Vodafone to hang up on Ferrari?

Vodafone gone? Come on Coca Cola.

 

I knew about fair weather fans, but not about fair weather sponsors..good riddens!

 

Wow this is surprising. I had never even heard of Vodafone until they become Ferrari sponsors.

They think they'll get more exposure with BAR?!

 

that's pretty damn pathetic. vodafone has become worldfamous even without worldwide availability due to Ferrari. Good riddANCE, for sure!

 

"It follows the team's underperformance this year."

Are we supposed to interpret that as an excuse?! Yeah, boy, sure was hard to get any exposure on the side of that Ferrari crapwagon.

 

Vodafone are pushing into Japan currently and expect to have a huge market there. So it follows that they may take this time to make excuses to switch to Honda F1 cars. Just business.Very big business.

It doesnt realy matter whats on the side of the red cars. They will be there regardless.

 

I had never even heard of Vodafone before i started watching F1 =/

 

I also hadn't heard of West, AGIP, Gauloises, Telefonica, Visteon, Petrobras and many others.

 

Why would you? Apart from the fact that they own(ed) a 40% stake in Verizon, the balkanized mobile phone system in the US means that the market here is partially insulated from the worldwide market.

You'd hear a lot more about them if they'd managed to buy Cingular as they would have flogged Verizon and properly launched a GSM service here.

 

You're so right. It is ridiculous that I have two cell phones, one for the US and one for the rest of the world.

 

I thought that Vodafone was being booted anyway... My understanding was that Marlborough had a "whole car" deal with Ferrari for the next few years and that other sponsors had to go elsewhere.

 

I'm pretty sure that $87m is spread over three of four years, Marlboro's in to the tune of $700m IIRC over 6 years. Vodafone is a drop in the bucket of Ferrari's budget. They're a sponsor nonetheless, but not really a big deal if they bail.

 

I had this long sarcastic post typed up about how great BAR did last year with their...what... 0 wins?

I then decided to delete it, as I think it rings louder when left unsaid.

 

They are a year late though...they'd have truly gotten more exposure last year with Sato smashing his car up and having Vodafone logos flying into the stands. Oh well...you snooze you lose.

 

tifosi12 Quote:
Vodafone gone? Come on Coca Cola.



I would love to see that I work at Coca Cola, there would be lots of Ferrari team stuff for sale at the employees store!

 

I think they once were in talks with Coke as it would have made some sense: Similar target audience, global market, great brand and similar color scheme.

Heck, they called the 91 Prost Ferrari coke bottle shaped!

Maybe Coke jumps onto the high octane drink bandwagon one day and has learnt from Red Bull how lucrative and efficient marketing in F1 can be and tries the same thing.

Given all the merchandising Coke is doing by itself, I can see a whole new dimension coming along with Ferrari related stuff. The little Vodafone cells will be squat in comparison.

 

Well, I,ve heard that Phillip Morris owned all the sponsorshop space of Ferrari and that they sold it later to Vodafone, Shell, or whatever; so maybe all this Vodafone stuff means bad news for Phillip Morris, but not for Ferrari, yet.

 

Took the words right out of my mouth! correct - the deal Vodafone has is with Philip Morris and the reason they "might" go will definetely be Japan/Honda...

 

I believe Cigarette advertising on all cars in F1 is now illegal. Yes? No? I was under the impression that not only can they not use logos but they can no longer used disguised logos either. So, Ferrari are out the Marlborough and McLaren are out the West sponsorship cash.

 

True, but only in EU countries. USA have a different regulation (1 series allowed to be sponsored, not 2) and most other countries nothing yet (e.g. South America and Asia).

So tobacco advertising is increasingly unpopular, but not out yet.

How about a list of alternate Ferrari sponsors. Only condition is that red is one of their main colors. I'll start:

- Coca Cola
- Target
- Moulin Rouge

 

But regardless of tob. advertising laws, Marlboro has indicated no intention of dropping Ferrari. In fact, I believe IIRC, they have reinforced their commitment.

 

I'm not sure that's true. Although I think Ferrari has said they have a contract with Phillip Morris until 2015 they may have other obligations:

http://www.grandprix.com/ns/ns12393.html

Regardless of what does happen I'm sure Ferrari will find another sponsor. But, it may mean the end to the RED cars if they want to continue.