Is the Mclaren GSK deal really a marketing partnership?
Will the McLaren team win the Singapore GP with GSK's help?
Last week McLaren and GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) entered into a strategic partnership, which could lead to GSK household products, such as Lucozade, appearing on Lewis Hamilton’s Formula 1 car and vice versa. Is this really a media buy or brand endorsement or something else?
Are the two world famous McLaren drivers going to be endorsing all of the GSK products as a result such as Sensodyne or Panadol (ideal for when the going gets too much!)? Is this just a relatively cost effective way to gain global brand awareness amongst a key target audience? On closer examination it’s not really a marketing partnership at all but a more integrated, intelligent and imaginative one.
soon to say Panadol and Lucozade?
A new state of the art learning facility will be built as part of the agreement, focused on developing UK engineering skills and processes. Called the ‘McLaren GSK Centre for Applied Performance’. Employees from both organisations and business partners will be able to use the facility to share ideas and collaborate on joint working projects. A truly amazing collaboration from such different businesses.
The relationship goes to the factory floor too with GSK tapping into McLaren’s unique system of modelling every working component within the car to provide intelligence that can predict potential fatigue and failure. It is believed that the application of McLaren’s approach, technology and processes could lead to improvements in GSK’s production line performance, reducing the number of breakdowns and improving cost and customer service.
As the GSK CEO says this partnership is an example of GSK looking outside its sector for inspiration and fresh perspectives on how they can achieve their strategic goals and one that both brands should be applauded for.
