Bits and pieces
Although interested, adidas didn’t commit until after Earnhardt decided to leave DEI at the end of this season, said Mark Clinard, business director for motor sports at adidas America.
“Obviously you sign him because he’s enormously popular, but this focus on wanting to get better and committing to doing everything he can to win a championship just really fits perfectly with us,” Clinard said. “When people get serious about winning and make some really tough decisions like he made, it’s really a natural.”
The DEI decision may have pushed adidas over the edge, but Lavielle said Earnhardt’s expanding portfolio doesn’t correlate directly to changing teams. Instead, it’s a culmination of the work she has done with his sister, Kelley Earnhardt Elledge, in the year since Lavielle joined JR Motorsports.
Now that they’ve inked two significant deals, Lavielle said they will wait to see how sponsorship of his new Hendrick ride shakes out before making more moves. Budweiser has sponsored Earnhardt’s Cup car since 1999 and wants to stay with him, but Hendrick might not be interested in signing the company. Regardless, Earnhardt has a personal services contract with Bud through 2008.
Here is another part of the article that I found interesting but truly sad. It shows all that he did for the sake of DEI....but yet never got appreciation for it!!!!!
He announced in May that he was leaving Dale Earnhardt Inc., and decided a month later to sign with powerhouse Hendrick Motorsports. The adidas and Sony deals came right after, and the timing is not lost on anyone.
Earnhardt has spent his entire career with his late father’s race team, and often found himself locked into deals that the late Dale Earnhardt picked for him. That didn’t ease after the elder Earnhardt’s death in 2001, as Junior had to take over many of his father’s contracts to help DEI retain the business.
“We had all them sponsors that DEI was bringing in, whoever they wanted to work with, and they didn’t always match perfectly with me,” Earnhardt said. “And when Dad died ... I had to help out to keep the contracts good. >>>>>They were selling pieces of me here and there just to keep things going.
Whatever company ends up sponsoring Earnhardt’s new ride will use an intense marketing campaign, and Lavielle said they don’t want the driver to become a rolling billboard. His late father was widely recognized as a pitchman for just a handful of companies, and Earnhardt wants the same image.
“We want a small stable of partners, to align him with brands that he’s comfortable with and projects that are fun for him,” Lavielle said. “This sport is, by it’s nature, riddled with sponsorships. But we are in a good position where we can say ‘Hey, I don’t know if that one fits for us,’ and make careful choices when it comes to his lifestyle management.”
One deal already in the pipeline, though, is a candy bar that Earnhardt has had a hand in developing. He won’t reveal many details, only that he and the JR Motorsports staff tasted endless combinations looking for the perfect match. Earnhardt has been involved with how the bar will be shaped, what it will look like and “if it’s going to break into pieces when you take a bite. You gotta have it how you want it if your name is on it,” he said.
He’s come a long way since his days as a short, skinny kid just trying to fit in at school, and Earnhardt has clear ideas on how he wants to be perceived. He believes carefully choosing his endorsement deals helps him convey his desired image.
“I would like to be the guy, your friend next door that you hope gets home early so you can start playing video games,” he said. “I want to be that guy.”
I want that candy bar tasting job! And, he can come over and play video games here anytime. :)
These two articles were included in the newsletter I get from JR Motorsports. Interesting.......
Budweiser looking at another driver to sponsor next year
ESPN.com (July 10, 2007) – Budweiser officials are shopping around for their best sponsorship option in NASCAR, a clear indication that the beer company will not sponsor Dale Earnhardt Jr. at Hendrick Motorsports next season, sources confirmed Tuesday.
http://sports.espn.go.com/rpm/news/story?seriesId=2&id=2932210
Dale Earnhardt Jr.: ‘Drinking Up’ as Coke, Pepsi Trade Places?
CNBC.com (July 9, 2007) – This week Pepsi is expected to give way as to Coke as the official beverage of most of NASCAR’s tracks and speculation is that Pepsi will be putting some of the money they would have used for the tracks, to getting its Mountain Dew brand on Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s racing car hood next year.
http://www.cnbc.com/id/19676544
Leaving DEI was the right move.