Looking at one of the longest-running sponsorship deals on the British motor sport scene.
The 2008 HiQ MSA British Touring Car Championship season marks the 13th year that Team Eurotech and John Guest Limited have competed together in one of the longest-running partnerships in British motor sport.
During the fourth round of the season at Thruxton, Crash.net sat down with Mike Jordan and John Guest's sponsorship manager Carl Gray to talk about the Eurotech/John Guest relationship.
In part one of the 'round the table' chat, the pair reflect on how the partnership kicked off and what has made it the success it is today...
Crash.net:
The relationship with Eurotech has been going on for 13 years so now, so a good place to start would probably be what attracted you to Mike and the team in the first place?
Carl Gray:
John Guest Limited wanted to start some sponsorship and didn't know who to sponsor. The company that looks after our fleet cars looked after Mike's engines in EuroCar so that seemed as good a place as any to start and that is where the relationship began.
The directors wanted to write out a cheque and in the early days, I think that is all they thought they did - write a cheque and get the name on the car. Over a period of time they realised that that was just the start and there was a lot of benefits to be had. As a result, it has grown year on year.
Crash.net:
So it was almost a chance encounter and Mike was in the right place at the right time…
CG:
Yeah, that is exactly it. The thing is, as I'm sure that most people will say, is that sponsorship is a big, big thing now and trying to make it work is becoming harder. A lot of sponsorship is confused with charity as people want money and there is no return. If you say you will sponsor a school fete for example, it is a great thing to do, but doesn't give much in return outside the local community.
With Mike, from day one, he has said to us 'Right I have the cheque. How am I going to make it work?' Most of the other people you sponsor won't want to know you until it is twelve months down the line and they want the next cheque.
Crash.net:
For you as a driver, it must have been nice to have a company come up to you and say they wanted to sponsor someone and did you want a cheque writing out.
Mike Jordan:
Yeah it was exactly as Carl said. It was David Power of Power Engineering who did my engines and one day he said 'This company does a lot of horse racing and I think they might be interested in some motor sport sponsorship'. It was just as you said; the right place at the right time. But the fit has been perfect from day one as they are a family run company and I'm sure a lot of teams would have gone in and it would have been a case of over promise and under deliver. I've always tried to do the opposite of under promise and over deliver!
When we started doing TVR Tuscans we had the whole truck done in JG livery and they weren't aware that we were going to do that kind of stuff. At the time, we had a good budget for doing Tuscans, but the buzz word in the paddock was that we'd got a quarter of a million pounds of sponsorship. To run a TVR Tuscan at that time was probably £80-100,000 for the season so it was the image that we gave which has rolled over and we have built on.
Crash.net:
You say there its always been under promise and over achieve, so you managed to get a cheque for a quarter of a millions pounds despite telling them you'd be rubbish?
MJ:
[Laughs] No, no - they've never done that!
It started off very gradually and when we were doing EuroCar, while I'd never disclose any amounts of money, it was a very modest amount. They were a small slot on the car and I'm so proud that in the length of time we have been doing this that they have gone from being a very small sponsor to being the title sponsor on a two-car touring car team as well as sponsoring events like they have done when we were in FIA GT and as they have now at Donington Park.
They are still so enthusiastic about it and it I think one important thing is that as a team, we have never taken the micky out of them. We have never gone back to them, even in our darkest year of doing FIA when the budget I though we'd need was totally out of bed. I'd come to a figure because I wanted to go and do it and so did the Jones twins and they said they could do it. As it was, I was so short but I never went back to them to ask for more money and I think that counts for a lot because when I shake their hand and that is it for the next year, they know what we'll be delivering.
Crash.net:
In motor sport, as in any sport, sponsors come and go on a yearly basis so how fulfilling is it for you that this deal has gone on for so long and had become the success story that it is?
MJ:
Fantastically so because it means our whole business ethics are right inline with John Guest's. In the early days I used to be quite worried coming to the end of a season because I would think to myself 'God, they will have had loads of proposals', and they have had loads from BSB teams, from touring car teams and even from teams I have driven for in the past and who are trying to take the sponsor from under your nose. A lot of people would try to do that but I would never, ever do such a thing. However, some people aren't straight.
I don't want to be complacent about it, but they would never do anything with someone else. I don't want to be over-cocky with that, but our relationship is such that I'm not always looking over my shoulder wondering who will nick my sponsor.
Crash.net:
You better hope the rest of the season goes to plan so they don't want to look elsewhere then...
CG:
We've even had approaches this year from people in the paddock who are further down the pitlane. You just think why on earth would you want to go and sponsor someone at the back of the grid when you have a two-car father and son team making history? They are people who would be relying on your money but would they go any faster? No, because they haven't got enough talent. But people will always try and get what they can out of you.
Crash.net:
Thirteen years ago when the sponsorship kicked off, did you ever think it would come this far?
CG:
No [laughs]. I was called across to the chairman's office and Mr John Guest gave me some files and told me to look through them because I was now looking after a project sponsoring a car with a driver called Mike Jordan. I went home thinking 'I'm a graphic designer. What am I doing sorting out sponsorship for a motor sport team?' But you get hooked in it and you move forwards.
There have been times when have years when you think that surely it will come to an end soon and you can't see it going to twelve or 13 years. After the FIA year, I thought would it be a bit much for them? We had only raced in Britain and suddenly after going over to Europe, we thought would that be it and would they feel they had done their time? But we brought it back, kept it fresh and have moved forward again.
Crash.net:
I suppose that is the key thing to a successful partnership because as you say, you need to get some return from the money that is being put in. So when there is a difficult year, the strength of the relationship is really shown.
CG:
I think you're right. That FIA year, we sponsored Castle Combe so still had the GT cars racing over here. We went from there to Donington Park to do FIA GT and took 15,500 people to the event which I think was a record in this country at that stage. Then the following weekend we were at the Nurburgring with the LMES. Although we say it was a dark year, it was also a very positive year as in those three weekends alone, we sponsored an event, took 15,000 people to an event and then took a couple of hundred over to Germany. Although there was lots of hard work and a lot of hours involved, there was a lot out of it for us.
Crash.net:
Branding and identity is key to a company so that relationship has now been built where people associate Eurotech with John Guest and when people see a car, they recognise who is straight away. How key has that been for John Guest?
CG:
There has been a lot of hard work. I didn't start out thinking there was a certain way to do this and I'm sure Mike would agree, but there has been a lot of hard work and we always try to put a lot into any championship we are involved with. We do a lot of giveaways and promotions and we do a lot for children but we don't aim to just ram John Guest down people's throats.
We try to do a good job and I think there is respect from fans and media alike and also from our peers as well. The association is there and we sponsor Mike to do a job that he is good at doing. We wouldn't dictate what he does, but we try to keep it fresh.
