American Suzuki Motor Corp. Huddles With Heisman, Time Inc., Turner
17 August 1999
American Suzuki Motor Corp. Huddles With Heisman, Time Inc., Turner Broadcasting System on Major Marketing Initiative
NEW YORK--(BW SportsWire)--Aug. 16, 1999--of Top Collegiate Sports Award
At the Downtown Athletic Club Monday American Suzuki Motor Corp. announced a multi-year, $35 million marketing partnership with two Time Warner divisions -- Time Inc. and Turner Broadcasting System Inc. -- and the Downtown Athletic Club, home of the Heisman Trophy.
American Suzuki's sponsorship of the Heisman Trophy serves as the underlying theme of this marketing initiative, which will promote the excellence inspired by the trophy and will strengthen the brand image of American Suzuki Motor Corp.'s Automotive Division. This campaign marks the first sponsorship of this magnitude for the Heisman Trophy, awarded annually to the outstanding player in college football.
The marketing partnership with American Suzuki marks one of the largest cross-divisional initiatives put together by Time Warner for a single client. The media portion includes Time publications such as Entertainment Weekly, Life, People, Sports Illustrated, Time and its in-flight magazine, Time Flies.
The television component consists of the Turner Broadcasting System's CNN, Headline News, CNN Airport Network, CNN/SI and TNT. The partnership also includes CNN/SI.com on the Web.
Additionally, Time and Turner Broadcasting System are working with American Suzuki to create a variety of external marketing activities, which include promotional exposure in college football stadiums and movie theaters.
"American Suzuki, along with its advertising agency, asher&partners, has been looking for the right opportunity to propel our brand-building efforts to a whole new level," said Lore McKenna, American Suzuki's national advertising manager.
"We believe that this multi-media platform, highlighting the history of past Heisman Trophy winners as the core element, is a very important step in achieving Suzuki's long range growth objectives in the U.S. market."
The first year, this ground-breaking multi-media program is expected to generate 1.3 billion impressions with key Suzuki audiences, building on the efforts the auto division launched with the successful, clutter-cutting campaign that introduced the Grand Vitara and showed a new spirit at American Suzuki.
"The scale of this marketing effort demonstrates American Suzuki's determination and commitment to achieve the ambitious sales goals we have set," said Rick Suzuki, president of American Suzuki.
"Equipped with an exciting vehicle line, including the popular new small SUVs -- the V6 Grand Vitara and the value-packed Vitara -- Suzuki intends to push annual U.S. sales to 100,000 vehicles per year, and ultimately own 1 percent of the U.S. auto market."
With the first print ads hitting the stands the third week of August, the varied program elements will include a series of specially created multi-page sections in Time, Entertainment Weekly, Life, People and Sports Illustrated, on the history of the Heisman Trophy along with profiles of Heisman Trophy winners. Other print elements will include interesting tidbits and sidebars detailing Heisman history.
CNN/SI will produce a series of video vignettes on Heisman Heroes that will be seen on its network and during the "College Football Preview" program on CNN and the CNN Airport Network, in addition to cnnsi.com. The vignettes will be branded with the Suzuki name and will be re-edited into features that will appear on in-stadium Jumbotron screens at 10 major U.S. college campuses and in several major market movie theaters.
Heisman Heroes "on-screen slides" will also appear in movie theaters in several major markets. Heisman Heroes content is slated to appear on CNN/SI's popular Web site cnnsi.com.
The partnership also creates an unprecedented opportunity for the public to vote on the Heisman Trophy recipient. Fans will be able to vote for the player of their choice on a preliminary ballot at American Suzuki dealerships. The winner of the public's voting will then receive one vote in the official Heisman Trophy selection process. Heisman Trophy winners are determined by votes from more than 900 electors representing sportswriters and broadcasters.
The Heisman Trophy sponsorship will allow the Downtown Athletic Club, which founded the trophy in 1935, to enhance its charitable support. This marketing partnership is expected to heighten exposure for Heisman Trophy winners. This in turn will raise the visibility of the charitable organizations that Heisman winners support.
In addition to supporting Heisman Trophy winners in their charitable work, the Downtown Athletic Club currently raises funds for March of Dimes, Make a Wish Foundation, Leukemia Foundation and U.S. Marine Corps charities.
Suzuki Motor Corp. founded the Automotive Division of American Suzuki Motor Corp., located in Brea, Calif., in 1985. American Suzuki Motor Corp. markets automobiles in the United States through a network of more than 320 dealerships in 49 states.
American Suzuki's parent company, Suzuki Motor Corp., based in Hamamatsu, Japan, is a diversified worldwide automobile manufacturer. Founded in 1920, Suzuki Motor Corp. has 134 distributors in 175 countries.
Note to Editors: Additional information and photography/graphics can be found on American Suzuki's media Web site (www.suzuki.com). To obtain the password to the secured-access media section, call Jason Grange at 949/475-6979 or Janel Visser at 714/996-7040 ext. 464.