Epson looks to drive global awareness with F1 tie-up

Epson is hoping to “amplify brand activity” globally through a long-term partnership with Formula One and Mercedes as it joins the championship-winning team as an official sponsor.

The brand will push its position as a “global innovation leader” in printing, visual communications, manufacturing and office and home solutions as an official team partner of the Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One team, the 2014 FIA Formula One World Champions, through branded race cars, helmet visors and race suits.

Schahin Elahinija, head of marketing for Epson in the UK, told Marketing Week that the sponsorship is largely a global awareness push for Epson, particularly in the business printing market, as the brand is not as strong globally as it is in the UK.

“It’s about awareness and helping to grow our brand,” he says. “With the partnership we get a really unique and visible platform. In terms of TV audience, we can reach about 1.8 billion viewers in one year, helping us amplify brand activity both in the UK and globally.”

Epson will also promote its commitment to technology innovation by providing expertise to the team and looking at ways it can advance its products to improve the team’s performance.

“It could be interesting to identify areas where our products could be used in F1 cars or in preparation of the race, which is something we’ll be looking at over the next couple of weeks or months,” Elahinija says.

Toto Wolff, head of Mercedes-Benz Motorsport, said in a statement: “Epson’s use of innovative technology to deliver performance is perfectly aligned to what we strive to achieve in Formula One and we will be working closely with Epson to showcase these innovations and increase global awareness of their brand and products.”

These products could involve wearables, sensors or scanners.

This is not the first major sports sponsorship for the brand, which has been a partner of Manchester United since 2010. It is also partner of the Asian Football Confederation.

Recommended

F1RacingCars-Product-2013_304

Brands rev up for Formula One 2013

Seb Joseph

Formula One commercial partners Burn, Sky and BlackBerry are putting fan engagement at the heart of their sponsorship strategies in a bid to exploit the global interest around this year’s season.