American Spirit's Jaguar XKR - 2003 Trans-Am Series
AmeriSuites Hotels Program (1998-2003)
Towards the end of the 1998 racing season, Prime Hospitality Corp. entered into a sponsorship agreement with American Spirit Racing to promote their AmeriSuites Hotel brand. The young hotel chain had an aggressive expansion plan and was interested in a campaign to generate increased brand identity and awareness.
1998
American Spirit Racing begins a single event association with AmeriSuites Hotels as primary sponsor of its Vector M12 sportscar at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Places AmeriSuites on the winner's podium at its first event.
1999
In April of 1999, American Spirit Racing unveiled its new AmeriSuites Ford Mustang in the Trans-Am Series at the Long Beach Grand Prix. The easily recognizable red, white and blue paint theme would become synonymous with the AmeriSuites brand in motorsports. The racecar also carried an onboard camera to enhance brand identity.
American Spirit purchased a dedicated show car for special promotions, at and away from the race track. This show car was transported by a separate display trailer unit. At the track, the show car was on display in areas of high spectator traffic flow with information regarding the AmeriSuites Hotel chain being distributed.
The show car was also used for display at various AmeriSuites Hotels around the country, where the media were invited to create additional local publicity.
American Spirit initiated a program with the Swiss watch maker Fortis, to design and produce an exclusive AmeriSuites/American Spirit Racing version of its popular chronograph. The retail price of this watch was $2,500 and were limited to a serialized production run of 100 units. At each race event, displays were held where spectators could enter to win one of these special watches. Entrants filled out forms that gathered contact/mailing/demographic data for AmeriSuites. At the end of each race, a winner was drawn and broadcast over the track PA system. The winner was sent their watch with a letter from the President of Prime Hospitality Corp. This was a very popular program.
In addition, one winner was chosen from the entry forms combined from all the events to win an all expense paid trip for two to the final race of the 1999 season and to sit at the team's table at the Awards banquet. This was highly publicized and a huge success.
American Spirit brought Spirit Airlines on board as an associate sponsor to enhance the promotion of its primary sponsor, AmeriSuites. One key aspect of this sponsorship association was a full page article in the airlines in-flight magazine. The article featured a photograph of the AmeriSuites racecar on the runway surrounded by Spirit Airlines personnel and a Spirit Airlines MD-80 airplane behind them. In addition, the article promoted the Trans-Am Series and the AmeriSuites hotel chain. This article was read by hundreds of thousands of travellers over a two month period, who needed accommodations at their destinations.
2000
In 2000, American Spirit re-designed its show trailer to include a 72” wide screen projection TV with surround sound. This unit’s interior was fully insulated and finished in rich, dark materials. The trailer was on display at the race events and also used at pre-race promotions and hotel displays. Spectators were invited to enter the unit to view on-board footage, shot from the AmeriSuites racecar at the Long Beach Grand Prix. Once inside the unit, the sights and sounds really gave a feel for what the action on the track from inside the racecar was really like. The exterior of the trailer featured a complete photographic wrap of Trans-Am racing, which was shot at Lowe’s Motor Speedway and promoted the AmeriSuites brand throughout the country in its travels. The waiting line to view the production was always long and was a huge hit with the fans.
While waiting in line, spectators entered a drawing for special merchandise (t-shirts, hats, etc.) which were given away at each event, and the chance to win a specially designed, full bodied go-kart that resembled the AmeriSuites racecar. Similar data was gathered for AmeriSuites as with the Fortis watch program in 1999.
As in 1999, One lucky winner was drawn to receive an all expense paid trip for two to the Trans-Am race in Las Vegas, celebrating the the opening of AmeriSuites' 100th hotel.
American Spirit Racing in a partnership with PDM Racing provided AmeriSuites with Primary sponsorship identification on the No. 18 entry driven by rookie Sam Hornish, Jr. at the Indy Racing League's inagural event at the Kentucky Speedway. This event featured the AmeriSuites Indycar leading 38 laps with an exciting 9-lap side by side battle with Jacques Lazier. This provided AmeriSuites with extensive brand identity during live broadcast on ABC. This was also a major turning point in Sam Hornish's career, which saw him go on to become a two-time IRL Indycar Champion.
2001
In 2001, American Spirit Racing unveiled its new AmeriSuites Jaguar XKR racecar and working closely with the Series organizers initiated several new avenues of promotion through its race program. AmeriSuites was designated as the Preferred Hotel of the Trans-Am Series, which included logo identification and mentions during each race broadcast. The AmeriSuites Rookie-of-the-Year Award was instituted, which carried a $10,000 cash prize to the winner (the largest amount ever awarded to the Rookie-of-the-Year in the history of the Series).
In 2001, television coverage of Trans-Am events expanded to include CBS, NBC, and Speed Channel television networks. American Star ran three AmeriSuites commercials during each race broadcast with a tag line identifying its Preferred Hotel of the Series status and instituted the AmeriSuites race summary, which ran at the top of the screen during each race broadcast with AmeriSuites logo identification, further increasing brand awareness and identity.
2002
In 2002, all programs instituted in 2001 were continued. American Spirit, working closely with AmeriSuites and its ad agency, developed a sweepstakes promotion with prizes that included products from the Series, other Series sponsors and the hotel chain. These prizes included; a two year lease of a new Jaguar, BF Goodrich Tires, Westward Tools, Series merchandise, hotel accommodations and much more. The sweepstakes featured a scratch off card that you could get at any AmeriSuites Hotel.
Again, three commercials were run during each broadcast of the Trans-Am Series, this time featuring a segment showing the AmeriSuites Jaguar with voice over from the Team’s race driver. This promotion was a huge success. The commercial can be viewed below. The file is large, so you may need to play twice to view it with smooth projection.
2003
At the end of the 2002 season, the Trans-Am Series was going through a change in ownership without a clear direction as to its television package and promotion for the following year. The decision was made by AmeriSuites and American Spirit Racing to move into the international world of endurance racing with the American Le Mans Series. This popular Series, which features both production oriented sports cars and exotic prototypes, based on the format of the infamous 24 hours of Le Mans in France, is watched by millions, throughout North America and around the world.
American Spirit Racing entered the American Le Mans Series in 2003 with its AmeriSuites, Lincoln powered LMP900 prototype with top-5 finishes in all but one race, capturing a tremendous exposure value for AmeriSuites both in North America through the Series' extensive television coverage on the NBC, CBS and Speed Channel Networks, and around the world through the Series' association with other top international sports television networks. The AmeriSuites team finished the season, 3rd in Team points. In 2004, the Hyatt Corporation purchased the AmeriSuites Hotel chain.
Conclusion
Although we are not at liberty to disclose the details of sponsorship funding, each year the American Spirit Racing operation generated a “commercial time” value and promotional return well in excess of 4 times the amount provided in sponsorship funding. The hotel chain grew from under 75 units to over 190 by the end of the 5 year sponsorship program.
The return value of motorsports sponsorships are often difficult to quantify. However, this is another area in which we strive to excel. The purpose of a sponsorship or advertising program of any type is to create a response, to attract public attention to a product or business. To quantify the response from the AmeriSuites sponsorship program, we monitored the toll-free reservations and internet reservations logs for the brand. From the time of each race broadcast and for two days following, the reservations logs spiked. This exhibited a definitive response to the sponsorship promotion. In addition, we provided Value Reports to Prime Hospitality (Joyce Julius Sponsor's Report) which identified "commercial time" values associated from clear, in-focus identification and mentions of the AmeriSuites brand during television broadcasts.
It is clear that the brand awareness and identity value for the AmeriSuites brand generated by its sponsorship program with American Spirit Racing (return vs. investment) would not have been reached by traditional marketing avenues.
American Spirit Racing
