Just Marketing Int’l Founder & CEO ZAK BROWN “has reason to be excited” after “selling about a fourth” of the firm to int’l marketing company WPP Group, according a front-page piece by Anthony Schoettle of the INDIANAPOLIS BUSINESS JOURNAL. WPP has a “seemingly endless client roster,” including companies like CitiGroup. Brown said, “This list is full of companies like that. I think we’re going to see an immediate impact from this deal.” He added, "We were just projecting our company would double in size in four or five years. I think this deal could cut that (time) in half.” NASCAR and F1 “each represent 40 percent of Just Marketing’s revenue, with the rest coming from the IndyCar Series, National Hot Rod Association and various sports car circuits." Brown said that F1, “represents the largest growth potential.” Just Marketing's int’l business revenue already “has increased 250 percent in the last three years," and the firm “now represents the likes of LG, UBS and Singapore Exchange." Brown said that since ’02 the company “has brought in $600 million in sponsorship money to F1.” UBS Global Head of Sponsorship BJOERN WAESPE said Brown is “not just globetrotting having lunch and coffee with people.” Waespe: “He’s still very much involved and knows what he’s talking about.” McLaren Group Exec Chair RON DENNIS said that Brown “has made inroads into F1 because he ‘shoots straight.'" That approach "won Brown a rare endorsement” from F1 Management Chair BERNIE ECCLESTONE. Broadcaster and former F1 driver DEREK DALY: “Say what you will about Bernie Ecclestone, but he’s proven by the overall success of Formula One that he’s a very astute businessman. And he doesn’t give out compliments freely. So if he believes in Zak, that’s saying something” (INDIANAPOLIS BUSINESS JOURNAL, 7/18 issue).
