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Running Down a Dream ..

As Tom Petty would say (sorry, the song is still stuck in my head from the Superbowl). Anyway, it's been a hectic couple of weeks. Preparing the bike has gone extremely well thus far, but as the saying goes, the last 10% takes 90% of the time. Between prepping and painting the bodywork (a 4-day task; yes, really), along with other finishing touches, these past two weeks have moved at a rapid pace; with many trips, late nights, missed meals, but seemingly not all that much new to show for it afterwards. This compared to the prior week, where we basically put the whole bike together in seemingly no time at all.

The latest news as you've likely seen is that we are partnering up with Flagstar Bank this year. I've got to say I think this is pretty big news. Getting sponsorship outside the racing industry is a difficult task in and of itself and I'm really excited that this has come together. We've been working out the details for the past 2-3 months and it's not for lack of excitement that I haven't been talking about it - it's just been waiting for the final confirmation and signature, finalizing the deal and making it official.

For those who don't know, I work for Flagstar Bank. Some may jump to the conclusion that this made the deal easy to happen. In fact, it was nearly quite the opposite. Aside from knowing who specifically to talk to, there was an immense amount of work that went into laying out the proposal and most importantly, making sure we had the resources to meet every expectation proposed. Flagstar is a bank; a rather large bank. It’s not your local mom and pop store that’ll gladly give you a couple bucks to help out. Flagstar is filled with VPs, Senior VPs and a third-party ad agency – all of whom had to give their approval to make the deal happen.

Many hours with pen in hand, along with Illustrator, InDesign and Photoshop all open at the same time on my computer, coupled with many a nights at Kinko’s coming up with the final proposal. To me, what made this more trying was that in being an employee, there is a stricter standard with a company deciding to support a fellow employee. If a company sponsors one person, why wouldn't they sponsor the next one who works for the company and races cars? Or boats? Or plays say, checkers competitively? Hey, it happens. Well, my goal was to show them the value of what we're able to offer and how no one else could match that. That it wasn't a good or bad idea to sponsor someone within the company, but that sponsoring us specifically made good business sense, and it just happens that I work for the company.

Part of the plan we put together included a large amount of information, including demographics, attendance figures, as well as a bunch of other information that showed Flagstar exactly what they would be getting. And of course I had to make sure that what I said we could do – we would do. Without question, we needed to have a justifiable plan that would deliver results in every aspect as promised. You can’t afford to make things up. In the case with Flagstar, everything I said we could deliver on, we will deliver on. And to me, that's perfect.

Part of the budget is going to promote the brand, which in turn helps every sponsor involved; top to bottom. The latest deliverables have been promotional items such as a custom canopy, table covers, signage, new Flagstar-branded leathers, team t-shirts, crew shirts and pit flooring, among other things. I would be the last to call it a problem, but one of the initial challenges was ensuring enough exposure to both Flagstar and Honda East. Both are title sponsors and deserve a great deal of visibility. Fortunately with one being in-industry and the other out-of-industry (and both completely different), this makes them easier to differentiate and promote in parallel without crossover issues arising.

With the added sponsorship comes certain amounts of stress. It's not the kind that you feel out on the track or before a race. It's more of just the task of prioritizing and allocating time for everyone involved. It’s basically the role of a project manager. For example, Flagstar will be doing a photo shoot with the new bike as part of their "Join the Fast Crowd" print campaign. With us literally just finishing the bike as you’re reading this, we will be taking the bike to a studio with different kinds of lighting and stuff I don’t know all that much about. There's an itinerary, along with a lot of prep work to make the bike look good (see first paragraph), coordinate branding, gear, and most importantly in this case – ensure a perfect shot of the throttle/brake lever assembly on the bike (more about that down the road).

Immediately following the pho-tog, we will be taking the bike over to Honda East to put on display the week before and after the Indy Dealer Show and WERA banquet. Once our trips to Ohio and Indiana are complete, we will be traveling back to Honda East to pick the bike up on our way to New Jersey for tuning the bike. Not the ideal 10-hour drive one would be looking forward to, but definitely worthwhile for getting the bike dialed in.

Once back from Jersey, it's time to plan a trip to Jennings, Florida. I shudder at thinking about how long that drive is, but it's a good chance to shake out the new bike and get some warm-weather riding in before the season starts. I'll get to see if riding the fifty and cycle trainer this winter have been helping stay in shape.

Once back from Jennings, the bike will be back at Honda East to display and then that's it! The bike should at that point be pretty much ready to go. The chaos should settle down for a bit, which Gina will definitely be a fan of.

I haven't been part of a winter this busy before, but it's an exciting way to get ready for the season. I know all of us are here are excited to get things started ..

Cheers,

- eddie

Friday, February 8th, 2008 | POSTED AT: 8:49 AM
FILED UNDER: General

One Comment on “Running Down a Dream ..”

Doug wrote on 11 February, 2008, 12:24 PM
I always say, “when in doubt, gas it”. I’m looking forward to the challange. This season is going to be “hot”.