Ferrari’s known mostly for its sportscars, but the Italian supercar company’s also a pretty savvy outfit when it comes to licensing its name — for outfits, eyeglasses, laptop computers, and all sorts of consumer tschotschkes. But now Ferrari is stepping into Disney territory, as it’s signed an agreement for the development of a Ferrari theme park to be built in the Arab emirate of Abu Dhabi. Ferrari signed the agreement recently with ALDAR Properties, a Middle Eastern development company, with the mission to build a park featuring a racetrack, rides, and attractions, a display of Ferrari history, and even driving instruction. Hotels, shops, and residences will be a part of the development in the UAE. An opening day in 2008 is being eyed.
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We can almost guarantee that the 4-7 Detroit Lions have nothing to worry about during next year’s
Super Bowl XL, except possibly how much in tips they’ll make parking cars outside Ford Field. However, for the winning team’s Most Valuable Player, there’s a new bonus in the offing that will make valet space a near-requirement. Cadillac will outfit the Super Bowl MVP with an ’07 Escalade, freeing up a lot of signing-bonus money to be spent on wheels, tires, and other bling. In previous years, MVPs like Patriot Tom Brady could choose the Caddy of their liking, but GM’s renaissance division is putting all its promo eggs in the brand-new ’Slade’s basket — only appropriate for the first Super Bowl to be held in the Detroit area in 25 years. Whether the actual event will go off without a hitch remains to be seen; just where exactly will NFLers stay, eat, and be warm in February in downtown Motown? But at least, in this case, GM has a trophy-winning promotion it can take all the way to Disney World.
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Len Hunt is glad to get a crack at running Kia Motors. The new COO of the Korean carmaker’s U.S. unit had been tapped to run worldwide marketing for Bentley at Volkswagen. “I looked at my schedule of one posh glad-handing event after another, many of them on the weekends, and I thought…I’m too young for that kind of life,” said Hunt during a recent chat in New York.
Hunt was presiding over a frustrating time at Volkswagen. Before being named to run Bentley marketing, a job he never formally took over, he had run the VW brand in the U.S. for about 18 months as sales and profits fell. To be fair, that had more to do with VW’s quality woes, lack of correct product, and a weak dollar. Still, Hunt did manage to direct a less than inspiring ad launch of the new Jetta and Passat.
At Kia, Hunt doesn’t plan to do too much tinkering with the master plan. “I’m not changing the blueprint, because the strategy is right,” says Hunt. His biggest surprise, he says? That the Spectra beat Toyota Corolla and Honda Civic on J.D. Power and Associates Initial Quality Survey.
He does plan to talk to his new Korean bosses about juicing up some versions of Kia’s products. A
turbocharged, all-wheel-drive Spectra5 is on his wish list. At VW, Hunt got the German automaker to the SEMA show for the first time with R-GT packages for the Jetta and Touareg. He also thinks Kia should have a pickup, and that such a vehicle probably makes more sense for Kia than Hyundai.
—Jim Burt
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The worst-laid plans of mice and men seem to roughly coincide with GM’s marketing initiatives. You remember last year’s
brilliant Oprah stunt with the new Pontiac G6 — and the tax problems and the unavailability of the car at GM’s dealers, right?
Now GM has hitched the
Buick Lucerne’s fate to Martha Stewart’s version of
The Apprentice. And while you have to admire Martha’s pluck in going directly from jail to hosting her own Trump knockoff (and her own daytime show and Sirius radio channel), you have to feel for GM’s uncanny knack for missing the cultural zeitgeist boat. Stewart’s shows have been ratings sluggards since her release from jail and home confinement — and GM needs anything but lackluster numbers as it promotes the Lucerne, the big new front-driver that’s carrying much of the beleaguered brand’s future on its broad shoulders. With the news that Stewart’s already been denied a second season interning with the Donald, the Lucerne belatedly becomes Martha’s official
Apprentice vehicle this week with various promotions leading shoppers to the Buick.com Web site and to a series of “Lucerne VIP Premiere Parties” across the country.
Whether GM needs to spend so much effort planning such huge marketing coups, only to have them overthrown by the unpredictable, is up for debate. This one seems to be headed to the dustbin along with the new Saab campaign we complained about yesterday. But there’s one keen takeaway here, at least: grab a copy of the 20-page guide that Buick and Martha Stewart Living are putting out along with the promotion. Because you’re never too old to learn how to make a cloth napkin into a swan, right?
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Indy Racing League starlet and subject of much-heated debate Danica Patrick recently added a new title to her growing resume: Mrs. Patrick, the Associated Press reports, was wed recently to 40-year-old physical therapist Paul Hospenthal. The 23-year-old Patrick has kept quiet about the ceremony, asking her Rahal Letterman Racing team not to release information about the ceremony. Earlier this year, Patrick’s future husband told
People magazine she doesn’t spend much time watching racing when off the course. Instead Patrick — who Hospenthal met in physical therapy for a yoga injury — is “kind of a TV junkie.”
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Marty Padgett November 29th, 2005
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