In the week leading up to the Indianapolis 500 on May 30, Izod promoted its IndyCar Series race with celebrity- and driver-inundated events in Boston and New York. On May 24, some 400 locals headed to nightclub Rumor to catch a glimpse of Boston native Mark Wahlberg and racing legend Mario Andretti, who both posed on the red carpet with Izod’s IndyCar, a custom-built Honda two-seater.
The Izod Indycar Series, a sequence of sponsored car races—13 in the U.S., two in Canada, and one each in Japan and Brazil—takes place from March to October. Since becoming the first title sponsor for the IndyCar Series in November 2009, Izod has aggressively promoted the races via print, online, and television advertising campaigns, aligning the sport and its drivers with the brand’s casual attire and, most recently, with its “Winning Car Series,” a new collection of vintage racing T-shirts.
Overseen by Mike Kelley, executive vice president at Phillips-Van Heusen, Izod's parent company, the Rumor party's red carpet included a circus of local print, online, broadcast media, and paparazzi who snapped shots on the red carpet, where the Izod race car sat alongside the event hosts, select Indy race car drivers, and models wearing Izod-branded, Indy-inspired jumpsuits. Later that week, Michael Andretti drove Wahlberg in the car at the start of the Indianapolis 500, while his father, Mario Andretti, the 1969 Indy 500 winner, coached by radio from the Izod Performance Pit.
Further Izod Indycar Series branding elements inside Rumor included enlarged posters of IndyCar drivers and a loop of Izod ads and promotions. Rumor staffers, from bartenders and dancers to waitresses and check-in staff, donned Izod/Indy branded T-shirts and tops.
Music was provided by DJ Prostyle, host of BET’s 106 and Park, and on-air talent from New York's Power 105 FM.
