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The magic and mystery of Le Mans

Business | Sponsorship | Sport | Technology

By Chris Ritchie

With an estimated crowd of over 260,000 people including a rumoured 60,000 or so from the UK, many of whom return year after year, Le Mans is second only to the Indy 500 in terms of live audience. The racing, with four different classes of car on the track at the same time, is a heady mix of drama, spectacle and speed not dulled in the slightest by the necessary elements of strategy and endurance. Top flight professional drivers and teams sit alongside very serious amateurs in the pit lane to create a unique atmosphere. While missing much of the glamour of Monaco, the weekend manages to bring together motor racing with a party-like, festival feel.

Yet with this almost fanatical following, the event has an air of untapped potential in terms of both media and commercial interest. OK so a 24 hour motor race provides some hurdles in this attention challenged internet age where soundbites, video-clips and instant gratification are the norm. But hold on, if media audiences can be held by the Tour de France or even the Volvo Ocean Race, surely the combination of technology and a little invention could bring the spectacle of Le Mans to a much wider audience. This in turn could bring additional commercial interest without impinging upon the special feel of the event. The Goodwood Festival of Speed has become quite commercialised but still retains a special ambience.

Despite the relative lack of commercialism and media coverage, companies from all sectors see opportunities for partnerships. Apart from the corporate partners and advertisers at the race such as Rolex and Nikon, technology companies obviously also see the sport as an opportunity for visibility. Shortly before the race started at 3pm on Saturday June12th 2010, Kaspersky, the computer security and anti-virus software company announced a new partnership with the AF Corse GT2 team as well as a supplier relationship with Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro. A raft of technology businesses including Compuware, ShoreTel and OpenWave sponsor a number of teams from the American Le Mans Series (ALMS) which also competed in the 2010 race. Even F1 sponsors LG were clearly visible on the Signature Aston Martin.

So as we have said before, technology companies are generally looking for something a bit different from sponsorship partnerships, but there certainly seems to be something attracting them to endurance racing. Perhaps some additional partnerships could even bring the technology to deliver race content to a new community of fans.

Photo : Michel Legeay - ACO/NIKON

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