronger and Frank Biela claimed the championship for them. While BMW privateers race, DTM has really been an Audi Mercedes contest, with Mercedes dominating the win loss column. Sinc then 4 wheel drive racecars are banned as there is no way of equalizing machinery.

Klaus gave us the coolest interview I have ever seen with a race driver, and I have seen some of the best including Senna, Prost and Mansell. They say that if you win LeMans you are a hero, twice you are a legend. Klaus won Le Mans 5 times and dismissed the accomplishment with one of his typical been there done that shrugs and a Mona Lisa like smile. He spoke fondly of his racing experience in the US where he raced for nine years winning the Camel GTP 5 times and 24 Hours at Daytona in 1986. He was very complimentary about NASCAR, it's organization, promotion and stability with sponsors. He also said we could learn something about safety from Europe.
If you watch the show on Speedvision you will see what I mean by cool.
Klaus has really done it all and deals with it nonchalantly.

He parked his 240 D station wagon and hopped into an SL65 which he put through it's paces on the autobahn at almost 190 mph. The highlight of what he said though, was that nowhere in the world can you drive legally at 300 kph (187 mph) and in no other car would he feel as comfortable. The remarkable footage shot by SpeedChannel is really worth watching as Klaus gives you unique insight to high speed driving off the race track to give you a perspective on one of the acid tests for an AMG car, the German Autobahn.

Speaking of the autobahns, you can't always drive at unlimited speed, and not just because certain sections have speed limits as one of our crew found out to his cost via the incredible virtually instant camera fine system. Another thing that slows you down is the traffic, it is awful around Stuttgart.

Rob Allan and I took nearly three hours from Stuttgart to Hockenheim which is usually a 45 minute trip. The autobahn was jammed with trucks and other traffic. As one of our AMG hosts, Uli Fritz put it, "there are too many cars for too little roads".

We checked into a beautiful Spa, the Lindner, a five star hotel in Binshof outside Speyer. It is literally surrounded by pastures and fields. From there the track is a few minutes away, across the Rhine, unless it is race weekend when the track entrance backs up for miles as it does on a NASCAR weekend in the US.

10/18

Hockenheim, 7:30 a.m. Uncharacteristic warmth and blue sky, a perfect day to meet Tomas Yeager, a friendly unpretentious young driver who was now driving for Porsche and Ford after driving DTM for Mercedes the last two years.

He and Tommy went out and flogged the CLS 55 AMG. I watched them drift through turn 2 after a flatout run down the main straight. This stylish but sedate looking car puts it's nose down under the braking on those huge 17" discs and then turns in with a purposeful nose down attitude and goes through the turn with a minimum of lean that is almost unbelievable for a four door street vehicle. While both Tomas and Tommy were inducing oversteer for the benefit of the cameraman, this is only possible because of the amazing torque, 704 ft pounds and yes once again this is a street car that looks stylish outside the Metropolitan opera or the Academy Awards.

I also watched it go through the short chute after the hairpin where there is a kink on the way to turn 6, in front of the Mercedes grandstand. This is taken flat-out in a highly tuned racecar. I guess no-one told Tommy and Tomas that this was not a highly tuned racecar as they passed us at 150-160 mph. but it certainly behaves like one.

For Tommy's comments watch the SpeedChannel show on New Year's day. DVDs of the show will be available to AMG owners in the new year from the AMG website.

Next the boys took out the DTM AMG racecar, designed from the street version of the new DTM AMG which is unfortunately, only available in Europe. But unlike the current DTM AMG we had on the track as well,this has the new 63 engine that will ultimately replace all the 55s.

On the show you will see that unlike the rest of the cars we tested which were all silver, the DTM racecar was a bright orange. You can hear the difference as it roars though turn 1 as neutral as a go-kart. While they took it in turns to drive the DTM car, they also had the official F1 safety car, an SLK 55 AMG which has been modified to pace F1 cars under a yellow flag. So with lights flashing this car was put though it's paces on the track.

While one does not normally think that a Safety car's performance is critical, it has to lap quickly enough so that the F1 cars do not overheat behind it. In the rain, this car is fantastic. There is apparently a story that in one F1 rain race, the drivers were radioing the official driver, Bernd Mylander to slow down as they feared spinning out behind the rooster tail of the SLK 55 AMG flying through the rain.

The other impressive things about Hockenheim is that the teams all back identical big rigs up to the indoor garages that lead to their pits. There is a space for pedestrians and then the Mercedes Lounge which is set up like a luxury restaurant with full cooking facilities at the rear. On top of the garages and pits they pitch a tent the length of a football field. This is for the post race gala which in their case was also for the DTM championship ceremony.

The other neat thing is that there is an autocross in the middle of the track with a raised drifting course. There is also a 4X4 obstacle and balance course for spectators to enjoy on a race weekend. The additional go-Kart track was not operating during the race.

The track itself is new and pretty perfect. But as Klaus said, American racetracks are real tracks, meaning they have setting and elevations like the Nurbugring versus the new flat F1 tracks of Europe.

Monaco remains an anomaly as this street course can not possibly conform to modern FIA F1 standards, but I suppose not even Bernie Ecclestone can cancel Monaco with impunity.

10/19 Back to Affalterbach.

More filming in the engine room with COO Wolf Zimmermann. Like Mario, all these executives have tricked out AMGs with special equipment. Wolf also drives a 1964 300 SE with a full roll cage and rally equipment to the office.

Brand new CEO, Volcker Mornhinwehg has just joined from Mercedes referred to with mixed fondness as "the mother ship". An engineer by education, he had been head of human resources.

We had arrived at an interesting time in Germany. Angela Merkel was about to take over from Helmut Schroeder as chancellor in a very weak co-alition. The Chrysler Group's Dieter Zetsche was replacing Jurgen Schremp as CEO of Daimler-Chrysler and they had already announced they would lay off 8,500 employees. While this is no different from Dieter's reorganization plan that cut 26,000 jobs at Chrysler after he took over in 2000, it is an unprecedented cost control measure in Germany.

Jurgen actually showed up at the customer center where we had set up home base to take delivery of his new AMG, and it was more like watching a rock star as all the employees dimmed their lights so they would not be seen ogling the boss for the last time.

10/20 Back to Hockenheim.

We met Klaus early the next morning. The blue sky and crisp fall days we had relished turned into a more typical cold, damp German drizzle. And a chill that rivals a Honda shoot in Ballyhoulish Scotland, where our Canadian crew, fresh from an arctic circle dogsled shoot found that North American down gear just melts in the damp cold of Europe. We had to replace it all with wool.

Klaus and Tommy Kendall took the SL55s out on Hockenheim and thoroughly thrashed them.

Watching these two great drivers come through the sharp left-hander in front of the Mercedes grandstand was poetry in motion. They would bear down the short straight after breaking hard for the preceding the hairpin, brake hard again with smoke and the fresh smell of metal rotors on on metal discs reeking into the damp air, and then throw these $125,000 cars around the corner nose to tail. The rear would come out and the two would go through side by side at 45 degrees and then correct the power on slide in almost slow motion unison as the cars came back to parallel with the track and scampered off around the next right-hander.

Don't try this bit of automotive ballet unless you are Klaus and some one as skilled as Tommy is dancing next to you. While Klaus is Tommy's childhood hero, this is the first time they had met.

We nearly lost Tommy down the main straight as a sweeper vehicle did a U turn right in front of him when he was at full chat, maybe up to 150-160 mph. This was to cost us later on in the mysterious world of German bureaucracy.

Next was a unique ride to watch. Klaus took Tommy for a few laps in the DTM "taxi". This, to Klaus's chagrin, was last year's DTM car of Jean Alesi with an extra seat in it, which Tommy scrunched his 6'3" frame into. Robert Dalrymple, owner of the production company and I watched Klaus scream past turn 1, putting his right hand wheel on exactly the same spot of the bright blue and white rumble strip each time about three feet from us.
That's what driving the Hockenheimring for 30 years and being one of the greatest drivers will do. But Klaus' devilish streak emerged when he noticed from the far end of the main straight that Richard, our Kiwi cameraman living in Germany, had crept out further on the green run off area behind the alligator strips.

On this pass, the impish Ludwig buzzed the cameraman, riding his right front tire on the inside edge of the alligator strip. It was also his first really flying lap as it took two or three to warm up the slicks. The sound of the Mercedes screaming down the straight as Klaus took the touch shift sequential box up rapidly through the gears was more like listening to Valentino Rossi than a four wheel vehicle with a V8 engine. A passenger sedan at that. Two lightning quick downshifts and perhaps a two inch turn in on the wheel according to Tommy and he went through one in a flat-out scream like a banshee.

Anyone who has been this close to that type of action will never again think of Mercedes- Benz as a sedate luxury car.

The track strikes back and disappoints a two time F1 world champion.
In the afternoon, Mika Hakkinen showed up from his home in Monaco. Now a family man with two young children he drives a Mercedes M Class. But he flew his own jet to Baden-Baden and then too the train to Hockenheim to graciously film with us.



We were supposed to do hot laps with the Flying Finn in the CLS 55 AMG. Based on Tommy's brush with the track brusher, the track announced that we could only do flying corners. A great disappointment to Mika who told us that he wanted to drive the CLS "flat out" as he had never driven a street car on a race track before.
Mika, as Frank Reichert of Mercedes Motorsports explained, was an entirely different person from the Formula 1 days when he was painfully shy and famous for monosyllabic answers. It is also testimony to Tommy's interviewing skill and personal warmth that Mika opened up. Essentially he retired because of the murderous 18 race schedule, unlimited practice and worldwide travel schedule that gave him only 1 9 days at home.


DTM has 11 races, all in Europe and testing is very limited. So he gets to do what he loves and spend quality time with those whom he loves. His life is in balance and it shows in his surprisingly engaging personality. Plus his comfort with English is vastly improved.

As we met, Mika was in a three way fight for fourth place with former F1 driver Jean Alesi and four time DTM champion, Bernd Schneider now 41.



He and Tommy had some fun with the CLS 55 AMGs, but it was disappointing for everyone including the spectators who knew Mika was driving. You will hear some fascinating commentary from Mika talking car to car in the show.

At the end of the filming session, both Tommy and Mika burned the tires in what was for Mika an uncharacteristic series of donuts. This American custom also amused the German fans. As it was Mika and not just some crazy American, it was roundly applauded. I nearly said loudly, but was reminded of Mika's comment that the fans in the US were better and very loud, both in dress as well as decibels which he says he could hear at Indy over the scream of a 19,000 F1 MaClaren Mercedes in 2000 when his engine went up in flames.

Klaus had also complimented the US fans on loud enthusiastic support.

10/21

We were at Hockenheim for an early start, but we had given all the cars back except for an E55 AMG were were filming at Heidelberg that night, near the Neckar river, called the NASCAR river by TK.

Our job today was to film Norbert Haug, head of Mercedes Motorsports. As any TV station or camera crew will tell you, this is not an easy task. While sitting in the Mercedes Hospitality suite, we watched in awe as Gary Paffett, Jean Alesi, Bernd Schneider and Mika Hakkinen drifted in and out after being mobbed by the autographed hunters outside, to get their laptimes from the contiguous race trailer as well as sip expressos as good as any gourmet restaurant. Speaking of which, we ate a lunch there that was nothing like any racetrack food in America.

My colleague Rob Allan renewed his old acquaintance with Jean Alesi who had come to the Chicago Autoshow some years ago to with with Rob and AMG US.

Rob is really the father of AMG US. From the time I first net him in 1999 when he took over AMG, he was selling less than 300 cars a year. Now that number is a controlled 20,000, just under than 10% of total US sales, but 25% of the profit. The US at 55% of worldwide sales, the largest AMG market in the world.

Rob modestly takes little credit for this, but trust me, without him this could not have happened.

10/22 Qualifying at Hockenheim

DTM qualifying is a little different. They let the cars out in random order in a timed session which they use for what they call Super Pole. Then they let the top ten out immediately in a timed session, but in inverse order to the qualifying time.

One lap out, one flying lap and a cool off sets the race grid.

Paffett blew turn 6 and sits #3 with young Jamie Green, the 23 year old Brit ex-Formula 3 champion on his first DTM pole. Tom Kristenson is on the outside pole.

It seems unlikely that Mattias Ekstrom will hold his championship as he finished out of the top ten. Bernd Schneider, the rainmeister would have had the pole but he ran off the curb on the last turn. He starts #4 with Hakkinen 6th after Heinz Harald Frentzen, the ex-F1 Jordan driver in his last DTM race for Opel. Perhaps his last race.

After qualifying, we watched our friend Tomas interview Norbert Haug and the Mercedes Motorsports drivers. He of course had to translate for Paffett, Green and Hakkinnen who speak little or no German. They all treated the crowd very well and Mika even sat on the steps in the middle of them to sign autographs. Bernd Schneider however was in a different class. I saw him mingling with the crowd in the VIP lounge long before the interviews. He also spent time with groups including handicapped children and allowed countless photographs with his arm around people. The behavior of a true champion.

Tommy introduced me to Mario Franchini, Dario the Champ car driver's brother, whom I saw later that day but did not talk to. They had popped over for the race. Dario had driven DTM cars for Mercedes before coming to the US and was going to test them in Estoril Portugal in two weeks. Also keeping in with Mercedes Motorsports boss Norbert Haug is always a good thing if you can manage it, and Tommy feels Dario will end up in DTM one day.

The Mercedes Grandstand is a great place to watch the race as you have a purview over almost four turns and at least two passing zones.The Mercedes lounge makes some of the best expresso and serves gourmet food, very unusual for a race track. It also has a direct link to timing and scoring, is rainproof and warm.

As a matter of fact, the food was so good all week, Tommy and I had to stop for a pizza and beer on the way back from qualifying to feel normal again.

They have a pretty full race schedule tomorrow, with a variety of closed and open wheel as well as high and low budget machinery covering all German manufacturers.

10/23 Race Day at Hockenheim

The day is very cool, overcast and threatening rain as we head out to the track.

Everything was dry until the race was 5 minutes away when the rain came down. Jamie Green on pole was slow away in the wet and Bernd, the rainmeister checked out in his 200th DTM appearance, so there was no real race. The action was all behind Green and Schneider, between Paffett and the two Audis of Stippler, a young privateer in last years car, and Tom Kristenson, the wily old veteran of both DTM and Le Mans.

This was DTM racing at it's best. Paffett tried for a long time in 5th place to pass Stippler. Once he got by, he went after Kristensen, only Tom would have none of the Englishman's effort to pass. They rubbed and banged for a while until eventually Tom made an uncharacteristic mistake right in front of the Mercedes Grandstand where to the roar of the partisan crowd, the 2005 DTM champion went by Kristenson for a place on the podium behind Green and Schneider for a 1,2,3 Mercedes finish.

Hakkinen finished 14th after he tried, not very hard, to let Schneider by on team orders as he told us after the race. Schneider took out Hakkinen's rear wing, so he had no downforce for the rest of the race.

The other drama was a hard shunt by Frenzen who was taken to hospital but reports said he was fine, and ALMS champion Alan McNish whose door flew of entering the hairpin. This is Frenzen's last race in the Opel and perhaps his last race.

It was Laurent Aiello's race after a 25 year career.

In Formula 3, the boy wonder Lewis Hamilton won his second race in two days, flag to flag. Apparently this kid now 18 was signed by McLaren when he was 12 or 13.

The SEAT and Polo races reminded me of SCCA Spec Miata races in the US. Bump, bang and grind. I missed the Formula BMW races which are not very popular here. BMW withdrew from DTM some years ago after being thrashed by Audi and Mercedes and they may have lost fan support although their sales in Germany do not seem to have suffered.

The post race parties on Sunday are quite something, as mostly in the US we go home after the race and the big parties are on Saturday night which is not great for the drivers.

Anyway, we leave for home tomorrow, Tommy heads for LA while I come back to New York. Now we wait to edit and finish the show, which you can enjoy, Xmas morning, on Speedchannel, sandwiched in between the Barrett Jackson auction.

10/24 The Journey Home

Even the 45 drive from Speyer to the airport in Frankfurt was different, traveling comfortably at 180 kph (+- 112 mph) in the least powerful of all Mercedes models, the 240 D.

Tommy was leaving for LA via Atlanta so we said our goodbyes and Wedersens, until next time as Tommy signs off on his show.

Seat 25D on Lufthansa back to New York was a lot better than the way over and despite the fact that it was going to be cold and raining very hard in New York, the after effects of hurricane Wilma, it was good to be going home again. A week working in Germany is just the right time.

Marketing Magazine Monday, May 9th, 2005


ICA identifies top 10 Canadian TV ads of all time

The Institute of Communications and Advertising capped off its annual management conference on Friday with the unveiling of the “top ten” Canadian ads “of all time” as voted on by the industry.

The ads were selected by more than 1,000 online voters who ranked more than 100 of the top winning commercials from the Marketing Awards and the TVB’s Bessies awards since the 1950s on an Adbeast Inc.-powered website this past winter. The contest was organized by ICA to mark the agency industry association’s 100th anniversary this year.

Only TV creative was judged and French language work wasn’t considered in the voting (a similar separate initiative to pick the top French Quebec TV ads was undertaken by the Publicité Club de Montréal (PCM) last year to celebrate its 45th anniversary).

The winners represent an impressive hall of fame of legendary Canadian ads, said ICA president Rupert Brendon. The top commercials, in chronological order, are:

• “Do You Eat the Red Ones Last?” Smarties, Nestlé Canada Inc., Ogilvy and Mather (1967);

• “Mona Lisa,” Caramilk, Cadbury Chocolate Canada Inc., Scali McCabe Sloves (1973);

• “Milk Moustache,” Ontario Milk Marketing Board, O&M (1974);

• “The Road,” A&W Food Services of Canada, The Woodall Workshop (1975);

• “Atlas Ketchup,” H.J. Heinz Co., Vickers and Benson (1980);

• “It Tastes Awful. And It Works,” W.K. Buckley Ltd., Ambrose Carr DeForest & Linton (1985);

• “Bike Story,” Canadian Tire Corp. Ltd., Doner Schur Peppler (1990);

• “Stuck,”Fruit of the Loom, Leo Burnett (1996);

• “The Rant,” Molson Canada, Bensimon Byrne D’Arcy (2001);

• “Dog Tired,” Pinesol, Palmer Jarvis DDB (2003).

More details on the 10 are featured in a special advertorial supplement marking the ICA 100th anniversary in the just-published May 9 edition of Marketing.

–Stan Sutter, in Bermuda at the ICA/AAAA management conference.



Doner Schur Peppler’s spots for Canadian Tire and Leon’s produced while Jeff Schur was CEO were declared advertising landmarks in 1998.

Doner Schur Peppler and McCann are the only two agencies to have two spots in the "Bessies" Hall of Fame.

First Inducted in 2000, they held this position through the three polls taken in that year and 2001 & 2002.

“Bike Story” produced for Client Canadian Tire in 1990 got the most votes as the single best TV commercial of all time in 2004.

But while the awards were given for the television, both campaigns were fully integrated strategic marketing approaches. The Canadian Tire spot could have been for Sears in the US, capitalising on the nostalgia of the times when catalogues were the only relief for hard work on the farm and long cold winters.
This emotional differentiation was then and remains now a very potent emotional differentiator that no retailer can match.It helps Canadian Tire remain unique versus the US competition from WalMart and others.

October 2004 - Strategy Magazine
Back page

The best all time favourite Canadian ads ever!

Folks got mighty nostalgic when asked to pick the Canadian spot that remains their preferred. Talk of childhood memories got these top ad vets, well, teary-eyed. Sigh. Here are their picks...(excuse me a second. Sniffle.)...and why.

by Natalia Williams
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Canadian Tire A Bike Story

"Even describing this commercial I get choked up. I've been that kid. It's really a heartfelt commercial. They could run that commercial today and it would stomp on the crap they're doing now."

Marc Stoiber, ECD, Grey Worldwide, Vancouver

"This ad connects Canadian Tire to the fabric of Canadian

childhood dreams. As a kid growing up in Windsor, I used the catalogue

to decide on my gifts - and this spot is brilliantly produced and acted. Canadian Tire recognized its power when they brought it back for

their 75th anniversary."

David Strickland, SVP marketing, Zellers, Toronto

Who are the brains behind the indelible ads?

Bike Story:

Agency: Doner Schur Peppler

When: 1989

Click here for the full story


Marketing Magazine
September 28, 1998

The 1990's Landmark Canadian Advertisements


Canadian Tire (1990)

Advertiser: Canadian Tire Corp. Ltd., Toronto

Product: Corporate image

Title: "Bike Story"

Agency: Doner Schur Peppler, Toronto

It's hard to believe this ad was selling corporate image and not tissues, because anyone who's seen the tear-jerking TV spot sniffled and felt a lump in the old throat. (And they're lying if they say they didn't.) Who could forget the young Depression-era boy who dreams of a shiny red bicycle from the Canadian Tire catalogue but doesn't dare ask his hard-working farmer father for it? And when dad surprises the kid, saying, "Hey boy, I got a couple of new tires for you to unload" the look on the boys face is priceless.

Leon's (1990)

Advertiser: Leon's Furniture

Product: Furniture

Titles: "Witness \#1/\#2/\#3"

Agency: Doner Schur Peppler, Toronto

Ten years ago, furniture retailers planning their ad strategy had a choice: either the screaming SHOP AT CRAZY BOB's ad, or the soft-focus, Muzak-infested "Let me show you how comfortable this sofa is" narrative.

Leon's chose neither, and we're all thankful for it.

In fact, thanks to the "Ho Ho Hold the Payment" and "No Money Miracle" campaigns, consumers shopping at other retailers now expect not to pay until 1999.

But back then, it was revolutionary, and sales at Leon's skyrocketed.

Jack Bensimon, whose agency Bensimon*Byrne*DMB&B now has the Leon's account, says, "The humor was so powerful that today Leon's advertising is expected to be funny. And the idea that a big-ticket, fashionable product could be sold without beauty shots and pretty actors is still not widely accepted by most retailers."

The humor used in Leon's poked fun at the screaming retail salesmen of the day, best personified in the US by Crazy Eddie.

But it did this to achieve the strategic goal of making people like Leon's as a place to visit hang out and try out without feeling that a stalker will descend on you.

The entire campaign, from the Newspaper inserts to the showroom decor were designed to enhance this likeability factor, a key "Brod" Doner addition to the already award winning Schur Peppler & Associates agency which made it's name producing Integrated Marketing campaigns for Honda, when they merged in 1988.

In the final days of the Adweek conference in New York, Brad Fogel CMO of 24 Hour Fitness talked about getting the fit right for celebrity spokespeople. He and his agency, Hal Riney & Partners discussed the strategy of integrating personalities like Andre Agassi, Lance Armstrong and Magic Johnson into a marketing campaign.

Full text in Adweek, "Brands Keep in Sync With Celebrities" September 30, 2005 By Mae Anderson.

But who is Brad and where did he learn his craft?

Here is an excerpt from a letter he wrote to Marketing Magazine some years ago.

"The Canadian education of an adman "

"I was transferred to Toronto in 1988, a young advertising "buck" ready
to take on the world, not just Canada. After all, I was from the U.S. of
A., and we all knew that we knew it all. Funny thing happened though, I
met quite a few Canadians (and others not from Canada or the U.S.) who
not only knew as much, but in many cases more than me or most of my
American peers. Although I tried to fight it at first, I soon realized
that I had a lot to learn, and that the Canadian advertising industry
could be a great tutor.

More than eight years later, I am returning to the U.S. Working in the
Canadian advertising industry I have learned and grown, both as a person
and as a professional. I have been lucky to have known and worked with
some of the best in the business: Dan Peppler, Jeff Schur, Robert
Troutbeck, Geoff Arnoldi, Rick Davis, John Speakman, Bill Martin, Winnie
Alord, among others.

What all of these people have in common is something quite simple: they
have a passion and resolve which is truly inspirational".

I am privileged to have worked with Brad and am flattered he would mentioned me in his tribute.

But I am proud that Brad has taken the lessons of Integrated Marketing we learned together working with Honda turning them into some of the best work in the world.

Creative work from Doner Schur Peppler done in the early 90's was honored by the Institute of Canadian Advertising as one of "Top Ten Commercials of all time".

(See Hall of Fame posting)

Brad and I produced Integrated Marketing programs for Honda. This included full collateral, promotions (including Formula One), direct mail and retail services.

We worked at integrating celebrities like Burgess Meredith and Daniel J Travanti (Hill Street Blues) where Brad as he says, cut his teeth. He went on to work with Magic Johnson, Andre Agassi and Lance Armstrong in the US, while my New York agency produced work for WeightWatchers with Kathleen Sullivan, the sweater girl of the LA Olympics and with Cybil Shepherd and David Naughton, star of the now cult movie, "An American Werewolf in London", for Mercedes-Benz.

While anyone with money can use a celebrity, it takes a different skill set to integrate a strong personality into an appropriate brand campaign. As Brad said at the Adweek conference "It sounds obvious, but it starts with the brand. Many agencies make the mistake of starting with the celebrity."

Brad has learned well. I have been most fortunate to work with people like Brad.

Jean Halliday wrote about BMW leaving Branded Entertainment in Adage, 10/02/05.

This followed an article by Lorne Manly, 10/02/05 NYT, On Television, Brands go from Props to Stars.

Max Sutherland reports that when the cult movie Sideways eulogized Pinot Noir, sales shot up 22%. (See Max's great reference, "Why product placement works".



Plan international's child sponsorship quadrupled after the release of About Schmidt in which Jack Nicholson in another dysfunctional role sponsors a young Tanzanian boy, Ndugu.

With this kind of sales potency, why would BMW be leaving the scene?

While early product placement, accidental or otherwise like M&Ms on ET is part of movie culture, "nowhere has (product placement) been more evident than with the James Bond movies, these have featured a proliferation of brands including Aston Martin, BMW, Motorola, Microsoft, Omega and Bollinger" according to Sutherland.



Because Marketing Integration is difficult and Branded Entertainment is a particularly thorny component.

Whether BMW withdrew because of money, the first reason given by Hollywood, or the complexity once International management became involved as Manly speculates, or whether Pat Fallon was right, (been there done that), we will probably never know.

But Brand Entertainment done right will continue to feature products, whether it is an entire movie like "The Italian Job" featuring Mini, or a tiny part of the story like ET's M&Ms. And the symbiotic partnerships will continue to work.

Whereas forced marriages, like "The Apprentice" and Dominos (also American Eagle Outfitters), Toyota and Home Depot in "The Contender", Disney and Nascar in "Herbie fully loaded" and the disastrous "Island" that lured a list of who's who of brands will continue to not only be expensive failures, but give the genre a bad name.

Musicians are not only looking at Brand Entertainment as a source of revenue by including them, but some have figured out that a brand commercial using their music is a medium.

"Strategic marketing opportunities are at the top of every artist's marketing plan says Randy Miller Exec VP Marketing Virgin Records. (What's in a name.)

Paul Oakenfold has partnered with Toyota to launch a new single which will only release next year. Says Oakenfold, "The ad will run over a thousand times. No disrespect to any record labels. but they cannot buy exposure like this."

The problem is to work around the long deadlines, complex cross silo negotiations which are often for an entertainment product that does not yet exist. And ultimately negotiating a fair price to ensure ROMI versus expensive buzz.

It also needs someone to guide you around the growing and much publicised ethical dilemmas posed by the rapid expansion of this marketing technique.

If ever you needed a professional to help find your way through this potential minefield, it is when talking to Hollywood. Some of the traditional advisers like CAA, William Morris and Endeavor are good and getting better, the latter even hiring top agency planner Martyn Straw to help Clients strategically align brands and entertainment. But they remain agents for people and properties.

The top holding companies have savvy and experienced specialists that can help you with a 360 degree vision that is agnostic of artists or entertainment properties. Bruce Redditt, Exec VP at Omnicom really knows his way around Hollywood. There are also nimble specialists. John Garland is one of the best.e-mail John@jeffreyschur.com. He is the brother of Charles Garland whose UK company produced American Idol.

A great surgeon at the Lahey Clinic in Boston, John Libertino saved my wife's life through complex surgery earlier this year. But this was due to the Greenwich Hospital System being smart enough to correctly diagnose the problem and advise us that "a community hospital can not do the procedure".

Our best advice is don't take branded entertainment or product placement to a narrow specialist or a general practitioner.

Branded Entertainment is not as complicated as surgery. It is also not about life or death. But it needs a specialist who has already practised the craft.

Hire an expert to help simplify it. For those of us who do this every day, it's not that hard to make it easier for you.