JONATHAN GIBSON has gotten accustomed to nearly 20-hour plane rides to Australia in recent years, as the Team Penske VP of marketing & communications has been helping grow the team’s racing and business affiliations Down Under since ’15. Gibson, who now travels to Australia several times a year to help oversee the team’s partnership of the team now known as DJR Team Penske, is currently in Australia for this weekend’s Bathurst 1000, which is Supercars’ equivalent to the Daytona 500 or Indianapolis 500. Gibson spoke to SBD Global about ROGER PENSKE’s excursion Down Under and Penske's integration with Dick Johnson Racing, among other topics.
On the evolution of Team Penske's Australian venture ...
Jonathan Gibson: We are pleased with the overall performance of our organization and our team is focused on Bathurst this weekend and the remaining three races after that which conclude the season. Both Fabian Coulthard and Scott McLaughlin continue to be great teammates and their leadership and communication all season has been terrific. On the commercial side, our team down here continues to forge great partnerships with leading brands that include strong consumer activation platforms and B2B opportunities. The Shell Naming Rights (Viva Energy) partnership has provided our team with terrific continuity and a great platform in the country and the identity of the team is very strong in the market. ... Our teams, both in the U.S. and Australia, continue to work closely together to learn from each other and apply best practices and learnings to help the respective businesses.
On the marketing potential in Australia of McLaughlin and Coulthard ...
Gibson: We have been really happy with the level of engagement amongst fans in the U.S. that are interested in Supercars as well as the fans in Australia/New Zealand that follow our racing in North America. Going into 2018, we will have more than 13 drivers behind the wheel of our cars across the globe, which is amazing. For us, it is important that we can showcase the personalities of our drivers in an engaging and authentic manner through content that we curate. The Penske Games has provided us with a platform to do that and I think you will see stronger opportunities to do that in 2018 through the Penske Games and other programs and it will include Scott, Fabian and our team in Australia even more than you saw this year.
On business opportunities in Australia ...
Gibson: Racing has always been the common thread that connects many of our businesses. In Australia, it is no different as our business teams down here utilize the race weekends for customer engagement as well as internal engagement with our own employees. It has been terrific and I think our business leadership would tell you they have been pleased with the level of interest from their customer base. Scott and Fabian have been great ambassadors for our employees and brands here in the market.
On what a Bathurst 1000 victory would mean ...
Gibson: It's an important race for our entire organization. The reputation and awareness of the race on a global scale is impressive. Being a winner in that race would be quite the honor for our organization, however, it isn’t easy. It is as demanding a race as you will see across the globe. For the Series and Country, it is their Daytona 500 or Indianapolis 500, so having the chance to win the race would be big for Roger and our entire team.
On the tie-up with Dick Johnson Racing ...
Gibson: The integration with Dick Johnson and his team has been terrific for us. When we aligned with their organization, we saw a real opportunity and there were a lot of natural synergies with our business (both based in Brisbane) as well as their partnerships. Interestingly, Dick is celebrating his 50th anniversary this year with Shell which is nice due to our strong global relationship with Shell. Over the past three years, we have seen a lot of progress and the level of communication amongst our team in Australia and the U.S. is very high.
On pitching Supercars to Penske's global partners in NASCAR and IndyCar ...
Gibson: It really depends on the brand and their global footprint. If a brand has a significant footprint in Australia or New Zealand, we obviously engage them as this would be a natural extension of our partnership. It also goes the other way as we met the leadership of Pirtek through our Supercars operation and it now extends to our North American operations.
On Australian motorsport fans ...
Gibson: We have been very impressed since coming into the market as it pertains to the presence that Supercars has in the sporting landscape within Australia. Australian fans are very passionate about their motorsport and the series provides fans with great engagement through significant broadcast presence including many different channels of shoulder programming and lifestyle engagement with the drivers/teams. The "show" that is portrayed on television via the broadcast teams is very strong, which is similar to what we have in the U.S. On-site, the fan and customer engagement is pretty similar to IndyCar in many ways with the "festival" type of atmosphere that you find in places like Long Beach, (California), St. Pete (Florida), Toronto and others.
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